The friendship between Hamlet and Horatio is important to the play, as it is this relationship that gives the audience an insight into Hamlet's character through the entire play. Shakespeare uses this friendship between Hamlet and Horatio as device to let the audience see that Hamlet in reality was a good person. When Hamlet talks to Horatio there usually is a momentary glimpse of the young Hamlet prior to his father's death. In this way the vast difference of their own characters is shown as well. Like when the ghost appeared, armed, at the start of the play, the guard Marcellus said that Horatio should be the one to speak to it as, "[Horatio] art a scholar." Although he was brave, in a calm and measured tone Horatio replied that he was filled with "fear and...