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Recommended: Madness in hamlet
Hamlet is one of the most iconic plays that has been studied in depth for over 400 years. With themes of tragedy, love, revenge, family and many more, the play causes a reader to ask questions that can be only answered by Shakespeare. One of these questions is whether Hamlet is truly sane or not throughout the play. Hamlets acting as a different personality over a lengthy period of time eventually leads to his unstable state of mind. Through the progress of the play, his decision-making skills are terribly affected resulting is consequences on himself and others, proving that he is a mad man.
Hamlets reason for madness is difficult to determine for it is concealed in his mind, developing gradually over time. His first insane decision was choosing to act mad when the ghost had told him that his father was murdered by his uncle, Claudius. The plan to act worked well for him until he slowly began to fall deep into a dark tunnel within his mind eventually losing control. From simply being an act of insanity, Hamlets actions became less of an act and he began to face the consequences in reality leading to the final Act V tragedy.
Even before Hamlet had his encounter with the ghost, he was already set in an angry mood from the death of his father. He stated his grief to his mother about the death of Old Hamlet; “But I have that within which passeth show, these but the trappings and the suits of woe,” (Act I.2 – 85). Hamlet explained that he had more grief inside himself that people would not able to see on the surface and that the black clothes he wore were just a hint of the sorrow he suffered. In addition to that, the quick marriage of his mother to his uncle worsened Hamlets state of mind. The incestuous news w...
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...d, not acting mad, his mind was capable to do anything he wished.
Overall, Hamlet should have chosen a different path that would not have disturb his loving character. If he had done so, he would have avoided the death of his mother and his love, Ophelia. He would have most likely lived himself and he would have been able to make better choices such as to seek help. However, at the end of the day, Hamlet deciding to “put an antic disposition on” (Act I.5 – 171) results in him becoming truly insane.
Works Cited
1. Cliffsnotes, "Hamlet Character Analysis." Accessed May 4, 2014. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/h/hamlet/character-analysis/hamlet.
2. Michalko , Michael. The Creativity Post, "You Become What You Pretend to Be." Last modified Jan 10, 2012. Accessed May 4, 2014. http://www.creativitypost.com/create/you_become_what_you_pretend_to_be.
As Hamlet transforms from a motivated intellectual to an obsessed griever, Shakespeare evaluates the fluidity of sanity.The juxtaposition of Hamlet’s desire to act and inability to do so unveils Hamlet’s inner turmoil, for as Hamlet disconnects from family, distrusts his environment, and forms an obsession with perfection, the audience realizes his fatal flaw and watches him tumble into the grasps of insanity. This degeneration forces the audience to consider how equilibrium between thought and action influences the conservation of sanity, not only for Hamlet, but also for all of humanity.
Hamlet's sanity can be recognized when mourning for his dead father at the beginning of the play. Including the fact his mother married her dead husbands brother, Hamlets uncle, builds Hamlet sickness. Shakespeare’s purpose in this scene is to utilize Hamlet.
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.
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. Throughout the play, Hamlet shows that he understands real from fake, right from wrong and his enemies from his friends. Even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what if going on around him. Most importantly, Hamlet does not think like that of a person who is mad. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to seek revenge for his fathers murder.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet the king of Denmark is murdered by his brother, Claudius, and as a ghost tells his son, Hamlet the prince of Denmark, to avenge him by killing his brother. The price Hamlet does agree to his late father’s wishes, and undertakes the responsibility of killing his uncle, Claudius. However even after swearing to his late father, and former king that he would avenge him; Hamlet for the bulk of the play takes almost no action against Claudius. Prince Hamlet in nature is a man of thought throughout the entirety of the play; even while playing mad that is obvious, and although this does seem to keep him alive, it is that same trait that also keeps him from fulfilling his father’s wish for vengeance
Conversely, Hamlet’s sharp and targeted observations lend significant credence to his feigning madness. Most notably, he declares, “I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw” (II.ii.361–362). That is to say, he is only “mad” when he is oriented in a certain way, but that he is lucid the rest of the time. Nevertheless, Hamlet confusion translates into an extremely intense state of mind that is highly suggestiv...
...tal murder of polonious and his decision to have his friends Rozencrantz and Guildenstern murdered for conspiring against him also contributed to Hamlet's mental instability. Moreover, the death of his beloved Ophelia and his mother Gertrude lead to Hamlet's decision to commit suicide.. Each of this events had some pshychological impact on Hamlet and ultimately contributed to Hamlet's insanity and his death. Therefore, even thought Hamlet had not been insane at the beginning of the play he gradually became insane due to the dramatic events that occurred to him and how he dealth with them.
In conclusion, reading the play Hamlet by Shakespeare does make everyone wonder whether Hamlet is crazy or not. At first glance, I did start believing that Hamlet wasn’t pretending due to his irrational actions, but after taking a closer look and analyzing the play, I realized that Hamlet does indeed prove that he is just putting on an act of insanity as a way of being able to plan out his revenge against Claudius to the full extent. This is shown through Hamlet’s conscious awareness of his surroundings, thoughts, actions, and
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
Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act II, scene 2 lines 563-622 shows his thoughts about himself. Hamlet is feeling self-loathing and full of anger. His use of analogies throughout the soliloquy conveys his thoughts and emotions of himself. His analogies are used in the themes of comparisons, uncertainties, and vengeance. His thoughts on himself allows the reader to view and feel what he is feeling.
(Gertrude.1.2.71-73) “And let thine eye look like a friend upon Denmark. Do not forever with thy valid lids seek thy father in the dust.” Hamlet is unable to get over his father death but, everyone else seems to with ease, this is just the beginning of the anger growing inside of Hamlet. Tenney L Davis said, “The young intellectual, sorrowing for the death of his father, very naturally developed a psychosis under the influence of his mother’s unseemly second marriage. He became peevish”. The ghost of King Hamlet is seen by Haritio, Marcellus, and Barnardo(1.1). Proving that it did exist and Hamlet was not seeing him alone in his mind. Hamlet meets the ghost (1.5) and it tells him to take revenge on his Uncle, King Claudius for murdering him in his sleep. Determined to take action Hamlet states (1.5.190-192)
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 life has changed drastically with the death of his father and his mother marrying his uncle, which he considers to be " a little more than kin, and less than kind." Hamlet has issues with the fact that he is the only one who is grieving for his father's death, and it seems like everyone have forgotten about the demise of his father. When Hamlet learned about the ghost, he figured that there was foul play. However, he had second thoughts about the
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is filled with many schemes and situations that are a challenge to interpret. The play centers around Hamlet, whose uncle murdered his father and married his mother. Certainly no one could blame Hamlet for appearing a little bit crazy after having to deal with that type of trauma. There are several times during Hamlet when Prince Hamlet appears to be crazy. What makes assessing the prince’s mental state more challenging is the fact that Prince Hamlet sets up a play within the play to expose his uncle for killing his father. Hundreds of years after Shakespeare first wrote Hamlet in 1603, scholars still disagree over whether Prince Hamlet is actually
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