Hamlet Essay- Truly Mad, for Feigned Madness ? Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, must seek revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to murder Claudius. Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes more and more believable in his act, even convincing his mother that he is crazy. However, through his thoughts, and actions, the reader can see that he is in fact putting up an act, he is simply simulating insanity to help fulfil his fathers duty of revenge.
The ghost of late King Hamlet came to Hamlet to inform him that Claudius had murdered him and demands Hamlet to execute him. Now, Hamlet is planning to avenge his deceased father by killing King Claudius, but does not know if he has committed the crime or not. Thus, having Prince Hamlet to change the scene in a play and have the actors play out late King Hamlet’s death called “The Mousetrap”. “Give me some light’ ‘Away!”(Shakespeare, pg 153, line 295). For example, this quote justifies that King Claudius had to do something with late King Hamlet’s death, because after the play Claudius cried for the lights to be turned on and then stormed out of the room.
Notably, the ghost tells Hamlet to enact his revenge in the opening scenes of the play; he seems hesitant, as if he questions death for the first time. Hamlet wants to make sure that Claudius did in fact kill his father, so he sets up a play to re-enact the crime scene and to Hamlet’s content, Claudius disp... ... middle of paper ... ...death of him. Hamlet’s obsession and numerous contemplations about death sets himself in the undesired direction of suffering with the deaths of his father, Ophelia and Polonius, all whom he believed were undeserving. His will to continuously get himself into situations that inflict a great deal of emotional stress is astonishing, and his change in attitude about his indecisiveness about murder is not beneficial, rather it kills him in the end. Having a healthy fear of death is normal --one must realize death is unavoidable, while constant thought about death creates unhealthy anxiety.
The witches Prophecy upon Macbeth cause him to feel restless and have thoughts about if it is destined for him to become king. Macbeth ends up going through with the murder of Duncan. After the murder takes place, Macbeth’s morals and his judgement begin to become opaque. Guilt commences Macbeth an... ... middle of paper ... ...itant about making the prophecy of killing Duncan a reality until, Lady Macbeth makes him feel un masqulin. Macbeth now convinced that he must prove his manliness by becoming king and he must make this happen by murdering Duncan.
In Hamlet’s search for the truth, he makes the fatal error of stabbing Polonius, the King’s advisor. Polonius’ death causes his daughter, who is Hamlet’s former lover, to go insane. Polonius’ son, Laertes, decides to take revenge upon Hamlet for his father, and Claudius sees an opportunity to get rid of his nephew. He sets up a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, then poisons Hamlet’s drink and Laertes’ rapier. Hamlet needs verification of his uncle’s murder of the former king before he can take revenge upon him, as he has a fear of the metaphysical consequences of murdering a man who has done nothing wrong.
Macbeth is at first a man with a clear conscience until he is corrupted by his wife. Lady Macbeth is hungry for power so she presses Macbeth to kill Duncan as quickly as possible. The visions Macbeth sees before entering Duncan's chamber dwell entirely on the circumstances of horror and fear. Macbeth knows concisously that killing Duncan is wrong. Yet he also knows that to be king he has to kill Duncan.
To continue on this path of destruction Macbeth, acts on impulse and has his friend Banquo killed, because he is afraid that he killed Duncan for someone else’s fortune. Throughout the play Macbeth’s degeneration continues until the tragic ending when the country turns against him and seizes his castle. Macbeth’s demise can be attributed to his abandoning his belief in fate for a need to prove his masculinity. Macbeth’s doubt in fate is not realized until later in the play. When he first meets the “weird sisters” they make prophecies that he finds impossible to be true.
Some might argue that Macbeth was a victim of fate and circumstance, but it was of his own free will that he decided to murder King Duncan, and go on a reign of terror as King. Shakespeare’s Macbeth establishes that one’s free will can impact their decision-making abilities, ambition and paranoia. Free will is a concept that not everyone accepts, but something that Macbeth takes head on. One’s decision-making abilities are severely impacted by the concept of free will. Macbeth’s free will leading up to and following his murder of King Duncan causes him to make extremely rash d... ... middle of paper ... ...his wife caused Macbeth to kill the King, kill his best friend Banquo, and kill his counterpart Macduff’s family.
When Lady Macbeth finds out about the witches prophecies, she sees that her husband could be king if he kills Duncan. Once Macbeth finds out that the king wants to come to his house to eat and visit, he thinks he should somehow go about getting rid of Duncan. Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth is weak hearted and contains too much of "the... ... middle of paper ... ... murder until he went crazy about thinking of killing Duncan that he tries to kill everyone else to get rid of whoever might stand in his way to be the next king. Macbeth becomes so greedy about becoming king that he and his wife did evil deeds to stop another from being in front of Macbeth. The guilty consciousness along with insanity and greed killed not only Macbeth's character and soul, but his wife's too.
When Hamlet finds out that his uncle murdered his father, who stole his wife and his crown, he has an instant urge to get revenge for the murderer who committed this foul act; “ Haste me to know’t, that meditation or the thoughts of love/ may sweep to my revenge” (1.5.30-32). This justified Hamlet’s feelings. One would agree that his revenge is morally right, although murder is wrong. The seriousness of Claudius’ crime grows when one contemplates that all deaths throughout the play would not have happened if Claudius did not kill his brother. Although the act of murdering someone is wrong; the seriousness of Claudius crime grows when one contemplates that all the deaths would not have happened if Claudius did not kill the king.