Ghost and Claudius

Question 1

Claudius:

Answer 1

“…the indiscretions in Denmark are owing not to Hamlet but to Claudius who violates the Medieval-Renaissance concept of ‘Degree’ by which men situate themselves within society.”
(James Calderwood)

“Hamlet’s killing of Claudius is an act of restorative destruction.” (James Calderwood)

Question 2

The Ghost:

Answer 2

“We cannot believe that the Ghost is a figment of his imagination.” (John Hunt)

Janette Dillion comments that this response would ‘recall to an Elizabethan audience the world of an older faith, cherishing the belief that the souls of the dead had to suffer in purgatory before they could be saved.’ However, Shakespeare’s Protestant Elizabethan audience, who would have rejected the idea of the purgatory, would make the Ghost a dubious character of deception over an accurate one.