Question

Read the excerpt below from Act I, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and answer the question.

HAMLET Speak; I am bound to hear.

Ghost So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear

HAMLET What?

Ghost I am thy father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, 10
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine: 20
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love--

HAMLET O God!

Ghost Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

HAMLET Murder!

Ghost Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

HAMLET Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love 30
May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost I find thee apt;
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.

HAMLET O my prophetic soul! My uncle!

What elements of this excerpt are typical of Elizabethan tragedy? In the space below, write a short piece of writing analyzing the elements that show evidence of Seneca’s influence on Shakespeare. Include at least three specific references to the text.

Answer 1

During this scene, Hamlet learns from the ghost of his father that his Uncle Claudius was the one who murdered his father and then Hamlet vows to take revenge.

The ghost urges Hamlet not to act against his mother because she has been corrupted.

Elizabethan Tragedy genre started in England in the XVIth century. Its main elements are a tragedy and the contribution of the hero to his own downfall.

In this excerpt, you can see clearly the Elizabethan Tragedy elements on Hamlet since he vows to take revenge over his father’s murder and this is his downfall. “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”, “murder!”.

The revenge theme is also a great influence of Seneca on Shakespeare. Seneca also uses ghosts to shape his stories like Atreus, Hercules and others. The ghost is also a great character in Hamlet. - “I am thy father’s spirit”,