Act One, Scenes Four and Five

 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. 

 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.

 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,  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?”

 Marcellus: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”  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.  Motif- a recurrent thematic element.

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.  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.  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.

 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.