The ambiguity of Hamlet In Shakespeare's dramatic tragedy Hamlet, the reader finds ambiguity of one kind and another here and there throughout the play. The protagonist himself is a particularly ambiguous character and his ritual. Harold Bloom in the Introduction to Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet exposes the hero's ambiguity and mysterious conduct during the final act: When Horatio replies that Claudius will have news shortly, presumably that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been executed, Hamlet so rather ambiguously [my italics] makes what could be read as a final vow of revenge: It will be short. The break is mine. And a man's life is nothing more than saying "one". (2)The show begins with the changing of sentries on a guard platform at Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Recently the ghostly likeness of the late King Hamlet has appeared to the sentries without any specific purpose. This night the ghost appears again, for no apparent reason, to Barnardo, Marcellus and Horatio, a close friend of Hamlet. Horatio and Marcellus exit the ramparts of Elsinore with the intention of enlisting the help of Hamlet, who is home from school, dejected by his mother's "hasty marriage" to his uncle less than two months after Hamlet's father's funeral (Gordon 128 ). There is a court social meeting, where Claudius pays tribute to the memory of his late brother, the former king, and then, together with Queen Gertrude, conducts some business, for example, sending Cornelius and Voltemand to Norway to resolve the matter. Fortinbras Affair, addressing Polonius and Laertes on the subject of the latter's return to school abroad. Hamlet is present at the court door... in the middle of the page... the youngest aristocrat. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from Hamlet's Masks. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No lines nos.West, Rebecca. “A Court and a world infected by the disease of corruption”. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957. Wright, Louis B., and Virginia A. LaMar. "Hamlet: a man who thinks before he acts." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar. Np: Paperback books, 1958.