Reading the Relationship
Much of what drives this particular approach to the scene is a powerful sense that there was (and is) an intensely close personal relationship between Hamlet and his father. But even if we assume that the ghost actually is Hamlet's father (something not all the characters are convinced about), we do not necessarily have to read the Ghost/Hamlet relationship as one based in love and familiarity. Indeed, some stagings have sought to explain the amount of time it takes Hamlet to take his revenge on Claudius by suggesting that the prince's relationship with his father was neither close nor especially amicable. Is it merely a leap of faith which allows this particular staging to assume a close father/son relationship, filling an absence in the text with an optimistic "back story," or does this short scene actually contain details that support and inform such an interpretation?
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CLIP 2 |
CLIP 3 |
| Do you agree with the interpretation
of the Ghost/Hamlet relationship outlined in these clips? Do other lines
in the play suggest a sense of affection and emotional closeness between
father and son?
How else could the father/son relationship in Hamlet be interpreted? |
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CLIP 4 |
CLIP 5 |
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Hamlet is also a revenge drama. Is there a way to reconcile Ammerman's discussion of the personal nature of the communication here with the Ghost's demand for retribution? |
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