Hamlet, like all of Shakespeare’s plays, presents an array of debatable issues. One such issue in this particular play is whether or not Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is mad or not. Like so many other arguments of Shakespearean literature there is no simple or obvious answer. I think that there is evidence in the play supports Hamlet being both a madman and a completely sane man. In my first reading of Hamlet I was convinced that he was completely mad immediately following his encounter with the ghost. However, as I read it through again, looking for evidence he was mad I started to see that he might not be mad, but acting mad. I will show how one can derive from the text that Hamlet is mad and how one can better yet come to see Hamlet as merely acing mad.
Hamlet’s behavior throughout the play is the major focal point for the argument of his madness. Throughout the play, following his encounter with his fathers ghost, the things he does and the way he talks become volatile and erratic. It is mentioned that he walks around the lobby for hours by himself. In one scene he tells Ophelia, “I did love you once.” (III,i.114). Then a few lines later he tells her, “I lov’d you not.” (III.i.119).
In the scene where Hamlet is having an angry conversation with his mother he appears more mad than in any other part of the play. His mother being so frightened of his behavior cries for help and Polonius, hiding behind the curtain, yells for help too and is consequently stabbed by Hamlet who thinks it is the King behind the curtain. Throughout this whole scene Hamlet seems mad: the rage he expresses towards his mother, he killed Polonius in a “fit of madness”, and also when the ghost appears to him. In all of the other instances, everyone was able to see the ghost; but in this scene the ghost can only be seen by Hamlet. When Hamlet starts speaking to the ghost even his mother thinks that he is mad.
“Queen. To whom do speak this?
Ham. Do you see nothing nothing there?
Queen. Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.”
(III.iv.131-133)
“Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain,” (III.iv.138)
When the queen tells Claudius of this event she says that Hamlet was, “Mad as the sea and wind…”(IV.
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...
William Shakespeare was a Stratford Grammar School boy, who was a member of the Church of England, similar to just about everyone else in Stratford. However, due to some events that occurred in the Shakespeare family home, there is some evidence that could prove that the family may have had some Roman Catholic connections. When William Shakespeare was 10 years old, legal issues and debt took a toll on his family’s life. Shakespeare’s father’s stopped attending alderman meetings which resulted in the removal of his name to become an alderman, and he was also forced to sell his beautiful home. The cause of this crisis is unknown, however the records can be used to throw together the idea that there were peculiar religious events going on (Fox). Due to these mishaps, William Shakespeare’s religion is a bit of a mystery. The play, Hamlet, was written by William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, which happened to be a time when religious conflicts were a big deal (Alsaif). The protagonist in the story, Hamlet, is a character who seems to make his choices through his religious beliefs. Hamlet is a very indecisive person, but his thoughts on religion tend to persuade him. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the character of Hamlet to show the flaws in all religions. Hamlet does his best to follow the rules of Christianity, but he often questions the morality involved. Although Shakespeare belonged to the Church of England, he didn’t find any particular religion to be perfect.
After the initial visitation of the ghost, hamlet begins to obsess about killing Claudius as part of a new plan to rid the royal court of his father’s murder. More so, he begins to despise his mother for marrying Claudius right after her husband’s death. Hamlet begins to hate his mother just as much as Claudius, which defines the expanded psychosis of the ghost’s message as part of a long term delusional state. This is one aspect of Hamlet’s deteriorating madness that dictates the paranoia that drives him to kill Claudius and shame his mother into
After his meeting with the ghost, Hamlet becomes obsessed with death. It is obvious that Hamlet is wrestling with the idea of whether or not he can commit the act. At this point he is capable of reasoning, but prior to this he was wily enough to invent his false madness. He has not lost his ability to discriminate right from wrong; therefore, he is not mad. To be mad a person loses total reasoning. Still he is determined to discover whether or not Claudius did really murder his father. So, Hamlet organizes a play that reveals the truth about his father’s death. This play serves as a strategy to force Claudi...
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.
Logan Gaertner Mrs. Amon English IV 1 March 2014 Is Hamlet’s Insanity Real? 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 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.
We have been allowing cell phones to impact our lives in negative ways. Our everyday life changes every day because of these cell phones and how we use them. I have noticed in everyone’s life, including mine, that it is hindering us socially and physically. My biggest concern is the negative impact it is having on our education and students allowing them to get in the way of their education. We need to get a hold on these cell phones before it gets any more out of hand, but I think it is too
Through intelligence sources the Bush Administration learned that the North Koreans had secretly obtained twenty centrifuges for the enrichment of Uranium from Pakistan. These centrifuges are an integral part of the process to manufacture weapons grade Uranium. This alone shows that the North Koreans where seeking a means to create Weapons of Mass Destruction and were not acting in good faith of the Disarmament Agreement. The North Korean leaders were more focused on obtaining the power of nuclear weapons, than the procurement of food and fuel for their citizenry. Another piece of information that the article leads us to believe is necessary would be how far the process had gone. At the time of the Administration’s decision North Korea’s Uranium enrichment was in its infancy, however, intelligence sources estimated that it would only take until mid-decade to complete the required facilities. Another piece of information that I have chosen to research is the actual substance that the North Korean leaders were trying to obtain. In comparison to Plutonium, Highly Enriched Uranium is the easiest substance, and least volatile weapons grade fissile material, that is capable of being used to make nuclear weapon, being the only material that can be employed in a “gun type” weapon. This design
Considered to be one of the most famous playwrights written in the history of English literature, Hamlet is no doubt a complex play and far from being easy to decipher. The protagonist finds himself entangled within a slew of different predicaments ranging from love, incest, death, murder, and even touches upon the spiritual world when his father’s apparition presents himself with the task of avenging his death. How he goes about handling all of these difficulties has been a debate for decades and continues to baffle even the greatest minds today. However, in order for Hamlet to uncover the truth and fulfill the task he is given, he must put on an act of madness in which the other characters mistake him to have truly lost his mind. While he
Hamlet's public persona is a facade he has created to carry out his ulterior motives. The outside world's perception of him as being mad is of his own design. Hamlet is deciding what he wants others to think about him. Polonius, a close confidant of the King, is the leading person responsible for the public's knowledge of Hamlet's madness. The idea that Hamlet is mad centers around the fact that he talks to the ghost of his dead father. He communicates with his dead father's ghost twice, in the presence of his friends and again in the presence of his mother. By being in public when talking to the ghost, the rumor of his madness is given substance.
In Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark the main character Hamlet goes through a series of very unfortunate events throughout his life, and mostly negative things come out of them. During the beginning of the play we find out that Hamlet loses his father the King of Denmark. This causes a great depression to Hamlet. Soon after Hamlet becomes even more upset due to the fact that he finds out that his uncle Claudius will be marrying his mother Gertrude and be the new King of Denmark. This causes Hamlet to go crazy, insane, and mad. Over the course of the play Hamlets madness continues to build due to everything that happens between the beginning and the end. At the end Hamlet has gone completely and incredibly mad. This madness ends up breaking out of him and spread throughout the ending scene of the play.
After attaining knowledge about the perspective, and reading Hamlet of course, one can begin to make important connections using details from the play. In the actual play, one of the principle arguments 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. One of the first examples of this evidence shows itself when Hamlet warns Horatio of what he’s planning, and in effect, not to blow his cover.
Throughout the play, there were certain cases that crafted the idea that Hamlet may have been mad. When he killed Polonius, Hamlet says "How now! a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!" (III.IV). At this point it becomes really hard to tell if Hamlet is really insane because he kills without examining who was hiding behind the curtains, but only assumed that it was Claudius. Furthermore when he says "Dead for a ducat" he is betting that the person he attacked was dead and people that are sane don't bet on others life. Another instance where Hamlet may have been mad was when he followed the ghost, but his friends try to stop him but he responds with "Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen-- Heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me! I say, away" (I.IV). Hamlet decides to follow the ghost without a second thought if the ghost may be a devil or may bring him harm. The way Hamlet responds to the situation, rash and without a thought, are the similar characteristics of a mad man. At this point his madness appears very real but it could all be part of his plan to avenge his father's death by making people really believe his was insane making it less obvious of his real inte...
In act 3 scene 4 Hamlet sees his father’s ghost in his mother 's bedroom after just having murdered Polonius. Gertrude however cannot see the ghost when Hamlet tries to point it out, and she takes this as proof of Hamlet’s madness “This is the very coinage of your brain…” (3.4.135-139). However this is debatable proof, as some of the soldiers, and Horatio had seen the ghost before that point. He then drags out Polonius’s body to hide it, and the castle guards are sent to look for him. He continues to act mad during this time, furthering the belief that he really was mad (4.3.18-25). In response to this event Claudius sends Hamlet to England to be killed. Hamlet however escapes this fate, and heads back to his homeland. During the time he was away Ophelia had gone mad and had committed suicide, and Laertes had come back and swore revenge on Hamlet for what he had done to his family. This is when Hamlet’s madness appears to fade a little bit. Hamlet is shown talking normally to Horatio throughout the last section of the play, and once he finds out about Ophelia’s death he seemingly snaps back to reality, revealing he did care about her. This act of sadness was one of the few times Hamlet broke his madness facade. He gets into a fight with Laertes, and they eventually decide to settle the feud properly with a
People are so addicted to their phones and are used to having them every minute of every day they feel them vibrate when they are on silent or not even in their pocket. Important to realize, withdrawal, restlessness, anxiety, and depression can be associated with losing a cell phone or trying to reduce cell phone use. This is because they are addictive. In fact, some people even consider the cellular phone “the newest cigarette.” Of course, some people are so enthralled with their phones they do not even realize what is going on around them. Additionally, cell phone addiction can lead to financial issues (due to outrageous cell phone bills), poor social skills, relationship troubles, car accidents, academic difficulties, job loss (texting at work), low self-esteem, and feeling lost or anxious if their phone is lost or forgotten. Mobile phone addiction has many bad effects on human life. Of course, people check their phones out of habit and compulsion, habitually checking can make interacting with people impossible. Likewise, being addicted to cell phones can be potentially hazardous; it can strain the user’s eyes, lead to high levels of stress, and eventually lead to cancer. Granted, those who are addicted to their cell phones need to get a hobby and try to beat their addiction