Intro
We won't rehash the plot of this analyzed-to-death tragedy, except to say that its plot isn't what's most important to deconstructionists. Yes, Derrida does make a big deal out of the appearances of the Ghost in Specters of Marx. He makes an even bigger deal, though, of one key sentence of Hamlet's. Read on for more, intrepid Shmoopers.
Quote
The time is out of joint.
Analysis
Unlike Hamlet himself, Derrida doesn't think it's a bad thing that the "time is out of joint." In fact, he thinks that the time is always out of joint. Stuff is always kind of wacky and difficult and all mixed up, you hear?
And Derrideans believe there's something crucial about the acknowledgment that the present contains many pasts—many Ghosts.
This may sound oddly occult for critical theory. And it is. We guess. But Derrida launches a whole set of ethical reflections on the basis of this one, deceptively simple line. Not all things "out of joint," JD says, need to be set right.
It's good to embrace how the past and the future live in the present. All that wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff. You get the picture.