The Ghost in Hamlet

The ghost in Hamlet is usually given a role in the drama comparable to that of the chorus in a Greek play: It enunciates the theme; it sets the stage for what is to come. In this sense, it is also comparable to the three witches in Macbeth. I will try to show that the ghost is more closely integrated in the play psychologically. It is my thesis that the drama not only involves the undermining effects of Hamlet's conflict between honor and love; but that it represents Shakespeare's most important contribution to the understanding of ‘madness’ and the ‘supernatural’ in his time, and thus also represents an early contribution to medical psychology.

Ernest Jones' study Hamlet and Oedipus, published in 1949, gives scant attention to the ghost-theme of the play. To him the ghost fulfills two purposes: First, it informs Hamlet of the “facts” concerning his father's death, and pledges him to vengeance; furthermore, when Hamlet falters, it reminds him of his commitment. Jones recognizes that ghosts and allied topics were issues under debate at the time of Shakespeare. Yet, he brushes this aside by suggesting that those were theological problems, and that Shakespeare never showed any particular interest in theology. The ghost theme, then, was used appropriately to insure dramatic effect.

In view of Jones' prominence as a psychoanalyst one might have been a little startled perhaps at his cavalier treatment of the theme were it not so obvious (as the title of his book indicates) that his attention focuses on the Oedipus situation in the tragedy without the understanding of which, he felt, the tragedy could not be fully grasped.

My own argument is that the theme has more meaningful function in the play than Jones and, as far as I know, others have allotted to it. But, before going into the question, it is necessary to make clear my own conception of the factors which rendered Hamlet so weak and vacillating in his unhappy predicament. This problem has long been the center of interes