ACT 1 SCENE 1 Characters: Ghost, Heratio, Marcellus. ... Heratio and the guardsmen inform Hamlet of the ghost they had saw the night before and Hamlet agrees to watch with them tonight in hope of talking to this ghost. ... The ghost finally appears and wants to Hamlet to follow it, Heratio and Marcellus urge him not to, but he is unsure whether the ghost is truly the ghost of his dead father, or if it was an evil spirit. ... The ghost wants Hamlet to avenge his death. ... Hamlet is dying and Fortinbras insists that Hamlet be carried away like a soldier. ...

• Word Count: 1180
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Ophelia tells us that before the events of the play Hamlet was a model courtier, soldier and scholar, "The glass of fashion and the mould of form,/ The observed of all observers." ... He alone sees his father's ghost in his mother's chambers. Every other time the ghost appeared someone else has seen it. During this scene he finally shows his madness, because his mother does not see the ghost. ... [Act IV, scene III, lines 20-21] In the two months after his meeting with the ghost, he puzzles the court with his assumed madness but does nothing concrete to effect or further his revenge....

• Word Count: 888
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The ghost of King Hamlet appears to tell Hamlet that his purpose is to get revenge on Claudius but to leave his mother alone "Against thy mother aught. ... Fortinbras recognizes that Hamlet was a hero "Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage/For he was likely, he had been put on,/To have proved most royally." ...

• Word Count: 913
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School