Hamlet

            Hamlet if told plainly would simply be a sad story. William Shakespeare however managed to take that sad story and create a tragedy. He created this tragedy by creating flaws in the characters, that in turn eventually lead to their downfall. For example, Prince Hamlet, of "Hamlet," is seemingly horrified by what the ghost of his father clarifies concerning his death. Yet the actions executed by Hamlet following this revelation do not appear to coincide with the disgust he expresses immediately after the ghost alerts him of the true cause of his death. This makes it abundantly clear that Hamlet's self doubt and willingness to act takes Hamlet from simply a sad story to a tragic masterpiece.
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             Dismayed, disturbed, distressed. These three words can best be used to describe Act I, Scene V of the play. These are feelings mutually shared between all the characters in the scene. The ghost, or "King Hamlet", was killed without the chance to repent his sins and now dwells without purpose ".doom"d for a certain term to walk the night, and for the day confin"d to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in [his] days of nature are purg"d away."(Act I, Scene V lines10-12) While Hamlet can only bring himself to say, "Alas, poor ghost," at the suffering he is " bound to hear" from the voice he once knew as that of his father. As the ghost begins to retell how, ".[his] custom always of the afternoon, upon his secure hour [Prince Hamlet's] uncle stole, with juice of cursed hebona in a vial, and in the purches of [his] ears did pour the leprous distillment, whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of man that swift quicksilver it courses through the natural gates of the body." and thus sent him to his most foul death, Hamlet can only swear that he shall never forget the words spoken by the ghost.(Act I, Scene V lines 60-7) Hamlet vows to " .wipe away all trivial fond records, all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past that youth and observation copied there.