Act 1 Scene 1 Summary and analysis The

Act 1, Scene 1 Summary and analysis

The Ghost • Ominous presence suggests the upsetting of the balance of nature • Bernardo & Marcellus wait to show Horatio • Horatio declares that the ghost must bring warning of impending misfortune for Denmark, perhaps in the form of a military attack. (has same armour and expression as when he battled Normans and Poles)

• Hamlet was written around the year 1600 in the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who had been the monarch of England for more than forty years and was then in her late sixties. The prospect of Elizabeth’s death and the question of who would succeed her was a subject of grave anxiety at the time, since Elizabeth had no children, and the only person with a legitimate royal claim, James of Scotland

• Horatio in particular sees the ghost as an ill omen boding violence and turmoil in Denmark’s future, comparing it to the supernatural omens that supposedly presaged the assassination of Julius Caesar in ancient Rome (and which Shakespeare had recently represented in Julius Caesar).

• Since Horatio proves to be right, and the appearance of the ghost does presage the later tragedies of the play, the ghost functions as a kind of internal foreshadowing, implying tragedy not only to the audience but to the characters as well.