Listening and observing come naturally to most of us. Most people don’t think well to confirm something I heard I must see it or vise versa. That is the problem characters in Hamlet run into when trying reason out the issues they have. The ear and eye motif in Hamlet by William Shakespeare make up a prominent part in the play. Hamlet suggests that the information received by the ear or eye alone can lead to unwanted outcomes (Anderson). The simultaneous use of the ear and the eye must exist for the success of reason because alone they don't provide sufficient information for Hamlet, Gertrude and the people of Denmark.
Hamlet encounters several problems when only relying on either the eye or ear alone. When he hears a noise behind a curtain in scene three he automatically assumes it is Claudius because the voice says he is going to help Gertrude. "What’s this, a rat? I’ll bet a buck he’s a dead rat now" (III.iv.24) and Hamlet stabs Polonius. Hamlet was calm and happy when he thought he killed Claudius but Gertrude discloses it is not Claudius he killed, it was Polonius. Hamlet felt great guilt after acting impulsively when hearing a voice that he assumed to be Claudius. Hamlet is so upset and then reveals to the Queen that Claudius is the one who killed his father. Claudius killed King Hamlet by pouring poison into his ear. This is very significant because King Hamlet’s actual ear was poisoned which goes alone with the notable motif.
Moreover, Hamlet is mad or so he seems to be. By looking at Hamlet and all his actions everyone is convinced he has gone mad. His mood changes a lot throughout the play, he speaks "wild and whirling words" (I.v.127-134) when he found our about his father’s death, has violet outbursts towards his mothe...
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...o Claudius and he admitted to killing King Hamlet. A brother’s murder, Claudius says, is the oldest sin and “hath the primal eldest curse upon’t” (III.iii.37). Thus, the eye and ear did not have to work simultaneously for Hamlet to prove Claudius to be guilty.
The eye and ear reference in Hamlet appears over 150 times in the play, which illustrates how important this motif is (Anderson). The eye and ear alone provide problems for Hamlet, Gertrude and the people of Denmark since they don’t get sufficient information from them. As a result, Hamlet kills Polonius and from the outside Hamlet appears to be mad. Also, Gertrude is blind to the death of King Hamlet and the people of Denmark trust their king even though they do not know a lot about him. Ultimately, using both the ear and eye for the characters in Hamlet resulted in a greater outcome than being used alone.
I think that it is very clear that Hamlet is mad. Everybody in the play, except for Horatio, believes him to be mad, and I believe he is from the beginning to the end. Throughout the play he shows signs of madness typical of an insane person. The angry flurries, the loss of reason, the hallucinations, and the incessant rambling are all substantial indications of Hamlets paranoia. His madness defines who he is during the play.
Throughout the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the unclear representation of the protagonist’s actions is present. The protagonist, Hamlet, conducts the idea that he is turning mad. Although, there are many indications which support that this so-called “madness” is part of an act that Hamlet portrays. The other characters within the play try to understand the reasoning behind Hamlet’s madness, but cannot figure out the truth behind it. The main cause of Hamlet’s madness is the realization of his father’s death and the numerous influences his father’s death has on his life. Hamlet can control his actions of madness and specifically acts differently around certain characters. The characters who are more concerned
Images of poison poured into the ear symbolize the corrosive effect of Claudius’s trickery and the sinister health of Denmark. The mounting fear of Hamlet’s insanity leads King Claudius to an ever greater anxiety and preoccupation regarding the news of Polonius’s death by the hands of Hamlet. Claudius has instructed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to ship Hamlet off to England to be put to his death because of how much fear he has with Hamlet being around the kingdom. Claudius will pursue his happiness thr...
Hamlet is depicted as insane in many scenes during the play. One instance in I, v Hamlet appears to act mad when he hears of his father’s murder. At that time he speaks "wild and whirling words." He also behaves very erratically throughout the play, especially when he is around his love, Ophelia. On one hand he professes to be the only one who truly loves her, during the fight. However when Ophelia returns his letters and gifts he tells her that he never loved her and that she should "get thy self to a nunnery." This is just one example of how his mood changes abruptly throughout the play. One shroud example of his insanity is when he is in his mothers bedroom only he can see the ghost of Old Hamlet. However in the beginning of the play everyone can see the ghost including Hortio, Barnardo, and Marcellus. He is also has many violent outbursts towards his mother. One dialogue where Hamlet admits that he is mad is when he talks to Laertes before the duel. He say!
They decided to invite some of his college friends to watch over him. The Queen offered many thanks for their decision to watch him. “For the supply and profit of our hope, / Your visitation shall receive such thanks / As fits a king’s remembrance.” (2.2.24-26). Claudius asked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to get answers out of him, making them seem more like spies than helpful friends. When Hamlet shows up to Ophelia’s house, seemingly mentally disturbed, Ophelia tells her father. Polonius decides to tell the King of Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship that he thinks that may be the source of his problems. The King and Polonius set up a meeting between the two. Seeming to know he is being watched, Hamlet acts very wildly, leading them to believe Ophelia was not the cause of his insanity. The King is not impressed at Polonius. “Love! His affections do not that way tend, / Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, / Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul” (3.1.170-72). At this point, Hamlet has started his drastic decline in his mental stability. When he is called by the Queen for a talk, he over hears something behind the draped curtains and stabs through it, killing Polonius. His reaction is not what one would expect, as he does not feel any remorse. Hamlet simply states it was for the best and his bad luck. “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. / I took thee for thy
However, Hamlet does not act hastily, his intellectual qualities are displayed when he gingerly conceives a plan to witness Claudius confessing for the death of his father. Hamlet unlike Macbeth does not allow supernatural beings to deceive him, Hamlet is not clouded by what he wants to hear, but seeks the truth. If Hamlet witnesses Claudius confessing to his guilty conscience Hamlet will not hesitate and he will assassinate whoever is responsible for the death of his father. Hamlet’s moral philosophy is gradually deteriorating, as he no longer believes that justice should be in the hand’s of god or the universe. He finds a new sense of purpose in life that he must intervene to discover the truth of his father’s death, where his mentality finds nothing left to question and evoke motivation to undertake revenge in order to restore honor and
Much of Hamlet’s plot can be traced to the effect of spoken words and Shakespeare uses imagery of ears at such definitive moments to reveal words’ effect on characters. Perhaps it is meant to comment on humanities willingness to believe anything that enters its ears, or perhaps it is just a characteristic of the people in the play. Regardless, words carry with them significant (and sometimes poisonous) consequences to the listener in Hamlet, and those with too trusting ears often find themselves deceived.
Claudius is justly punished for the murder of king Hamlet. The punishment fits the crime because his brother's son killed him. King Hamlet killed by the brother killed by the king's son. He was murdered. It was pay back, "what goes around comes around" "an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth" What these two quotes are mainly saying is that you get what you give. Claudius took his brothers life therefore his life was taken away. Not only did Claudius kill his brother to marry his wife and take over his throne, but he caused the deaths of the queen, king Hamlet, Polonius and Ophelia.
As the play progresses, the reader may start to believe Hamlet “insane” act, but throughout the scenes, Hamlet shows that he knows right from wrong, good from bad, and his friends from his enemies. Hamlet shows that he still has power and control over his actions. As Elliot says “Hamlets madness is less than madness and more feigned”. Hamlet is portraying that of a mad man, in order to be free from questioning, thus allowing him have an easier path towards revenge. You can see this when Hamlet says “ I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw” (2.2.368-369) . This is an example of the “wing and whirling words” which Hamlet uses a few times throughout the play, with which Hamlet hopes to persuade people he is crazy. These words sh...
While Hamlet may still be feeling depressed Hamlet moves into the stage of denial and isolation. Hamlet feels the effects of denial and isolation mostly due to his love, Ophelia. Both Hamlet’s grief and his task constrain him from realizing this love, but Ophelia’s own behavior clearly intensifies his frustration and anguish. By keeping the worldly and disbelieving advice of her brother and father as “watchmen” to her “heart” (I.iii.46), she denies the heart’s affection not only in Hamlet, but in herself; and both denials add immeasurably to Hamlet’s sense of loneliness and loss—and anger. Her rejection of him echoes his mother’s inconstancy and denies him the possibility even of imagining the experience of loving an...
Hamlet is without a doubt one of the most complex pieces to interpret for many different scholars and people. The question of the truth behind his madness has become a debate among anyone who lays eyes on the play. In fact, madness becomes a large role within the play that will cause many situations as well as effect them. I believe Hamlet unintentionally went mad attempting to act as a mad man.
Whenever Hamlet denies his true nature, his actions are very harsh. During a heated discussion with his mother Gertrude, he accidentally slays Laertes’ father, Polonius, thinking it to be Claudius. Hamlet quickly brushes it aside. He also sends his friends , Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to their deaths when he learns of Claudius’ plot to have him put to death when he arrived in England as a so called diplomat.
Throughout the Shakespearian play, Hamlet, the main character is given the overwhelming responsibility of avenging his father’s "foul and most unnatural murder" (I.iv.36). Such a burden can slowly drive a man off the deep end psychologically. Because of this, Hamlet’s disposition is extremely inconsistent and erratic throughout the play. At times he shows signs of uncontrollable insanity. Whenever he interacts with the characters he is wild, crazy, and plays a fool. At other times, he exemplifies intelligence and method in his madness. In instances when he is alone or with Horatio, he is civilized and sane. Hamlet goes through different stages of insanity throughout the story, but his neurotic and skeptical personality amplifies his persona of seeming insane to the other characters. Hamlet comes up with the idea to fake madness in the beginning of the play in order to confuse his enemies. However, for Hamlet to fulfill his duty of getting revenge, he must be totally sane. Hamlet’s intellectual brilliance make it seem too impossible for him to actually be mad, for to be insane means that one is irrational and without any sense. When one is irrational, one is not governed by or according to reason. So, Hamlet is only acting mad in order to plan his revenge on Claudius.
Claudius decieves everyone in different ways and at different times , always and only to protect himself from everyone else finding out that he killed the king. We can't truly say that he deceived Gertrude or not because we still don't know if she knows about Claudius killing the king or not because that is part of her own deception , but we know that he deceived the people and Hamlet himself (before he talks to the ghost). This next quote comes from the ghost of the king convicting Claudius of the murder ,"If thou didst ever thy dear father love- revenge his foul and most unnatural murder(p.57, act1,scene5 ,lines29-31). This quote proves that Claudius actually did commit the murder. This next quote is from Claudius himself after the funeral and the wedding giving a speach about the death of the king and the whole deal with Fortinbras,"To our most valiant brother-so much for him(p.21, act1 ,scene2 ,line25)." This quote shows that Claudius obviously doesn't have much remorse for his dead brother and might be covering up the fact that he killed him. And we all know what that means...What does it mean?! It means that he actually is the rat and is the evil one in the play.
In the actual play, one of the principle argument is whether Hamlet is truly mad or not. To analyze this for validity, one would have to look at the linguistics of the play and the situations that play out within it. There is concrete evidence, as well as implied detail, which leads one to believe that Hamlet is only acting as if he were mad in order to carry out his plan to avenge the death of the late King Hamlet.