unded by courtiers, but also by a Swiss bodyguard. How was Hamlet to get to the King? Although the ghost of Hamlet's father had commissioned Hamlet to an act of vengeance, how could Hamlet prove that this actually happened? It would seem more likely to the court that Hamlet had gone mad if he told them this ghost story. Most likely, Hamlet would have been locked up as a consequence.
When Hamlet first converses with the ghost, Horatio and Marcellus have their doubts, and Hamlet says: "Touching this vision here,/It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you" (Shakespeare 58). Hamlet is hard pressed to convince people that he really talked to the ghost of his father. Perhaps Hamlet is slow to act because he feels that no one will believe his motivation. However, throughout the entire drama, Hamlet never makes any references to any external difficulty. Hamlet never has any doubts about obeying the ghost (Campbell 132). Possibly Hamlet is mentally ill, but in those times, visitations from the occult world would not have been viewed as so unusual. In those days, even astrology was considered to be a science-and so, Hamlet's experience with the ghost of his father would not have been considered to be all that strange.
It is true that Hamlet faces external problems which render swift, immediate action out of the question. Claudius, as the King, was much too powerful, and only once before the concluding scene placed himself in a defenseless position. Furthermore, had Hamlet been able to go through with the ghost's injunction of immediate revenge, he would have placed himself in a particularly problematic position. The difficulty here is how could Hamlet have convinced his subjects that he justifiably had executed moral and ethical revenge? It is always easy to slay someone if you are around the person all the time. The problem with that is th
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