Hamlet Notes | Act 1, Scene 1

The play opens in Denmark as midnight strikes at Elsinore Castle. Horatio, a scholar, and Marcellus, a sentinel, join Barnardo's nighttime watch. From their guard-post, Marcellus and Barnardo have twice witnessed a mysterious phantom roaming the royal lands. Marcellus anxiously asks Barnardo whether or not "'the dreaded sight twice seen of us....'" Act 1, Scene 1, line 23 has again appeared tonight. A skeptical student, Horatio was invited to the watch for two reasons: to verify the guards' ghost story; and to speak with the apparition if it should appear for a third time.

Soon dispelling Horatio's doubts, the dread ghost enters in complete armor. The warlike ghost wears its beaver raised and bears a truncheon in its fist. Fear struck, Horatio, Marcellus and Barnardo realize that the armored spook closely resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet. Horatio speaks to the spirit, but the ghost stalks away in silence.

Troubled by the raised spirit of King Hamlet, Horatio warns the guards that "'This bodes some strange eruption to our state.'" Act 1, Scene 1, line 68 The present commotion, Horatio reasons, must be the result of recent quarrels with young Fortinbras of Norway. In the past, King Fortinbras challenged King Hamlet to a battle over disputed territory. The two monarchs mutually agreed that the loser's land would be forfeited to the winner. Hamlet slew Fortinbras and accordingly acquired Fortinbras' lands. Young Fortinbras, intent on recovering his father's lost land, has since gathered a rabble of fighters to challenge Denmark. Barnardo agrees that Fortinbras' impending assault must be the cause of the current disturbance. As evidence, he points out that the ghost wears the very armor which King Hamlet wore to defeat old Fortinbras.

The ghost suddenly reappears with spread arms. Horatio pleads with it to speak while the guards attempt to halt it with useless blows. When the crowing rooster signals the coming of morning, the armored spirit quickly retreats. Horatio suspects that the phantom king will break its silence only to young Hamlet. He quickly resolves to tell Prince Hamlet of his father's wandering ghost.