The importance of the ghost in HamletThe stage presence of a ghost would have been familiar to Elizabethan audiences and so the appearance of the ghost in "Hamlet" carries some general messages : almost as if the ghost was a familiar symbol that evoked certain thoughts simply by its presence. However, the ghost in "Hamlet" has a more specific role than that assigned to ghosts in general; has a crucial role to play in the development of the plot. Third, the interaction between the Ghost and Hamlet raises difficult questions about duty and free will, and as a trigger for much of the protagonist's anguished philosophizing, the Ghost plays a key but problematic role as Hamlet's true adversary. There are a few points to make that pertain to ghosts in general. To a superstitious Elizabethan audience a ghost would be less unlikely than it seems to a skeptical modern audience, but it would mean that something is wrong with the natural order. In the first scene of Act I the characters declare that they believe it; the rational Horace observes that "This portends a strange explosion in our state"; Marcellus says that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Even before the Ghost's arrival the scene is tense: the first words ("Who is there?") are terse and nervous and even Francisco (whom we will never see again and therefore perhaps represents the invisible population of Denmark) admits to being "heart patient". The presence of the Ghost, therefore, adds to this sense that something is deeply wrong - like many of these superstitious entities (Horace refers to other omens that preceded the death of Julius Caesar: the allusion to which makes the audience even more uncertain about what is to happen) the... middle of paper... casts the Ghost in a terribly negative role - as the burden of (filial) duty that distorts and ultimately crushes Hamlet's destiny. Works cited and consulted: Boklund, Gunnar. "Hamlet." Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapmann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965. Epstein, Norrie. "One of the victims of fate." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. by The Friendly Shakespeare: a painless outfit for the bard's best. New York: Viking Penguin, 1993. p. 332-34.Gordon, Edward J. Introduction to Tragedy. Rochelle Park, NJ: Hayden Book Co., Inc., 1973. Jorgensen, Paul A. "Hamlet." William Shakespeare: the tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publ., 1985. Page no. http://www.freehomepages.com/hamlet/other/jorg-hamlet.htmlShakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. TJB Spencer. New York: Penguin, 1996.