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Article: Shakespeare's 'Hamlet.'
- Article from:
- The Explicator
- Article date:
- March 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Although the influence of the Ghost on Hamlet has been long noted,(1) and a "ghostly" quality about Hamlet has more recently been detected,(2) little attention has been given in the criticism of Hamlet to how substantially Hamlet's self-portraiture draws upon the Ghost's presence in the play.
In the nunnery scene, for example, Hamlet's words to Ophelia echo those of the Ghost to him in their first meeting. Hamlet's vague self-accusation; his being "proud, revengeful, ambitious"; and his having untold "offenses at his beck" (3.1.123-24)(3) echo the Ghost's unspecified self-accusations - its expressions of pride, vengeance, and ambition and its incommunicative sorrow. ...