“I Am Thy Father’s Spirit”: The First-Person Pronoun and the Rhetoric of Identity in Hamlet

The discourse pronouns thou and you have been much discussed and analysed in literature of earlier periods in English, especially in the genres of poetry and drama. However, there has been very little stylistic interest in the first-person pronoun, although its rhetorical function is well known in poetry and children’s fiction. In this chapter, I focus on Shakespeare’s Hamlet , and within that play specifically on the scenes in Act 1 between Hamlet and the Ghost. I argue that Shakespeare’s use highlights the play’s theme of claims to identity and manipulates contemporary schemas of ghost discourse and ontology, as well as acting as a means of plot suspense. As a result, conventional views of the pronoun I in general and its semiotic functions can be re-assessed.