Saturday, December 3, 2011

Fear of Being Fearful



Ghosts are like trials: they are innocent until proven guilty. And, once proven “guilty”, there is no going back. They are non-existent (innocent) until seen with one’s own eyes (guilty). Once they are seen, they cannot be unseen.

People have a tendency to pretend and even convince themselves to not believe in superstition. They are afraid that ghosts might actually exist. But, Hamlet views this aspect in a very different angle. When he sees the ghost of his dead father, he doesn't show any fear. At least, not the one that most people would feel. Instead of avoiding it and running away for sweet life, he runs towards it and starts to have a dialogue with it. It asks him to avenge his father's death by killing the murder, his uncle. Acting like the spirit's sycophant, Hamlet obsequiously tries to obey its orders. We can clearly see some kind of fear towards the spirit through his actions, but it's not because of the fear of death like normal people. He acts pretty normal about the existence of the ghost. In fact, he wants to voluntarily kill himself to have "freedom from the world" according to Northrop Frye. Frye believes that this strange fear for the ghost that Hamlet develops is actually "the fear that he might become just another such ghost." He's not afraid of the actual ghost, but of the possibility of becoming one once he is dead.

Whether you're Hamlet or an ordinary person portrayed in a typical Hollywood horror/ghost movie, the only conclusion I can come up with is that the appearances of ghosts, or any other supernatural event, will one way or another make you crazy and insane.

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