Grief In Hamlet

In Hamlet by William Shakespeare there are several characters who appear or are discussed briefly. These characters become somewhat forgotten as the play progresses, but in many senses these characters literally set the entire play in motion. Such as king Hamlet’s ghost telling Hamlet about his treacherous murder or the ever looming presence of young Fortinbras which keeps the entire kingdom in a state a fear and war mongering. While these characters both have an impact on the events in the play, the most influential of which is by far the ghost of King Hamlet. His disclosure to Hamlet about his duplicitous murder fueled the young heartbroken and mentally weak Hamlet into a state of fury which set the degenerative scenes of the play to follow.

This is highlighted when Hamlet is approached by some of the guards who tell him that they have witnessed an apparition who bears the resemblance to Hamlets deceased father. While Hamlet, under normal circumstances, would most likely disregard this information he is, however, in such a state of despair that not even unbelievable circumstances are enough to ward off his dedication to speak to his father, even if only once more. This quest for answers leads Hamlet down a path that once embarked upon, there is no return, as king Hamlet tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his own brother while sleeping. While Hamlet may have deep down suspected some kind of insurrection, his father’s delivery of this shocking news disturbed Hamlet to his very soul. Leaving Hamlet in the purest form of an existential crisis. Could he possibly trust a ghost? What if its origins are of Hellish descent and not of Holy? These are the questions Hamlet asked himself and in the end decided to take that question out of the equation and find out for certain if Claudius is guilty of this spectral allegation. From this point Hamlet sets out on a quest to discover the truth and take action accordingly. This interaction between Hamlet and his father set the entire tragedy in motion, accentuating his father importance, while only appearing once. However, Hamlet’s talk

Without his father 's message Hamlet would have surely left for England and the tragedy to follow would have almost certainly been circumvented. However, his father did intervene consequently driving Hamlet to a boiling point until he explodes killing Laertes and Claudius. These events would have never transpired if it were not for the ghosts story of his murder, clearly demonstrating the huge impact king Hamlet’s ghost had on the play even though it only spoke for two scenes. The ghost urged Hamlet to seek revenge for his, “Murder most foul, as in the best it is./But this most foul, strange and unnatural(1.5.2)”, and told Hamlet to seek revenge only for Claudius and not his mother as she was weak and only fell for Claudius out of her despair. These words nearly drove Hamlet to madness as his emotion were so powerful that he reached a point to where he could not even process them. He told the guards who originally told him about his father’s ghost to swear not to tell anyone and to disregard his behavior as he was going to intentionally act crazy in order make himself seem unstable and put Claudius on edge in order to discover the truth. “How strange or odd some 'er I bear