WS ABC # 70 Shakespeare's GHOSTS

THERE ARE FOUR INSTANCES OF GHOSTS APPEARING IN SHAKESPEARE" PLAYS, (five if you include the final appearances of ghosts at the end of Cymbeline which I'm not going to include here as they play a passive 'background role).

They include the ghosts 
1) who appear in Richard III's dream before he is killed in    battle.
2) The ghost of Banquo who was murdered by Macbeth. Macbeth also sees apparitions of the future kings of Scotland.
3) The ghost of Julius Caesar who appears to Brutus before his      own suicide.
4) The ghost of Hamlet's father who appears at the beginning of      the play.

In all of the above plays (apart from Hamlet), the ghosts appear only to certain individuals whose behaviour is strongly influenced by this unnatural encounter. In Hamlet, the ghost first appears to Hamlet's friends, Bernardo and Marcellus before appearing later to Hamlet himself.

Another common factor concerning the ghosts is that they are almost all the spirits of people who have been killed by Brutus, Macbeth or King Richard. (Hamlet's father was killed by his brother Claudius, leaving Hamlet innocent of the knowledge of this death until the ghost informs him of such.)

Iconic painting of 18th cent. actor Edmund Kean playing Richard III seeing the ghosts before the battle of Bosworth.

In terms of the history of the composition of WS's plays, the first ghosts who appear are in Richard the Third (c.1592-3). Here, on the night before the fateful Battle of Bosworth (Act V) the ghosts of Henry VI and his son, Edward, Richard's brother, Clarence, the Lords Hastings, Rivers, Grey and Vaughan as well as those of the two Princes in the Tower and Richard's wife, Lady Anne, appear to torment the king in his sleep. And torment him they do! They all end their maledictions, "Despair and die!" - a prediction that comes true.

On the other hand, these same ghosts appear in the dreams of Richard's opponent, Henry of Richmond, the future King Henry VII. In contrast to Richard's troubled dreams, the same ghosts wish him to "Live and flourish" and that he should     "... fight, and conquer for fair England's sake!"

The next time WS uses ghosts is in Julius Caesar (c.1599). Here, the ghost of the murdered Julius Caesar appears to Brutus who, like Richard III, is resting before the final battle which will be fought on the Plains of Philippi. The ghost promises Brutus that he will see him later on the battlefield leaving Brutus to exclaim, "O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet! Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords in our own proper entrails." This, of course, is highly prophetic as soon after Brutus does indeed kill himself using his sword.

Approximately two years after writing Julius Caesar, WS used the ghostly motif once again. This time the ghost of Hamlet's father appears at the beginning of the play. The ghost informs Hamlet that his father was killed by his brother Claudius in order to rule Denmark in his stead. It is this knowledge that spurs Hamlet on, albeit sometimes reluctantly at times, to seek revenge.

In 'the Scottish play,' written in 1605-6, (dated through references to the Gunpowder Plot, 1605) Macbeth is completely thrown off balance when he is faced with the gory and ghostly remains of his past friend, Banquo. This scene happens, when Macbeth, accompanied by his wife and several of his chief lords are celebrating Macbeth's recent ascent to the throne. Despite this crowded scene, it is only Macbeth who sees the ghost, a vision that completely derails him. Later, the three weird sisters/witches, in response to Macbeth's request, show him more apparitions in the form of eight future kings of Scotland. This unsettles him even more and from now on, he is hell-bent on fighting his way through to his final demise.

Next time: Hamlet's mother, Gertrude.
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