How does Hamlet decide to catch the conscience of the king In Shakespeare s - Hamlet Hamlet wants to take revenge on Claudius the current king for killing his father But first Hamlet wants to be sure that Claudius is the murderer So to catch the king s conscience Hamlet stages a play that will re-create the murder scene Hamlet s Doubt and the Idea of the Play After meeting the ghost of his dead father Prince Hamlet learns that his uncle Claudius killed the old king by pouring poison into his ear The ghost asks Hamlet to take revenge But Hamlet is unsure if the ghost is truly his father or an evil spirit trying to mislead him He thinks The spirit that I have seen may be a devil This doubt stops him from acting Soon a group of actors visits Elsinore Seeing them Hamlet gets a clever