October

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 36.126 Wednesday, 29 October 2025

From:     Kenneth Chan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

Date:      October 27 at 7:25 PM EDT

Subject:  Re: The long swearing ritual in Hamlet

Thank you, Marianne Kimura, for your insightful comment. First let me clarify that, while John Reed suggested it, I did not say that the ghost is the devil or even an evil spirit. That is not necessary. All I am saying is that the injunction to seek vengeance is evil in nature. This is also not necessarily confined to being a Judeo-Christian view. It is common in many spiritual traditions, including Buddhism.

It is true that we can interpret the section of the play involving Horatio in the way that you outlined. This is a valid interpretation for that isolated section of the play. Since Shakespeare’s plays reflect the human condition, many different interpretations would be valid for different isolated sections of his plays. These interpretations also help to enrich our experience of the plays.

However, we need to recognize that Shakespeare has meticulously crafted practically all his plays so they have the quality of cohesive unity. This means that every part of each play contributes to the central meaning of that play. Shakespeare has done it this way for this reason: While it is possible to interpret isolated sections of his play in diverse ways, it would be almost impossible to do likewise if we must consider his play as a unified compact whole. That is how Shakespeare ensures that his intended meaning gets through.

For Hamlet, Shakespeare’s intended meaning must therefore explain by a single coherent theme practically every aspect of the play that has puzzled critics for centuries, including the following:

• the reason for Hamlet’s delay in exacting his revenge;
• why Hamlet himself is unsure why he delays;
• the purpose of the long swearing ritual;
• the reason for Polonius’s long dialogue with Reynaldo;
• why Hamlet feels Denmark is like a prison
• the meaning behind the usurpation of the serious performers by the “little eyases”;
• why the status of Hamlet’s madness is ambiguous;
• the reason for Hamlet’s savage treatment of Ophelia;
• the purpose of the long dramatic recitation on Pyrrhus;
• the meaning of the “To Be” soliloquy;
• the reason for Hamlet’s advice (on acting) to the players;
• why the King does not react to the dumb show;
• why Hamlet lacks remorse after accidentally killing Polonius;
• the meaning behind Hamlet’s comparison between his father and Claudius;
• the meaning behind the nature of Ophelia’s death;
• the purpose of Hamlet’s encounter with the army of Fortinbras;
• the purpose of the long graveyard scene;
• why Hamlet grapples in fury with Laertes at the gravesite;
• the purpose of the prolonged dialogue with Osric;
• the meaning behind the final duel scene
• why each of the characters died in the particular way they did.

I have written my book “Quintessence of Dust” as a running commentary of the entire play, precisely to show the cohesive unity of the play. Every single part of the play, with no exception, is thus shown to contribute to its central meaning. That this is possible is not something that has occurred by chance. As with all his other plays, Shakespeare has meticulously crafted Hamlet in this way to convey a particular sage message for humanity. (see https://kenneth-chan.com/quintessence-of-dust/)

I am about to publish my fourth book (also as a running commentary of each play in its entirety) on two more Shakespearean plays that demonstrate the same cohesive unity in meaning. That would then mean that there are now seven plays that have been proven to have this quality of cohesive unity: Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth. There will be more to come.

See also my two previous posts about Hamlet on this SHAKSPER forum. All the points there contribute to the central meaning of the play.

https://shaksper.net/current-postings/35358-why-hamlet-delays-his-revenge

https://shaksper.net/archive/2025/926-march/35268-the-meaning-behind-the-dialogue-between-polonius-and-reynaldo

Kenneth Chan

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 36.125 Monday, 27 October 2025

[1] From:      Marianne Kimura <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

     Date:       October 23 at 10:33 PM EDT

     Subject:   Re: The long swearing ritual in Hamlet

[2] From:      Kenneth Chan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

     Date:       October 25 at 6:18 PM EDT

     Subject:   Re: The long swearing ritual in Hamlet

[1] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:     Marianne Kimura <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

Date:      October 23 at 10:33 PM EDT

Subject:  Re: The long swearing ritual in Hamlet

I disagree with Kenneth Chan’s view that the ghost in Hamlet is the devil and that the swearing ritual is “evil in nature.”

The “hic et ubique” comment made by Hamlet could point to a god, but why limit this god to the Judeo-Christian god, when the ghost is compared to Hyperion (a brilliant sun god) twice, and to other pagan gods as well in a very complimentary (far from evil!) way later?:

So excellent a king, that was to this

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. (1.2)

Look here upon th’s picture, and on this,

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.

See what a grace was seated on this brow;

Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself;

An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;

A station like the herald mercury

New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill:

A combination and a form indeed

Where every god did seem to set his seal

To give the world assurance of a man. (3.4)

With all of these strong and noble pagan gods listed, I think we can use more universal pagan style storytelling patterns to figure out a better interpretation for Hamlet than the moralizing one Chan proposes. I am sure that Shakespeare would never be so popular here in Japan or in other non-Judeo-Christian countries if indeed his works were based on exclusive Christian moralizing.

In such a pagan type of story-telling (pagan includes ancestor worship as well as pagan gods), the swearing by the sword is exactly a noble deed of great honor, done to promise vindication on an attack on one’s ancestors or country. In addition, in pagan type story-telling, a mentor and a young apprentice/student figure are a common trope and we see it in Aeneas and his father Anchises, and Aeneas and his own son Ascanius in The Aeneid by Virgil. Merlin is also a mentor figure for young Arthur in the legends of King Arthur. (Both works would have been known by Shakespeare).

Here in Japan (which has a pagan culture, pagan gods, and ancestor worship), the story-telling pattern with the noble “sensei” and the younger apprentice figure who swears loyalty, and both use their swords to attack scurrilous foes, is extremely common in anime. You can see it in “Kimetsu no Yaiba” (“Demon Slayer”) with Tanjiro Kamado and Kyojuro Rengoku.

I wrote and published a paper on this idea and include it in two links below (it’s the same paper, one is my Academia page and one is to the repository site of the journal). Here is the abstract:

What if Horatio is the hero of Hamlet? What if Horatio’s story is the real plot of the play? If we track Horatio’s actions, concerns and setbacks, a new perspective of the play emerges, much as two faces suddenly appear in profile when we look at the famous Rubin drawing of a vase in silhouette. In the traditional narrative arc of the play, where Hamlet is the protagonist, Horatio is Hamlet’s best friend. However, in the new narrative arc I propose, where Horatio is the protagonist, Hamlet is more than just a friend. Hamlet becomes a teacher, a powerful guide and mentor, or to use the apt Japanese expression, Hamlet becomes Horatio’s “sensei,” who initiates Horatio and trains him to fight in a particular mission. Horatio starts as an inexperienced fighter, totally inadequate. But thanks to Hamlet’s assistance, Horatio improves, becomes a collaborator in the battle, and continues to fight on after the tragic death of his sensei in battle. This plot of teacher/student fighters (probably based on traditional martial arts) is one common trope in Japanese animé (such as Naruto, Jujutsukaisen or Ansatsukyoshitsu), where a less experienced character is initiated into a group of older and more experienced fighters. Eventually, this character has to grapple with the foe on her own. Because the particular fight in Hamlet is the epic battle against fossil fuels (still raging now, though already underway in Shakespeare’s era), Hamlet functions like an ingenious and coded centuries-long interactive animé where Prince Hamlet/Shakespeare subtly initiates Horatio/modern activist into insurgency. Horatio then becomes an avatar for a reader who understands the code, to take over for him in the prophesized battle against fossil fuels and capitalism.

https://www.academia.edu/44294070/_Twere_to_consider_too_curiously_to_consider_so_a_shadowy_parallel_play_in_Hamlet_

http://repo.kyoto-wu.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/11173/3135/1/0020_064_001.pdf

Marianne Kimura

[2] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:     Kenneth Chan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

Date:      October 25 at 6:18 PM EDT

Subject:  Re: The long swearing ritual in Hamlet

Thank you, John Reed, for your response. We can, as you say, interpret the ghost as an evil spirit. However, for Shakespeare’s purpose, this may not be strictly necessary.

Even if the ghost is actually the spirit of Hamlet’s father, Shakespeare has stressed that he is in purgatory. This means that the ghost is definitely no enlightened being, and that any advice from him may be suspect. The long swearing ritual is designed to give the impression that the injunction to seek vengeance is actually evil in nature. So even if the ghost may not be an evil spirit, his mandate for revenge is nonetheless evil. This reinforces the reason why Hamlet delays his revenge, which is that his inner conscience is bringing up the question of immorality in seeking vengeance.

What is important in interpreting Shakespeare’s meaning is that we must consider his entire play as a compact unified entity. While we can interpret isolated sections of his play in diverse ways, it is almost impossible to do likewise if we have to treat it as a single unified whole. That is why Shakespeare has crafted all his plays with this quality of cohesive unity, so that every part (with no exception) contributes to the central meaning of the play. That is how Shakespeare ensures that his intended meaning gets through.

Kenneth Chan

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 36.124 Thursday, 23 October 2025

From:     Darren Freebury-Jones <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

Date:      October 22 at 7:06 PM EDT

Subject:  Shakespeare and Friends

Dear SHAKSPERians,

I am pleased to share the very first episode of my new YouTube series co-hosted with Rachel Aanstad, titled: ‘Shakespeare and Friends’.

In this episode, we engage with the question: ‘Did Shakespeare’s audiences believe in ghosts?’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br4N4RA0j_s

Darren Freebury-Jones.

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 36.123 Thursday, 23 October 2025

From:     John Reed <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

Date:      October 15 at 6:47 PM EDT

Subject:  Re: The long swearing ritual in Hamlet

I agree with you on this one, Mr. Chan. The Ghost is an evil spirit, and has the objectives of defiling and destroying the royal family; objectives which are ultimately achieved. It recalls for me an observation made by Ed Murphy in his Handbook for Spiritual Warfare (although he is not specifically referring to Hamlet).

“Here is a story involving most everything Paul has been teaching us about warfare with the spirit world: Territorial spirits. Warfare praying. The spirit warrior himself suffering severe demonic attacks. Battles with oppression and depression of spirit. The demonic bondage of the unconverted through occultism. Powerful, high-level, cosmic evil spirits attacking and stopping the growth of the new converts...Here we discover power encounters galore, many lost, most won.”

Hamlet—this is one of those lost power encounters.