Ghosts and Memory

Searching through the modules list of my prospective university next year- Exeter- I came across a class titled "Ghosts, Death and Memory in Renaissance Drama". In a stroke of kismet, I'm also studying Hamlet currently, no doubt a play that would come up EXTENSIVLY in a class of that description.

There are a couple basic theories on ghosts- all of which appear in one for or another in Hamlet.

1. Ghosts are the spirits of dead people trying to communicate with the living, i.e. Hamlet calling for Hamlet to kill Claudius

2. Ghosts are demons sent to trick people, i.e. the guards' belief

3. Ghosts are illusions or hallucinations, i.e. Queen Gertrude's belief

--------------------OR---------------------------

4. Ghosts are the trapped energy of former occupants and operate as a kind of full motion memory- a camcorder version of events on a loop. This appears mostly as the effect that the ghost has on Hamlet. He must avenge his father, he must secure the kingdom against the usurper Claudius, but most of all, says the ghost, "Remember me."

Most interstingly of all, ghosts act like a kind of mnemonic device. An event with a ghost attached will be remembered long after the story's sordid history would otherwise be forgotten. So if you ever see a ghost, and I can't say that I have, try to remember whatever it is your supposed to remember :)