Shakespeare's Hamlet is widely known as being a "ghost story." In Act 1, Scene 1, Shakespeare first introduces the ghost into his story when the character Marcellus says, "What, has this thing appeared again tonight?" (Line 21). The "thing" Marcellus is speaking of is the ghost of King Hamlet. It is made very clear that the characters are talking about seeing a ghost when Macellus says, "Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us; Therefore I have entreated him along with us to watch the minutes of this night, that, if again this apparition come, he may approve our eyes and speak to it" (Lines 24-29). Marcellus is explaining to Barnardo that he wants Horatio to to be on guard with them because he is in disbelief that they saw a ghost twice. Horatio thinks Marcellus and Barnardo are just imagining things. Then in the middle of Scene 1, Barnardo's sentence gets interrupted by the ghost who enters their presence. It is at this moment that Shakespeare's Hamlet officially becomes a ghost story.
In Hamlet's soliloquy in lines 129-159, he is simply letting out his feelings out loud with no one around to hear him. Young Hamlet is distressed and baffled that his mother could marry his uncle in less than a month after her husband, Hamlet, died. However, Young Hamlet feels as though he must "hold his tongue" because he does not want to displease his mother and his new father. Hamlet exclaims how much his mother and father loved each other, which is why it is so hard for him to understand how she could possibly get married so quickly after her husband's death. He says, "...'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely" (Lines 135-137). Hamlet is comparing his life to a wild garden where only weeds grow because no one is taking care of it. Hamlet closes his thoughts by saying that no good will come with any of this, but he must keep silent.
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