Remember Me Notes
First 13 Pages - chloe
- Introduction of Ghost changed whole nature of the story: Ur-Hamlet (1580s): Murder was
hidden and son’s obligation was assumed to him by his dead father, not people around him
- Idea of remembering- main task is for Hamlet to remember in order not to lose his precious
memories and love for his father
- “Remember thee?” could show how it is ludicrous for Hamlet to forget his father
- Ghost has a passionate want to be with God, this is intensified by Hamlet’s “Haste, haste me
to know it” where he is urgently demanding the information from the Ghost
- What is at stake in the shift of emphasis from vengeance to remembrance is the whole play
Guards
- Questioning the ghost- they do not use the word “Ghost” initially, however use the word
“Thing” due to the unknown
- Horatio keeps distance from accepting the reality of the Ghost, “Horatio says ‘tis but our
fantasy”
- Idea of demons: They cleverness and trickery- Protestant view
- Horatio asks questions in the discretio spirituum (Many questions) - Traditional questions
(Quis? Quid? Quare? Cui? Qualiter? Unde?)
- “Looks it not like the King?” - The word “Like” not “Is”, shows us uncertainty . This is repeated
by Marcellus later on in the line “Is it not like the King?”
- Horatio then agrees that it is a reality, seen with “of mine own eyes”
Ghost appearance
- Alterations in Ghost’s appearance can give information about what the Ghost actually is
- Second apparition is often marked by a costume change: Clad in white- signifies purity and
how the Ghost would be cleansed of moral sins
- However no reassuring change when soldiers see spirit return to the battlements
- Idea of the Uncanny- suggested by nervous repetition of the same observation
- Catholic Pierre Le Loyer (1586 book on apparitions) calls a “Phantasmal body ”: Souls can
not return to their body so due to the will of God they will use a phantasmal body to appear
- “Illusion”- does not understand nature of the ghost
- Recollections of what King looks like: Hamlet is obsessed with his father due to remembering
very specific details about him
- Ghost in armour: Shows us how the King is powerful and loving in the eyes of Hamlet,
establishes how high he holds his father
- He cannot keep these images from pressing themselves vividly upon him- They are like
compulsion- “Must I remember?”
Compulsive remembrance
- Plato and Aristotle: Only released principles for understanding memory, not obsession- It was
hard for Renaissance philosophers to understand too.
- Ghost return- How can his impression be renewed when he does not have a physical body?
- Aristotle: Humans are the only ones with the power of recollection
- How to separate the idea of the Ghost as a memory and the memory as the Ghost
- Richard III- contrast between shadow and substance marks difficulty of perceiving reality
- Julius Caesar: Horatio invokes Caesar’s assasination just after first apparition of the Ghost: “A
little ere the mightiest Julius fell”
First 13 Pages - chloe
- Introduction of Ghost changed whole nature of the story: Ur-Hamlet (1580s): Murder was
hidden and son’s obligation was assumed to him by his dead father, not people around him
- Idea of remembering- main task is for Hamlet to remember in order not to lose his precious
memories and love for his father
- “Remember thee?” could show how it is ludicrous for Hamlet to forget his father
- Ghost has a passionate want to be with God, this is intensified by Hamlet’s “Haste, haste me
to know it” where he is urgently demanding the information from the Ghost
- What is at stake in the shift of emphasis from vengeance to remembrance is the whole play
Guards
- Questioning the ghost- they do not use the word “Ghost” initially, however use the word
“Thing” due to the unknown
- Horatio keeps distance from accepting the reality of the Ghost, “Horatio says ‘tis but our
fantasy”
- Idea of demons: They cleverness and trickery- Protestant view
- Horatio asks questions in the discretio spirituum (Many questions) - Traditional questions
(Quis? Quid? Quare? Cui? Qualiter? Unde?)
- “Looks it not like the King?” - The word “Like” not “Is”, shows us uncertainty . This is repeated
by Marcellus later on in the line “Is it not like the King?”
- Horatio then agrees that it is a reality, seen with “of mine own eyes”
Ghost appearance
- Alterations in Ghost’s appearance can give information about what the Ghost actually is
- Second apparition is often marked by a costume change: Clad in white- signifies purity and
how the Ghost would be cleansed of moral sins
- However no reassuring change when soldiers see spirit return to the battlements
- Idea of the Uncanny- suggested by nervous repetition of the same observation
- Catholic Pierre Le Loyer (1586 book on apparitions) calls a “Phantasmal body ”: Souls can
not return to their body so due to the will of God they will use a phantasmal body to appear
- “Illusion”- does not understand nature of the ghost
- Recollections of what King looks like: Hamlet is obsessed with his father due to remembering
very specific details about him
- Ghost in armour: Shows us how the King is powerful and loving in the eyes of Hamlet,
establishes how high he holds his father
- He cannot keep these images from pressing themselves vividly upon him- They are like
compulsion- “Must I remember?”
Compulsive remembrance
- Plato and Aristotle: Only released principles for understanding memory, not obsession- It was
hard for Renaissance philosophers to understand too.
- Ghost return- How can his impression be renewed when he does not have a physical body?
- Aristotle: Humans are the only ones with the power of recollection
- How to separate the idea of the Ghost as a memory and the memory as the Ghost
- Richard III- contrast between shadow and substance marks difficulty of perceiving reality
- Julius Caesar: Horatio invokes Caesar’s assasination just after first apparition of the Ghost: “A
little ere the mightiest Julius fell”
