In the play “Hamlet” written by William Shakespeare is one of human culture’s renowned pieces of literature ever written. It was printed in 1604 shaped by the backdrop of the author’s own culture of 17th century England. Of significance in the play’s geographic subject matter are the 17th century guards on watch at a Denmark Castle, the apparition of a ghost, and the ensuing discussion about the ghost becoming a mirror image of the various prevailing sociological and religious changes that Europe was experiencing as a result of the rise of Protestantism and the waning of Catholicism’s prominence as the dominant view. In this essay I will write about my understanding of Hamlet and Shakespeare’s attempt to demonstrate his astute use of religious metaphor and religious views of the time, both Catholic and Protestant, in his quest to remain true to his formation as a Catholic (although he is later to publicly become Protestant with all the rest of Protestant England) without offending the Virgin Queen of England who was Protestant. It is my view that the discussion that Shakespeare creates about the King’s ghost (Hamlet’s father) is a literary key or mechanism that Shakespeare uses to place at the center of his play the very real transformation of religious views that were in contest throughout Europe as Catholicism was being challenged by Protestantism and Protestantism becoming in fact as the national religion of England. The ghost in “Hamlet” is the starting and focal point in which religion arises in the play. Shakespeare uses four witnesses that encountered the ghost to reflect the different views of the people that would be seeing the play in contemporary 17th century England. The four witnesses were Bernardo, Marcellus, Horatio, and Hamlet. Each of these witnesses typified a particular view which J. Dover Wilson describes as “three schools of thought” in “What Happens In Hamlet” in chapter three of “Ghost Or Devil” (p.61-64). Wilson also uses the four witnesses to show their connection with the three schools of thought. The three schools of thought were Catholicism, Protestantism, and Skepticism. The views of these witnesses were reflected in the various degrees of belief or disbelief in the existence of purgatory, the place from which the ghost originated prior to its apparition. The three schools of thought are personified in the four witnesses. As a pair, Barnardo and Marcellus personify the first school of thought pertaining to Catholicism. Or as Wilson noted, Barnardo and Marcellus “would typify the ghost-lore of the average unthinking Elizabethan” who believed in Purgatory (p.66). According to Wilson Catholics believe that “ghosts might be spirits of the departed allowed to return from Purgatory” (p. 61-62). Unlike the Catholic view, Horatio personifies the school of Skepticism. Shakespeare draws his creation of the skeptic Horatio from a source written by Reginald Scott who is Christian and a skeptic (p.63). According to Wilson the skeptic believes that ghosts can exist but “contests the possibility of their assuming material form” (p. 64). Protestantism is the last school of thought which Horatio and Hamlet share, although Hamlet is not so much a skeptic as Horatio. Protestants, like Catholics, are Christians. However, Protestants do not believe in Purgatory. Wilson notes that Hamlet is not to be considered a “disciple of Scott” (p. 71). Wilson maintains that Hamlet believes the ghost is real, however questions where the ghost comes from, “Is it his father’s spirit indeed, or a devil, or even possibly an angel?” (p. 71). The three witnesses are debating the views regarding the existence of ghosts, the afterlife, and purgatory that apparently Shakespeare was all too familiar with as religious beliefs during the reformation of England. His thoughts were bold, creative and challenging. Shakespeare presented his ideas with a façade of Protestantism yet with Catholic undertones. It goes to reason that he wrote in such a way as to avoid persecution from the Church of England which was now ruled by the Protestant Queen. Edward T. Oakes in a journal called “Hamlet and the Reformation” suppo