In Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, the protagonist is consistently portrayed as a melancholy character. This quality is evident throughout the play and will be the subject of this essay. In the general introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare, Harry Levin explains how the playwright uses imagery to further emphasize the melancholy nature of the hero. The paragraph is well written and contains no writing problems. No editing is necessary because this sentence contains a quote. The story opens on a cold, dark winter night in Denmark, as the guard changes on the ramparts of the royal castle of Elsinore. For two consecutive nights, at exactly one o'clock, a ghost appeared on the ramparts. The figure is dressed in full armor and has a face that resembles that of the late king of Denmark, Hamlet's father (35). Horatio and Marcellus leave the ghostly walls of Elsinore with the intention of asking Hamlet for help. The prince is discouraged by his mother's "hasty marriage" to his uncle, which occurred less than two months after the funeral of Hamlet's father. At a social court reception, Hamlet is present, dressed in black, the color of mourning for his deceased father. In his first soliloquy, he expresses his melancholy and underlines the fragility of women, an obvious reference to the hasty and incestuous marriage of his mother with her husband's brother. "Should I remember that? Well, she would cling to him, as if her appetite had increased from what he fed on. And yet, after a month, don't let me think about it, Fragility, your name is woman!"...... middle of paper ......Ed. Leonard F. Dean. New York: University of Oxford P., 1967. Rosenberg, Marvin. “Laertes: an impulsive but serious young aristocrat.” Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992. Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line number.