2006/01/01 by Jacqueline Simpson · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
paper · doi:10.1179/flk.2006.45.1.70
openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
‘Death’ said Hamlet, is ‘that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns’ — which was a rather curious thing for him to say, considering that only a day or two previously he had encountered one such returning traveller, the ghost of his own father. Perhaps at that particular moment his changeable mind had swung round to the Protestant opinion that human souls cannot recross the boundary of death, and therefore so-called ‘ghosts’ must be devils in disguise. This idea is expressed more than once in the play, though not nearly so often or so forcefully as the alternative view that the apparition truly is Hamlet's Father's ghost, seeking vengeance.