There are several explicit messages. First the ghost
tells Hamlet that he is "thy father's spirit." That may not seem like a big deal, but
Hamlet and the other men are very scared of this ghost that is coming to talk to
Hamlet. He can be somewhat assured that the ghost is the ghost of his father, and not
some aberration. The next message is that the ghost is stuck in purgatory. This is
important later when Hamlet doesn't kill Claudius in the act of prayer for fear that
Claudius would not go to a fate as bad or worse than what his father suffers in now.
The most important explicit message is how Claudius poisoned King Hamlet and the King's
request of Hamlet to seek revenge. He also explicitly says to not punish Gertrude for
her marriage to Claudius.
The implicit message is that
Hamlet must do as his father as requested. He must keep all this secret and take action
against the corruption of the Danish throne.
We immediately
feel more sorry for Hamlet because this seems like a huge task, and we, like Hamlet, are
not 100 percent sure we should trust this ghost in the first place. We do want to
believe the ghost, and having King Hamlet come back from the dead to tell the horrible
details of death makes his murder all the more
poignant.
Hamlet quickly moves from being a witty yet very
melancholy character to what seems to be a man with a mission. He speaks with great
energy and drive when he says that he will wipe all other thoughts from his brain, "and
thy commandment all alone shall live / Within the book and volume of my brain."
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