Hamlet- Act 1: Scene 1- Summary X

Hamlet Act 1: Scene 1

It begins in Denmark on one of the castle towers. It is a cold night. It is the changing of the guards, Barnado is taking the place of Francisco at midnight. Barnado is shortly joined by Marcellus and Horatio. Marcellus and Barnado have asked Horatio to join them on the watch so he may also see the ghost of the dead King of Denmark that they have seen twice before. Horatio does not believe in the ghost though and he believes that they're hallucinating.
 Then at 1 am the ghost of the late King of Denmark appears and the group push Horatio to speak to it as he is well educated. The small group believe that this is a bad omen and ponder on whether young Fortinbras- son of the recently deceased Fortinbras, the late King of Norway (killed by Hamlet in the war against Denmark and Norway) is really gathering thugs from the outskirts of the country and our planning to take back the land that old Fortinbras lost. The group start to become worried that the ghost is here because he has started this war and that there is a sudden increase in the manufacturing of weaponry and that they themselves are on guard for that very reason. They think that the ghost is something to worry about and relate their situation with that of the Roman Empires when Julius Caesar was about to be assassinated and lots of bad signs appeared. 
 The ghost reappears and they try to stop it from leaving again by acting rash and when they think the ghost is about to speak a rooster crows. Horatio tries to order it to stay but the ghost retreats to whence it came. They talk about how the rooster tells when ghostly beings must return. They agree that their efforts in keeping the ghost there through force was futile and agree that they should tell Hamlet of what they have seen and that they owe it to him to tell him. They believe that the ghost will speak to Hamlet and they set off that morning to find him.