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All Site ContentHamletAct 1Scene 5
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"meeting the ghost"
Context and Language Videos
Act 1,
Scene 5
Lines 8-20

A discussion of Hamlet's meeting with the ghost in Act 1, Scene 5 of myShakespeare's Hamlet.

Hamlet/Act 1, Scene 5/The Ghost/Line 13

Hamlet

What?

Ghost   

I am thy father's spirit,  
Doomed 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
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,
Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. 
Video Transcript: 

SARAH: With these lines, the ghost tells us directly that he is the spirit of Hamlet's father, but he also confirms our suspicion that he has come from Purgatory.

RALPH: And he apparently must remain in Purgatory until the sins he committed while living have been atoned for — it may be that even his haunting of the castle, as he is doing now, is supposed to be part of the ghost's atonement, although this certainly isn't according to any Church doctrine.