Hard Question Help Please?! For everyone

[ole32]

“And thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmix’d with baser matter”. (Act I, Sc. V)

The nature of Hamlet’s vow to the Ghost?

How do you think Hamlet’s pledge will impact his decisions/actions in the rest of the play?

[huntress4eva]

The whole of the act Hamlet is unsure whether the ghost is his dad or a demon this leads him to become indesicive and though he promise the ghost to take care of polonius. Everything Hamlet says to the ghost is cause for doubt and creates hamlet as his role of is he mad or isnt he. It this speech which all the audience to have there own perceptions of is he under control of Himself

[Kafka's Crow]

The best answer to this question in particular and THE question of Hamlet in general can be found in Eleanor Prosser's Hamlet and Revenge.

[seeme101]

Hamlet Tis a honest ghost

I'll remember what you've told me, I'll do as you say, and I will not allow other thoughts to sway me from my decision to take action.

What you've told me is more important then anything I can think of and will do whatever I can to avenge you and not harm my mother

When Hamlet strayed from his promise the Ghost reappeared
to "chide" him or so Hamlet thought

[John-a-dreams]

Hamlet here says (rather dramatically) that he shall forget everything that he has learnt as a student (baser matter- meaning the subject matter in all books is now relatively unimportant), to make room for the huge truth that has been exposed. His life's purpose shall focus on one thing only- to follow the ghost's commandment and avenge his father by killing Claudius. Good Grief! His pledge has enormous impact on the rest of the play!! He is bound by filial and moral obligation to revenge his father. But by doing so, he must murder his uncle, more than this, he must murdur a KING! In Elizabethian times, there was a chain of being (a kind of divine hierarchy). The King was thought to be God's representative- and therefore to slay a monarch was a heinous act against God- and the people of the time were heavy fundamentalists. Therefore, Hamlet is in a huge dilemma. To act is to offend God. Inaction, on the other hand, is to break his pledge and fail to honour duty to morality and his father. Entangled in philosophical ponderings, he procrastinates- agonizing over which course of action he should take, and ultimately unable to reach an answer. These questions lead to melancholy- and coupled with his fast-sinking opinion of the dissolute world about him, he questions life itself. "to be or not to be", etc, etc. He wishes, most passionately, that the incumbency did not lie on him (oh cursed spite, that i was ever born to set it right).

I think i've kind of gotten off track here. sorry. but i hope that helps. my brain cells are aching, despite their pitiful ability only to state the obvious, heh heh.

[Beewulf]

“And thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain, unmix’d with baser matter”. (Act I, Sc. V)

The nature of Hamlet’s vow to the Ghost?

How do you think Hamlet’s pledge will impact his decisions/actions in the rest of the play?

It would appear that the reader should think that Hamlet is going to swiftly take action; of course, he doesn't. That fact forms the basis for the rest of the play.