John Erskine Hankins on five options for beliefs about ghosts in Hamlet
From the chapter, “On Ghosts” (131-171) from the book, The Character of Hamlet by John Erskine Hankins (1941), regarding 5 options for different beliefs regarding ghosts, represented by various characters in Hamlet. [1]
[Upper left: Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet and Ewart James Walters as Ghost in 2018 RSC production of Hamlet, photo by Manuel Harlan via RSC, cropped. Fair use.
Upper right: Illustration of the ghost by Thomas Ridgeway Gould from an 1890 printing of Hamlet, public domain, via Wikipedia.
Lower right: Paul Scofield as the ghost in Hamlet, 1990, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Photo via The Guardian. Fair use.
Lower left: Engraving, "Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost, on platform before the Palace of Elsinor," by Robert Thew (1758–1802) After Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), September 29, 1796, after a 1789 painting by Kaufmann. Public domain. Via Wikimedia and The Huntington Library and Museum (Huntington.org).]
1. “All supernatural apparitions, including ghosts, have no objective existence [...] They are hallucinations of a diseased ‘fantasy’ or imagination and are usually perceived when the mind is affected by some abnormal condition of the body, such as the overabundance of melancholy humor - black bile - in the human organism.” (134).
Hankins attributes this to Horatio before he has seen the ghost himself in 1.1.
2. “The ghost’s appearance is a physical phenomenon pretending danger to the state. It is of the same nature as the appearance of comets, the falling of bloody dews, solar phenomena, eclipses of the moon, etc., all of which are ominous of great crises in national affairs.” (142).
Hankins attributes this to Horatio after he sees the ghost in 1.1.
3. “The ghost is the ‘spirit’ of the deceased, stirred from it’s sleep in the grave by a vague consciousness of some earthly mission, after the performance of which it can find rest.” (151).
Horatio seems open to considering this possibility in his questioning of the ghost in 1.1.
4. “The Ghost is the actual soul of the elder Hamlet, returned from purgatory in full possession of all his faculties to bring a message to his son.” (158).
Hamlet is the only one with this view, because Hamlet is the only one who has spoken with the ghost. Protestants rejected this possibility.
5. “The Ghost is an evil demon who attempts to ensnare Hamlet’s soul by inducing him to commit a horrible crime.”
Horatio is suspicious that this could be the case, and while Hamlet initially rejects this idea when speaking with the ghost, he later comes to suspect it is a possibility he needs to test with “The Mousetrap” to see if Claudius is guilty and if the ghost is honest.
This position was popular among Protestants, but Catholics also knew this was possible.
~~~~~
Note that none of these involves how individuals or a culture could be figuratively haunted by the actions of past leaders or members of the group.
It’s quite possible that England was traumatized by executions, spying and intrigue during the Reformation in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and figuratively haunted by the ghost of Henry VIII. Fascination with melancholy as madness and weakness to Satan and sin may have been a way of blaming individuals for broader social ills.
Nations today are also similarly (figuratively) haunted: See notes. [2] [3] [4]
~~~~~ NOTES:
[1] The Character of Hamlet by John Erskine Hankins (1941) is old enough that it should soon be available for free via Google Books or Archive.org: After 75 years, copyrighted materials in the US revert to the public domain, and many such books are scanned into digital copies and made available for free. This book has a good chapter on politics in Hamlet, and another on biblical references in the play, based largely on the work of Richmond Noble (1935), but also expanding on Noble’s research.
[2] The US is still haunted by the assassinations of
President John Kennedy (1963),
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968),
Senator Robert Kennedy (1968),
and the plane accident that killed Senator Paul Wellstone (2002);
haunted also by US assassinations of foreign leaders such as
Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1961),
Che Guevara (1967),
Chilean President Salvador Allende (1973), and many more.
[3] The US is also haunted by its treatment of indigenous people and slaves, as well as by military interventions in foreign nations on behalf of corporations. See “War is a Racket” by Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (1935).
The US is haunted also by decisions of past administrations, such as
the Bush-Cheney administration decisions to torture prisoners with the excuse that this was merely to extract important information, rather than to force prisoners to say what interrogators wanted them to say, and then to claim it as evidence;
to use 9-11-01 attacks and information obtained in forced interrogations as justification for a regime-change war in Iraq (2003);
and by the Obama administration's decision, at the strong urging of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to pursue regime change in Libya (2011).
[4] But as with some of the characters in Hamlet, such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, some in the US do not suspect any foul play in past or present leader’s decisions, and believe mostly what they are told to believe about assassinations and regime change wars. Perhaps in that way, to be like Hamlet is to scrutinize, to be skeptical, to research history and look for evidence regarding national events that still haunt us? But this also means being somewhat isolated at times, holding minority opinions that seem unpatriotic to others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
Upper right: Illustration of the ghost by Thomas Ridgeway Gould from an 1890 printing of Hamlet, public domain, via Wikipedia.
Lower right: Paul Scofield as the ghost in Hamlet, 1990, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Photo via The Guardian. Fair use.
Lower left: Engraving, "Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost, on platform before the Palace of Elsinor," by Robert Thew (1758–1802) After Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), September 29, 1796, after a 1789 painting by Kaufmann. Public domain. Via Wikimedia and The Huntington Library and Museum (Huntington.org).]
1. “All supernatural apparitions, including ghosts, have no objective existence [...] They are hallucinations of a diseased ‘fantasy’ or imagination and are usually perceived when the mind is affected by some abnormal condition of the body, such as the overabundance of melancholy humor - black bile - in the human organism.” (134).
Hankins attributes this to Horatio before he has seen the ghost himself in 1.1.
2. “The ghost’s appearance is a physical phenomenon pretending danger to the state. It is of the same nature as the appearance of comets, the falling of bloody dews, solar phenomena, eclipses of the moon, etc., all of which are ominous of great crises in national affairs.” (142).
Hankins attributes this to Horatio after he sees the ghost in 1.1.
3. “The ghost is the ‘spirit’ of the deceased, stirred from it’s sleep in the grave by a vague consciousness of some earthly mission, after the performance of which it can find rest.” (151).
Horatio seems open to considering this possibility in his questioning of the ghost in 1.1.
4. “The Ghost is the actual soul of the elder Hamlet, returned from purgatory in full possession of all his faculties to bring a message to his son.” (158).
Hamlet is the only one with this view, because Hamlet is the only one who has spoken with the ghost. Protestants rejected this possibility.
5. “The Ghost is an evil demon who attempts to ensnare Hamlet’s soul by inducing him to commit a horrible crime.”
Horatio is suspicious that this could be the case, and while Hamlet initially rejects this idea when speaking with the ghost, he later comes to suspect it is a possibility he needs to test with “The Mousetrap” to see if Claudius is guilty and if the ghost is honest.
This position was popular among Protestants, but Catholics also knew this was possible.
~~~~~
Note that none of these involves how individuals or a culture could be figuratively haunted by the actions of past leaders or members of the group.
It’s quite possible that England was traumatized by executions, spying and intrigue during the Reformation in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and figuratively haunted by the ghost of Henry VIII. Fascination with melancholy as madness and weakness to Satan and sin may have been a way of blaming individuals for broader social ills.
Nations today are also similarly (figuratively) haunted: See notes. [2] [3] [4]
~~~~~ NOTES:
[1] The Character of Hamlet by John Erskine Hankins (1941) is old enough that it should soon be available for free via Google Books or Archive.org: After 75 years, copyrighted materials in the US revert to the public domain, and many such books are scanned into digital copies and made available for free. This book has a good chapter on politics in Hamlet, and another on biblical references in the play, based largely on the work of Richmond Noble (1935), but also expanding on Noble’s research.
[2] The US is still haunted by the assassinations of
President John Kennedy (1963),
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968),
Senator Robert Kennedy (1968),
and the plane accident that killed Senator Paul Wellstone (2002);
haunted also by US assassinations of foreign leaders such as
Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1961),
Che Guevara (1967),
Chilean President Salvador Allende (1973), and many more.
[3] The US is also haunted by its treatment of indigenous people and slaves, as well as by military interventions in foreign nations on behalf of corporations. See “War is a Racket” by Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (1935).
The US is haunted also by decisions of past administrations, such as
the Bush-Cheney administration decisions to torture prisoners with the excuse that this was merely to extract important information, rather than to force prisoners to say what interrogators wanted them to say, and then to claim it as evidence;
to use 9-11-01 attacks and information obtained in forced interrogations as justification for a regime-change war in Iraq (2003);
and by the Obama administration's decision, at the strong urging of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to pursue regime change in Libya (2011).
[4] But as with some of the characters in Hamlet, such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, some in the US do not suspect any foul play in past or present leader’s decisions, and believe mostly what they are told to believe about assassinations and regime change wars. Perhaps in that way, to be like Hamlet is to scrutinize, to be skeptical, to research history and look for evidence regarding national events that still haunt us? But this also means being somewhat isolated at times, holding minority opinions that seem unpatriotic to others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
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