The Supernatural in Hamlet Although Shakespeare cannot claim the invention of ghosts in tragedies, he can nevertheless claim to have dressed his ghost in Hamlet convincingly. This essay is about the only supernatural character in the tragedy. Regarding the supernatural in Hamlet, Cumberland Clark says in “The Supernatural in Hamlet”: At least six or seven years passed after the writing of A Midsummer Night's Dream before we found Shakespeare engaged in Hamlet, the second of the great plays with an important supernatural element and, according to many, the greatest tragedy ever written. What a profound change has taken place in his attitude towards the Invisible! He doesn't care about it anymore. . . [a] cheerful, joking, irresponsible spirit. . . Shakespeare's attitude towards the Supernatural coincides, as might be expected, with his general outlook on life. Now he's not in the mood to deal with those empty, frivolous, meaningless little fairies. The form of the Supernatural, which it adopts in this phase, is the disturbing, horrible, terrifying ghost [. . .]. (99) Maynard Mack in “Hamlet's World” clarifies to the reader how the Ghost introduces the problem of appearance versus reality: The play begins with an apparition, an “apparition”, to use Marcellus' term – the ghost. And the ghost is in some way real, or rather a vehicle of realities. Through his revelation, the glittering surface of Claudius' court is pierced, and Hamlet learns, and we know, that the king is not only hateful to him but also the murderer of his father, that his mother is guilty of adultery as well as adultery. incest. Yet there is a dilemma in the revelation. Because perhaps the apparition is an apparition, a devil who has taken over h...... middle of paper ......enhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from Hamlet's Masks. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.htmlWard & Trent, et al. The Cambridge history of English and American literature. New York: Sons of G. P. Putnam, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.htmlWest, Rebecca. “A Court and a world infected by the disease of corruption”. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957. Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt. “Shakespeare”. Literature of the Western world. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.