Discuss knowledge and uncertainty in 'Hamlet'

The most obvious ‘uncertainty’ facing both Hamlet and the audience, is if the Ghost’s words are true. ‘The Ghost poses a great deal of uncertainty’, demanding Hamlet to ‘revenge his most foul unnatural murder.’ Hamlet’s issue is that he cannot act on such a request without proof, or risk damnation for murdering a king. The Ghost uses evocative language to provoke Hamlet, as demonstrated by Shakespeare’s deliberate break in the iambic pentameter, ‘O God!’ The spondaic stress emphasises the revelation, and initiates Hamlet’s internal conflict. The root of this is that ‘the play is filled with the unreliability of words’; indeed, Shakespeare depicts Hamlet as conscious of such an issue through his dismissal of Polonius, claiming to be reading ‘words, words, words.’ The subtle implication is that Polonius, being synonymous with the court, is too diplomatic; the old-world order of Old Hamlet, the brave warrior, has been replaced by a new bureaucratic system. In this regard, Shakespeare associates ‘words…with mere appearance’ – an integral pretence for understanding Hamlet’s procrastination.