Ghost in Hamlet with Richard the Third

In chapter 4 of Great Expectations, Pip compares the social gathering around him in the Christmas dinner with Ghosts in two Shakesperean plays: Hamlet and Richard the Third. 

The reference works on.two levels:

• In Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet's father appears to Hamlet and reveals the truth of his murder. 

• in Richard the Third, Richard is visited by ghosts of people he has murdered before the battle of Bosworth.  They appear as super natural figures accusing and condemning him.

Through Pip's narrative of Christmas gathering Dickens humourously invokes the dramatic scenes in the plays of Shakespeare. The narrative is retrospective.