SOURCE: Hallett, Charles A. “Andrea, Andrugio, and King Hamlet: The Ghost as Spirit of Revenge.” Philological Quarterly 56, No. 1 (Winter 1977): 43-64.

In the essay below, Hallett examines the significance of the ghosts in The Spanish Tragedy, Antonio's Revenge, and Hamlet, arguing that, more than just a stage device, the apparition represents “the embodiment of the impulse for revenge, [and its demands are unambiguous, immoderate, and recognize no authority but its own.”]

The dramatists who wrote revenge tragedy recognized what others of their contemporaries understood, that the passion of revenge had a definite course and a predictable end. They believed, like La Primaudaye, that

When the heart is wounded with griefe by any one, it desireth to returne the like to him that hath hurt it, and to rebite him of whome it is bitten. This affection is a desire of revenge. … And when power to reuenge is wanting, there...