The atmosphere of this particular scene is especially dark and foreboding. This is the scene in which Hamlet speaks, in depth, with the ghost of his father who claims he was callously murdered by his brother, the now-king Claudius, while he slept in his garden. The fact that Hamlet is speaking with the ghost of his murdered father is dark enough, but the knowledge of how vicious Hamlet's uncle (and step-father) Claudius is makes us anticipate some trouble to come between Hamlet, who's been charged by his father with avenging his death, and Claudius, who will obviously do just about anything -- however unscrupulous -- to hold on to his position and his wife. At the end of the scene, when Hamlet asks those men on the watch to swear that they will not speak a word of what they've seen, the now-unseen ghost actually booms from underneath the stage, "Swear!" Thus, he is watching and listening to everything Hamlet says and does, and this is also rather chilling.
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