During Elizabethan times, a revenge tragedy displays a hero who is hesitant to avenge, and a villain who has to deal with punishment. The genre of revenge tragedies contain elements, such as, plotting murders, a play within a play, lust, a ghost, real or pretend madness, and the death of the hero. This is used to add artistic purpose and form to a play. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, follows the form of a revenge tragedy. This is illustrated through the elements of acting out revenge on a murderer, and thoughts of suicide. One way the form of a revenge tragedy is illustrated in Hamlet, is how the ghost appears as king Hamlet to enrage his own son, Hamlet, to seek revenge on his murderer. As Hamlet listens to what the ghost is informing him, he is in disbelief about that idea that someone is responsible for his father’s death. Hamlet: O God! Ghost: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Hamlet: Murder! Ghost: Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural. Hamlet: Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift. As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge. (1.5.24-31) The ghost of King Hamlet sets the idea of conflict into motion by demanding Hamlet to avenge his father’s murderer. This demonstrates one of the elements of a revenge tragedy, as well as introduces the idea of retributive justice for Hamlet later on. In addition, the ghost afterwards describes that the villain who is accountable for his death now wears the crown, being Hamlet’s uncle and King Hamlet’s brother. GHOST. Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown. Hamlet: O my prophetic soul! My uncle! (1.5.34-41) It reveals the truth of King Hamlet’s death and murderer, Claudius. This as well