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Hamlet

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 more toward Protestant beliefs that
Ghosts were angels or devils who could assume the form of a relative
or friend to cause harm. In a translation of Lavater in 1572 he
explains how the Ghost may,' Take the form of a Prophet, an Apostle,
Evangelist, Bishop, and martyr, and appear in their likeness; or so
bewitch us, that we verily suppose we hear or see them in very deed!'
Hamlet himself when faced with the Ghost for the first time asks;

'Be though a spirit of health, or a goblin damned?'(Act1, Sc.4
Line40). This indecision may have been a deliberate ploy by
Shakespeare as it has been suggested by some modern critics that he
could have been a closet Catholic, therefore his understanding of
varying religious attitudes to ghosts and spectres may have been vast.
Purgatory was the home of the Catholic spirit who returns to achieve a
purpose so he can be put to rest. The ghost's own reflections on his
sufferings confirm this;

'Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,...