Page:William Strunk Jr. - The Importance of The Ghost in Hamlet.djvu/9

Rh of revenge. He communicates to Hamlet information which could have reached the Prince by no other channel, he demands revenge, prescribes in part the conditions of this revenge, and reappears to reprove the instrument of his revenge for lack of zeal. His supernatural quality places his words and actions in a category by themselves, by reason of which, above and beyond all else to be found in the play, they enable us to determine the dramatist's underlying conceptions of situation and character. I purpose justifying this view, and then pointing out some of the obvious consequences, if we apply it as a working principle.

Whether or not infallibility can be attributed to the ghost, it cannot be attributed to the mortal characters of the play. Students of the play cannot agree whether certain speeches (as, "He weeps for what is done," . i. 27) are to be taken as truth or falsehood; whether certain of Hamlet's doubts and hesitations (as his doubt of the genuineness of the ghost, . ii. 628; his fear of sending his uncle to heaven, . iii. 74) are real or feigned or the result of self-deception. In the utterances of the