Has the Prince of Denmark gone mad? Or has he simply disguised his intensions by acting like a lunatic? In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, named Hamlet, is the main character that’s going to avenge is fallen father. Shakespeare makes the audience wonder if Hamlet is really mad or he is just presenting some excellent acting skills that make it seem as if he has really gone insane. We must consider if he has gone mad, could be due to the loss of his father and if he is just simply acting mad, could that be to confuse his enemies? And hide is intensions?
One thing is for certain and that is Hamlet cannot act on his words. He is excellent at expressing himself verbally either to others or to himself but cannot act on them which makes us wonder, is the Prince of Denmark a coward? There are many times Hamlet was able to execute his vengeance for his father. In Act 3 Scene 3, Claudius tries to ease his guilty conscience in prayer, which unfolds a splendid opportunity to avenge his father for Hamlet, however, Hamlet fails too get his vengeance for his father. Hamlet states that “A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” in Act 3 Scene 3, lines 76-78. Hamlet does not feel that this is the perfect way to avenge his father because Claudius is praying and confessing his unnatural acts, which is the perfect way to heaven if killed by Hamlet. Hamlet had the perfect opportunity to murder Claudius. Claudius was all alone, there were no other souls around to witness it, but Hamlet, the procrastinating coward he is, fails to take advantage of the situation. After he decides he will not kill the king not he says “Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep, o...
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...ng of Polonius could be argued as Hamlet really has gone mad but Hamlet in fact was simply enraged when speaking to Gertrude, who added fuel to the fire, as Hamlet is already infuriated that he did not kill Claudius yet. When Gertrude yells out for help and Polonius hears it and also calls out for help his voice is dampened because he is behind the curtain which can confuse Hamlet into thinking it might have been Claudius he stabbed. Either way the killing of Polonius makes sense because he heard everything Hamlet and Gertrude were talking about and was rather a private conversation and his secrets could be told to others. Polonius, the rat he is, would tell everyone about what he heard so Hamlet did the sane and analytical thing which does mean he is crazy. His actions were justified.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1992
In William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, there are many characters that allow themselves to be manipulated and be consumed by their own emotions. The way that this type of irrational behavior occurs is when Claudius killed Hamlet Sr, this causes a chain reaction of unfortunate events. Gertrude and Claudius plan to immediately marry after the death of the king. On going with the repercussions of the event; Hamlet is later visited by the dead spirit of his father. This happening caused Hamlet to realize that he needed to avenge his dead father by killing Claudius and rightfully taking the throne back after the ghost of his father told him to do so. Along with all the supernatural things that occur Hamlet is faced with technicalities in the Kingdom of Denmark. His love for Ophelia is rebuffed do to Polonius and Laertes insisting to her that Hamlet only wants to be with her for her only for lust. Claudius hires people to spy on Hamlet and report his every move to him. Hamlet attempts to
I thought Hamlet demonstrated his madness greatly here because it seemed like Polonius knew he was mad and just played along. Polonius didn't want Hamlet to get annoyed because Polonius disagreed with him. If Polonius didn't have any idea that Hamlet was going mad he probably would have said something about what Hamlet was talking about and would have asked him why he was acting like he was. Polonius also would have done something to change the way he had been acting or help him out.
He is mentally disturbed by the thought of his uncle killing his father to the point where he loses touch with sanity. Hamlet is a tragedy that will never have a straightforward answer as to if he faked being crazy or not. My belief is that Hamlet had in fact lost touch with reality. The slow decline of his mental health throughout lead me to believe he did go crazy, even if he might have been faking it at first. After seeing his father’s ghost, I believe he started acting like he had lost his mind to blame his future actions on the fact that he was crazy. I also believe he truly did lose his mind shortly after when he found out about Claudius murdering his
Hamlet: Hamlet's Sanity & nbsp; & nbsp; “Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do. their bounds divide.” Though John Dryden's quote was not made in regard to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, it relates very well to the argument of whether or not Hamlet went insane. When a character such as Hamlet is under scrutiny, it can sometimes be difficult to determine what state he is in at. particular moments in the play.
Riddled with ambiguity by its very nature, the text of William Shakespeare's Hamlet has been a commonly debated subject in literary circles since its first performance. The character Hamlet undergoes intense physical and emotional hardship in his quest for revenge against his despicable uncle. This hardship, some argue, leads to an emotional breakdown and, ultimately, Hamlet's insanity. While this assessment may be suitable in some cases, it falls short in others. Since Hamlet is a play, the ultimate motivation of each of the characters borrows not only from the text, but also from the motivations of the actors playing the parts. In most respects, these motivations are more apt at discerning the emotional condition of a character than their dialogue ever could. Thus, the question is derived: In Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Hamlet, does the character Hamlet suffer from insanity? Giving halt to the response, this paper will first endeavor to establish what insanity is and will then provide sufficient examples both from the text, film, and Branagh's own musings on his motivations as proof that Hamlet's character, at least in Branagh's version of the play, is not insane.
Is Hamlet truly insane? While the play is not extremely clear on the matter and often contradicts itself, many of Hamlet’s wild ramblings and words of nonsense seem to be not the true words of a madman. Hamlet says himself that he is merely “putting on an antic disposition” (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 181). He admits very early on in the play that his insanity will be nothing more than a ruse to fool those around him. This is further proven by the fact that when he is around Horatio he shows no signs of mental illness. He speaks calmly and everything he says makes sense.
Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.
Something was definitely rotten in the state of Denmark. The king was dead of a murder most foul, a betrayal from his own brother, young Hamlet was thrown out of the frying pan, which was his father's passing, and into the fire of revenge. On would think that an act of revenge such as this, retribution from an enraged son over the unjust murder of his father, would come so quickly, wildly, and brutally, driven by anger and rage. This simply was not the case in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. As the young prince Hamlet carefully thought out his plans for revenge over a rather large amount of time due to his own apparent weakness, inaction. "The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention"(Stokes 90). Hamlet was full of grand ideas and intentions on how to kill the King, but he failed to act and to carry out the deed that was his revenge, the destruction of Claudius. Why did Hamlet choose and it was his choice, not to take revenge on Claudius quickly and decisively? Hamlet had his own reasons for inaction; the strategy that he felt best suited his revenge.
Originally titled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, this tragedy has been reproduced more times than any other play written by William Shakespeare (en.wikipedia.org 1 of 9). Prince Hamlet also has the lengthiest appearance of any character in all of Shakespeare's plays (en.wikpedia.org 6 of 9). In the play, Prince Hamlet is caught between balancing his need to avenge his father's death, dealing with the disgust he felt for Gertrude and Claudius' love affair, and maintaining the relationship he has with Ophelia without exposing his plans to kill his uncle Claudius for the murder of King Hamlet.
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.
Hamlet throughout the play seems insane but in reality it is only an act to achieve his goal of killing his father's murderer. Hamlet chooses to go mad so he has an advantage over his opponent and since he is the Prince of Denmark certain behavior is unacceptable, so by faking madness he is able to get away with inappropriate sayings and actions. We can see this when he talks to Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia and his mother. When Hamlet talks to Horatio in the first act he says how he is going to "feign madness" and that:
Only a few acts later, he murders Polonius in cold blood, and has no reaction, saying ‘I took thee for thy better’ (L.34) suggesting how he mistook Polonius for the King. In contrast Hamlet spends most of the time, thinking and not acting; it could be considered strange behaviour that he should suddenly react in this way. It can be argued that these, are not the actions of a sane person, and the question of to what extent is Hamlet’s madness is feigned. The OED defines ‘Mad’ as when ones actions are ‘uncontrolled by reason or judgement; foolish, unwise’ which can be argued to encompass Hamlets behaviour, and it might be thought that from Polonius’s murder,
The tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare is about Hamlet going insane and reveals his madness through his actions and dialogue. Hamlet remains one of the most discussed literary characters of all time. This is most likely due to the complex nature of Hamlet as a character. In one scene, Hamlet appears happy, and then he is angry in another and melancholy in the next. Hamlet’s madness is a result of his father’s death which was supposedly by the hands of his uncle, Claudius. He has also discovered that this same uncle is marrying his mom. It is expected that Hamlet would be suffering from some emotional issues as result of these catastrophes. Shakespeare uses vivid language, metaphors, and imagery to highlight how Hamlet’s madness influences several important aspects of his life including his relationships and the way he presents himself.
The thought of knowing the secret of .your father’s murderer must be extremely agonizing. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, this the unfortunate tragedy the Prince of Denmark faces upon returning to his homeland. The historical play about Denmark’s royal family follows the basic outline structure known as the Freytag pyramid. Shakespeare implies the pyramid structure using the five acts, which builds the intensity of the drama before revealing the tragic plot. The play not only stresses his feelings and thoughts but also his philosophy on life after death as well. What action Hamlet doesn’t take in the beginning is as important as what he does in the end. Should this young prince eager to be the noble king some day, revenge his father’s unruly death? That is the question!
In writing Hamlet, William Shakespeare plumbed the depths of the mind of the protagonist, Prince Hamlet, to such an extent that this play can rightfully be considered a psychological drama.