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Elizabethans would cry in horror at the prospect of seeing a ghost
appear on the stage and, depending upon the religious leanings of the
audience, the reasons for that appearance would differ. The impact of
the ghost itself upon the play does not rely on endless moaning and
sighing throughout each scene. The fact that the ghost only appears in
two scenes does not lessen its importance and the imagery and language
it uses leave a lasting picture through to the end. The presentation
of the ghost is an important part of the play, as Charles Marowitz
wrote in his Collage Hamlet: 'What is frightening about a ghost is not
its unearthliness, but its earthliness: its semblance of reality
divorced from existence.' The modern audience may have the need for
more complex phantasms but the apparition on stage or screen must be
presented in a way that is convincing and not trite.

There is a certain ambiguity concerning the Ghost and his purpose.
Elizabethan audiences were moving......

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Approximate Word Count: 1893
Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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