Hamlet: Act 1- Scene 5

 I chose to analyze act 1, scene 5 in the famous play 'Hamlet.' In this part of the play, Hamlet has a word with his ghostly father figure. In this conversation, the ghost told him that his father died because his brother had poisoned him through his ear while he was napping. Of course, Hamlet is pretty surprised and upset because his mother had re-married, in less than a month of her husband being dead, to his brother Claudias. This ghost had also put in Hamlet's knowledge that Claudius and his mother were together before the King passed away. A request from the fatherly ghost is that Hamlet punishes this father's murder by killing him. In my opinion, Hamlet has every right to be upset and full of anger with his mother and his new step-father because of the two incidents. But do I think that it should lead to murder? No, because you just fighting fire with fire. I think Hamlet should have fought him and then forgave him because that is how guys work. Do I think what Claudis did was okay? Absolutely not, but it was set in the 1500s, so problem-solving was fought to the dead or kill those who have killed. 

"Why right; you are i' the right;
	And so, without more circumstance at all,
	I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:
	You, as your business and desire shall point you;
	For every man has business and desire,	130
	Such as it is; and for mine own poor part,
	Look you, I'll go pray."

If you look at this part in the play, I took away from this section that Hamlet ended up telling his friends, Horatio and Marcellus. Hamlet begged them not to say anything, and in this part of the play, Hamlet makes it seem like it's a business deal of some sort. Like killing his step-father/uncle is like signing a contract. I understand the plot's secrecy to kill the killer and want to tell your friends, but with something so big, would you trust them with that knowledge? If they were thinking about sharing this little secret, that thought got swiped, but the ghost that came back and made friends swear they would not tell a soul. I enjoyed this part of the scene because I thought it was sort of funny. 

Watching the scene, I interpreted it to be exactly how it was performed. I expected the emotion coming from Hamlet when he heard the news from the ghost. Also, I expected the ghost to be very straightforward and blunt about the whole situation. From reading the scene, I thought the telling part would be pretty intense, but I did not get that intense feeling through the characters' emotions. Instead, I got more of a worried emotion from the ghost telling them to swear they won't tell the murder plan. The stage is used as a very dark and eary background. From the video that I watched, the characters seem real and passionate about their parts. They spoke the parts like it was a normal conversation and it did not sound forced. I thought the characters fit the 1500s act very well. I interpreted Hamlet as a young guy with brown hair and tall. That is exactly how I picture any prince in a story or a play; I blame it on all the Disney princess movies I watched growing up. 

I chose this scene because I thought it was the most interesting. It was when Hamlet found out the truth behind his father's killer, and it had a ghost in it. I think that ghosts in plays have a bigger meaning to them than just someone from the dead coming back to guide the main character along. I feel like having a ghost in the play is the characters' emotions playing them. Meaning this ghost could be a guilty conscience, or something is lingering around in their head, and it creates a person. This is probably not what the author intended this ghost character to be, but I did enjoy is scene and play.