The Ghost

The play opens in the middle of night.

The appearance of the ghost was relevant contextually to the audience then as it would be something that the vast majority believed in and would take seriously.

To a modern audience this may be less convincing.

The play’s action comes as a result of what the ghost tells Hamlet and it has been argued that without the visit from the ghost Hamlet would not have behaved the way he does, looking for a good moment to gain his revenge, for his father, on Claudius.

The fact that others see the ghost means that it is not merely a figment of Hamlet’s imagination, although at this point it is only Horatio and the others who see it, not Hamlet himself.

When Hamlet sees the ghost later on, he is alone and this could throw into doubt all of what Hamlet claims he sees and hears although we, as an audience, also hear what the ghost tells him.