Introductory Notes

Act 1, Scene 5 is a pivotal turning point in Hamlet, serving as the catalyst that transforms the protagonist’s private grief and suspicion into a public mission. It provides a critical analysis of the scene’s narrative, psychological, and thematic functions, setting the foundation for the tragedy that follows.

The Narrative Turning Point: Plot and Structure

The main function of this scene is to provide Hamlet with concrete evidence of his uncle’s guilt and to assign him a morally complex directive. It begins with the Ghost of King Hamlet leading the Prince away from Horatio and Marcellus to a secluded part of the battlements. Identifying itself as Hamlet’s father, the Ghost reveals that its suffering in the afterlife is a result of foul crimes done in my days of nature. This admission, delivered as the Ghost prepares to return to sulphurous and tormenting flames, creates an urgent need for revenge.

The Ghost’s command for vengeance forms the core of the scene. It urges Hamlet to Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. The official story—that the King died from a serpent bite while sleeping in his orchard—is exposed as a forged process. The Ghost reveals the truth: The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown, confirming Hamlet’s worst suspicions about Claudius. The Ghost describes in detail how Claudius murdered the King, sneaking up on him while he slept and pouring henbane poison into his ear, which caused his blood to curdle and his skin to erupt in a vile and loathsome crust.

The Ghost issues a two-fold command, introducing a central moral dilemma for Hamlet. While demanding Claudius’s death, it instructs him to spare Queen Gertrude: Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven, and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her. This contradictory instruction leaves Hamlet with an inner conflict about his mother, a conflict that will trouble him throughout the play. As dawn approaches, marked by the fading light of the glow-worm, the Ghost departs, leaving Hamlet alone with his oath and the weight of the command.

After the Ghost vanishes, Horatio and Marcellus return. Alarmed by Hamlet’s wild and whirling words and apparent distress, they press him for answers. Hamlet refuses and insists they swear upon his sword to secrecy. A striking theatrical moment follows: the Ghost’s voice echoes from beneath the stage, repeating Swear! to underscore the seriousness of the vow.

Character in Crisis: The Psychological Landscape

This scene offers a close study of Hamlet’s psychological transformation. He shifts from a grieving scholar to a man driven by purpose, though his resolve is instantly complicated. He promises to act with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love. This simile reveals his divided nature: his determination is tied to the same introspective tendencies that will later hinder him. He vows to wipe away all trivial fond records from the table of [his] memory, preserving only the Ghost’s directive.

The Ghost’s identity remains an interpretive challenge. Its suffering in sulphurous and tormenting flames aligns with the Catholic notion of purgatory, a contentious concept in Protestant England. However, its call for revenge contradicts Christian doctrine, which discourages retributive violence. This paradox complicates the Ghost’s credibility. Is its motive justice, or merely an attempt to end its torment? The Ghost later returns to whet [Hamlet’s] almost blunted purpose, suggesting an ongoing desperation that casts doubt on its purity of intent. These contradictions elevate the play beyond a typical revenge tragedy, inviting philosophical questions about morality and the afterlife.

Hamlet’s emotional state after the encounter is highly unstable. His language becomes fragmented and erratic; he even refers to the Ghost as truepenny and old mole, terms that oscillate between humor and madness. His declaration that he will put an antic disposition on is not a strategic plan but a disoriented response to psychological trauma. Hamlet’s reality has been irrevocably altered: his uncle is a murderer, his mother complicit in damned incest, and the moral order is out of joint. His decision to feign madness is both a defense mechanism and an expression of his inner collapse. The boundary between pretense and reality blurs, suggesting that his madness is not entirely artificial but reflective of a fractured self in a corrupted world.