Act One, Scenes Four and Five
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We are introduced to Polonius’ daughter,
Ophelia.
Laertes warns Ophelia about Hamlet and her
own sexuality.
Polonius gives his departing son advice on
how to conduct himself in Paris.
Polonius orders Ophelia to reject Hamlet
unless he offers more.
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Hamlet joins the watch with Horatio and
Marcellus
The Ghost appears and signals to Hamlet to
follow him.
The Ghost tells Hamlet he is the spirit of his
dead father, and orders revenge on his
murderer, Claudius.
Hamlet accepts his instruction and vows his
friends to secrecy.
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HAMLET The air bites shrewdly. It is very cold.
HORATIO It is a nipping and an eager air.
HAMLET What hour now?
HORATIO I think it lacks of twelve
MARCELLUS No, it is struck.
We have returned to the setting of the first
scene. The opening lines remind us of the
cold and darkness of the opening scene.
The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail and the swaggering upspring reels,
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
Hamlet displays his displeasure at the loud, vulgar
drunkenness taking place in Elsinore under
Claudius.
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
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Hamlet uses three antithetical phrases to highlight
the uncertain identity/ moral status of the ghost.
Antithesis: rhetorical contrast of words by means
of parallel arrangement of words, phrase or
sentences.
‘Action not words’; ‘they promised freedom and
provided slavery’
Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life in a pin’s fee,
And for my soul—what can it do to that,
Due to his lack of care for his life, Hamlet does not
fear the Ghost. The irony here is that the Ghost is
not life-threatening; the danger it presents is
spiritual and psychological. Horatio anticipates
this.
 “Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
And draw you into madness?”
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Marcellus: “Something is rotten in the state of
Denmark.”
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This refers both to the idea that the ghost is an
ominous omen for Denmark and to the larger
theme of the connection between the moral
legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the state as
a whole. The ghost is a visible symptom of the
rottenness of Denmark created by Claudius’s
crime.
This continues the motif of Denmark’s decay.
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Motif- a recurrent thematic element.
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GHOST
My hour is almost come
When I to sulfurous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.
The reference here is not to the fires of hell,
but purgatory. This is the place of cleansing,
where the soul is prepared for eventual entry
into heaven.
I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away.
The Ghost identifies itself as Old Hamlet. It is
permitted to leave purgatory in order to set
right the wrongs committed by Claudius. This
introduces the idea of retributive justice, the
notion that sin must be returned with
punishment.
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forgèd process of my death
Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.
Metaphor used to highlight how Denmark is
infected/ corrupted by Claudius’ actions.
Serpent is symbolic here. Represents the destruction
of Adam’s happiness in the Garden of Eden and the
introduction of sin into the world. Claudius is ‘the
serpent’ who now wears the crown.
Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts—
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
The Ghost reveals that Claudius and Gertrude
committed adultery. Claudius corrupted her just
as he is corrupting Denmark.
Sleeping within my orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour
The leperous distilment,
The Ghost was poisoned by Claudius, who poured
poison in his ear while he was sleeping in his
orchard. Reference to orchard connects to story of
Eden again (the forbidden fruit came form a tree).
Also, serpents commonly kill by poisoning their
prey with venom. The method of death works as a
metaphor for how Claudius is corrupting
Denmark.
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not.
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damnèd incest.
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The Ghost implores Hamlet to avenge his
death. However, he is not to act against or
expose his mother. She is to be left to her
conscience and the judgement of heaven.
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
Hamlet vows only to think of avenging his father.
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables!—Meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
Hamlet damns his mother as evil. He also highlights
the disparity between Claudius’ friendly exterior
and his villainous nature. The difference between
appearance and reality is one of the play’s main
themes. Consider Hamlet’s earlier words to his
mother: ‘Seems, madam! Nay, it is. I know not
seems.’
Touching this vision here,
It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
For your desire to know what is between us,
O'ermaster ’t as you may.
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Hamlet refuses to tell Horatio and Marcellus
the details of his conversation with the Ghost.
He also implores them not to mention to
anyone their sighting of the Ghost.
Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself
(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on),
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall—
Hamlet warns Horatio that he may find him acting
strangely in the future. He stresses that this will be
a performance. Horatio has not to let on that he is
aware of this.
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The time is out of joint—O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Image created of the state of affairs in Denmark
being like a dislocated shoulder/ disfigured body.
In this rhyming couplet, Hamlet reveals his lack of
confidence in his ability to correct matters.
Rhyming couplet: a pair of lines which rhyme with
each other.