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The American Heritage Dictionary, published in 1973, defines a ghost as, "the spirit or shade of a dead person, supposed to haunt living persons or former habitats." Unfortunately, this simple definition does not explain where a ghost comes fr ....

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... to the modern definition, the Elizabethans believed in the possibility of the ghost being an actual dead person sent to perform some task or mission. On the other hand, the ghost could be the devil disguised in the form of a deceased loved one, tempting to procure the soul of one of the living. The nonbelievers among the Elizabethans saw ghosts as omens, telling of troubled time ahead, or simply as the hallucinations of a crazed person or group. Shakespeare recognized the complexity of the Elizabethan ghost's identity and played off of the confusion, making the question of identity a key theme to his play. Throughout Hamlet Shakespeare ex ...