DRJ #1 Hamlet Act 1 In act 1 there is not too much excitement but a couple of the characters reminded meo f people I have come across in my life. I am only going to focus on the person who is currently my manager at work and a very arrogant and back stabbing individual who got to his position by doing just that. I am sure by now you have guessed it is Claudius who killed for the throne just like my dumbass boss. Hamlet, who seems to be a bit of a pushover and kind of a smart ass, however is good person at heart. He is devastated by his father’s death. He comes across the ghost who wants him to get revenge for his murder. Hamlet is young and vulnerable but at this point in the story is unsure the ghost is really a symbol of his father. Hamlet may also be unable to murder Claudius because he is not that type of person. In act 1 especially during the dialog between hamlet and the ghost Shakespeare sets a very hell like setting. The references to purgatory and hell in lines 10-15 are evidence for this setting. The ghost tells Hamlet is “confined to fast in fires till the crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away”(1-5-10-15). This setting is put in place to give the audience a feeling of the results of wrong doing in a religion. At the time the play was written people were very God fearing and the hell and damnation added fear and excitement to the play. I am wondering what Claudius means by his past sins, what did he do?