The Presentation Of The Ghost in Act 1

The Ghost is that of the late King of Denmark, who appears before Hamlet at midnight, while the current King Claudius is getting drunk; "And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down".
There are two ways in which the Ghost should be portrayed as. For example, in the early 60's version of Hamlet, Olivier directed the Ghost to be quiet and barely visible. The audience could therefore see the Ghost as upset or weak, evoking sympathy towards him. In my opinion, this is not how the late King should be perceived.

it could be argued that the Ghost could be the tragic villain in Hamlet. Tragic villains have such characteristics such as the ability to manipulate, which the Ghost demonstrates by saying; "If thou didst ever love me...". Villains also have the power of words and wit. Although the Ghost describes Claudius to have "Wicked wit that has power", he himself uses his words and wit to manipulate Hamlet into seeking revenge; "So thou art to revenge".

In typical tragedies, the villain usually has no motive to cause mayhem, yet it could be argued that the ghost of the late King does have a motive, to deem him free from the hell/purgatory of which he is now resigned to; "When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames".The King died a sinner- he did not have a death bed in which to repent from, therefore is deemed to suffer for his sins. Another point for the idea of the Ghost's motive, is that he wants to restore society. His son Hamlet was next in line for the throne once the late King died, however his uncle, Claudius became King instead. This could be Karen Numan's idea that something must be 'contrary to nature' to be a tragedy. Another idea which supports this idea is that the Ghost tells Hamlet "'Tis natural to revenge", however to commit murder is not natural.

In the 2009 version of Hamlet, the late King's ghost is shown to shout his words, powerfully, with gestural grabs and embraces with his son. In the text, there is little said about how the late King was in his life, apart from being well admired by both Gertrude and Hamlet, however Hamlet's encounter with the spirit suggests that they were close. I think that this performance of the Ghost is a more realistic and accurate portrayal of the Ghost.

What is noticeable in this scene, is how similar the words spoken by Hamlet and the Ghost are. Both say that the marriage between Gertrude and Claudius is incestuous, and how 'seeming' the Queen is; ("Seems madame, seems."). This could suggest that the Ghost is not real, but just a figment of Hamlet's madness. In the previous scene, Hamlet was thinking about suicide which indicates a point of breakdown in him. When Hamlet hears the accusations made by the Ghost that Claudius murdered him, Hamlet states "O my prophetic soul!" which suggest that he already knew or suspected Claudius of murdering the late King. Perhaps the Ghost is just a projection of Hamlets subsiding sanity, which he projects for closure of his grief, and as an excuse for seeking revenge on Claudius. However, one could argue that the Ghost is real. Evidence for this is that both Marcellus and Horatio the guards saw the Ghost twice on the hour of midnight. When the guards first told Hamlet of the sighting of the Ghost, he was skeptical about it. This subject is much debated.

In conclusion, my first impressions of the Ghost in Act 1 are that he is an angry spirit projected by a moment of insanity on Hamlets part, who manipulates him into seeking revenge. However, I disagree with the idea that he is a tragic villain, as he is not real.