Act I Scene V

ACT I SCENE V

-Summarize the action of the scene(s) and discuss how the scene fits into the play as a whole.

   It's when the two guards, Horatio and Marcellus wait with Hamlet for the ghost to show up and it did. The ghost motions Hamlet to follow it. They talked and ghost tells the truth about his father's death. His uncle now the king poisoned his father when he was sleeping. This was the start of Hamlet revenge against Claudius and the ghost is the caused of it. Also Marcellus mentions 

" something is rotten in the state of Denmark", that means that the government is corrupt ever since Claudius became the King and he is late night drinking not a month after the King's death. Therefore, this will affect the whole kingdom and Hamlet's revenge will reveal all the nasty lies and the corruption Claudius have done. 

   -Rewrite (don’t just summarize!) a significant speech in your own words.

GHOST: " I am thy father's spirit,

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,

And for the day confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

5 Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,

 10 Thy knotted and combined locks to part

And each particular hair to stand on end,

Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:

But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!

 15 If thou didst ever thy dear father love--"

The ghost is introducing himself as his father's ghost. He explained how he was taken away from the world and his sins still exists. He can't go to heaven unless he fixes his wrongdoings and go through purgatory, a place where souls go to be punished for their sins before going to heaven. He describes the afterlife to be a cruel place like hell and it brings terror to the living. The ghost tells Hamlet to listen to what he is saying and to do what he wants him to do. In conclusion, the ghost convinces Hamlet that he's the King's ghost, which we are not sure if he is. 

Wild card: is there something you thought of? Write it!

(my POV of a scene) 

  Hamlet makes Horatio and Marcellus promised that they know nothing of what happened that night and they will not speak of it. To swore that in the near future if Hamlet acts weird, they should act accordingly to what they have discussed. It kept me wondering that what if I was in this situation and would I have agreed that way they did, would I have swore to keep it a secret?   I think Horatio and Marcellus had many things in mind, but they were caught off guard and made a promised to Hamlet. For me, I would have thought about it first. For example, the ghost who suddenly appears and ghost of the king walks in front of the castles and shows himself to only the guards. Why can't he just walk around in the castle and show himself. The guards don't know what hamlet and the ghost talked about so they assumed it was important and they agreed to it. My decision is that, I will also agree and promise to Hamlet to keep it a secret because I know there is corruption in Denmark and Hamlet is the only person who can fix it.