Kimberley Da Cunha Mrs.

Ahmed

Literature Hamlet Essay Section A

Q. Discuss the following passage from Act 1 Scene 5, exploring Shakespeare's use of language and its
dramatic effects. (Line 7 “Speak; I am bound to hear” to Line 46  “most-seeming virtuous Queen”).  [15
marks]
The extracts opens to The Ghost luring Hamlet away to a seculded area to reveal why he roams the
grounds of Elsinore. The Ghost reveals that he is Hamlet’s father and informs him that he didn’t die
from a snake’s poison but murdered by his uncle, the current King of Elsinore. Hamlet tries to extort his
power and authority as the Prince of Denmark with the imperative “Speak; I am bound to hear” ,
specifically with the verb ‘Speak’, Hamlet tries to demand answers from the Ghost and hold his ground
as the the one with a higher authority. However, the word ‘bound’ is a paradox as he takes on a more
passive role as the listener rather than the speaker. The verb ‘bound’ has a dual meaning, one where it
gives a sense of entrapment and destiny of Hamlet’s later actions as he seals his fate as the tragic hero
who wishes to avenge his father’s alleged murder and the other where he is listening to Ghost as he
truly believes that it is his father and is morally obligated to listen, hinting at the negative undertones of
the Ghost’s wishes for ‘his’ son. Interestingly, the Ghost first introduced the theme of revenge in the
play, the obligation Hamlet feels to the Ghost – his father, this would resonate with the Jacobean
audience as it indicates that taking revenge is a obligatory when it is related to family.
The Ghost moves on to dominate the conversation between Hamlet and himself. He builds a
horrific image of Purgatory. He talks about how he’s “Doom’d” to “walk the night” and during the day
“confined to fast in fires”, this would elicite a great shock and fear from the Elizabethan audience with
the hellish connotations and desolation in the words: “burnt”, “ purged”, “prison-house”. These
descriptive words of purgatory and Hamlet’s emotional response would bind him to free the Ghost
from his ‘prison-house’, metaphorically restricting the Ghost to stay in the inbetween space of heaven
and hell. The Ghost begins his revenge story by describing his his purgatory state to evoke an emotional
response from Hamlet and have himself indulge in the sympathy. The Ghost then proceededs to recite
the physical responses that Hamlet would have if he decided to tell Halmet what the true image of
purgatory looks like, “harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood” , this implies that the sight is beyond
his imagination and would distrupt his mental state, the Ghost goes so far to say “Make thy two eyes,
like stars, start from their spheres”, this would resonate with the contemporary audience and would
draw out intense feelings of distruption as the Elizabethan audience as they strongly believed in
astronomy and the stars in orbit stayed in a particular trigectory and that if an unorthodox force would
distrupt this, which foreshadows the change of the order if things in the natural world.
Further along, the Ghost then makes a biblical reference to the serpent that tempted Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden, “the serpent that did sting thy ‘Hamlet’s’ fathers life now wears his crown”,
the Ghost intelligently plays on his words that imply that Claudius killed Hamlet’s father and “ursurp’t”
his throne, queen and kingdom and is the ‘serpent’ who ‘stung me’ the dead king at his most vunrerable
state “sleeping in my ‘his’ orchard”. This alludes to the fact that Claudius’ murder of the dead King was
pre-meditated/planned by Claudius. The repetition of ‘sleeping’ said by the Ghost suggests that the
Ghost wants to elicite a pitiful response from Hamlet, however it also suggests how much of self pity he
feels for himself. The Ghost refers to himself as ‘thy father’ to reinstate the bond between Hamlet and
his father, and similarly says ‘thy uncle’ and ‘brother’ to show how deep the betrayal is that Claudius
committed fratricide and regicide. This would have the audience engaged and deeply interested in the
conversation as this betrayal goes against the Divine Right of Kings and therefore is a great shock to the
Elizabethan audience.
Furthermore, the audience would be disgusted and sicken at the thought of Claudius, “that
adulterous beast” and his “incestous” marriage, as in the Elizabethan era marriage to an in-law or a
member of the family would have been considered to be incest. The Ghost attempts to morally demean
and dehumanises Claudius to a ‘beast’ suggesting that he is not a human, but an animal and is not
capable of human emotion as he doesn’t feel the incest or the unnaturalness of the marriage he has
created for himself, or the loss of his brother who had just died. The ‘adulterate’ may imply that
Gertrude has been Claudius’ lover before the King had died and so clearly explains why she had moved
on so fast. This would allow the audience to feel the unpleasant events that he endures now that his
uncle and mother are married under unnatural circumstances. Hamlet goes on to give his word to the
Ghost that “with wings as swift” would “sweep to my ‘his’ revenge”. The irony in the line is great as
throughout the play Hamlet has many chances to kill Claudius but instead procrastinates until the final
act of the play. Hamlet is a scholar and therefore is a thinker and not actionable, this trait is shared with
his father as the Ghost who is allegedly his father also procrastinates the story of his death until the end
when he must leave. Shakespeare puts off the story to the last part to elicite a reaction of eagerness to
find out what truly happened to the dead King.
Kimberley Da Cunha Mrs. Ahmed

The extract ends on the Ghost calling Gertrude “most seemingly virtuous queen”, this suggests
that not even the queen is not guilty, the façade she creates for herself is pulled off by the Ghost so the
audience is able to see her for what he believes she really is, a hypocrite and a two-faced queen.