William Shakespeare’s play of Hamlet is a well know play in English Literature. That is still performed today. The main character, Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, a tragic hero who loses his mind. Many people question his sanity due to the lack of remorse for those that he has killed. Therefore the only logical explanation is that he is truly insane. A couple of experts say Hamlet isn’t fully insane. However, looking into act one on his first soliloquy showing his madness and some parts from The Tragedy of Hamlet’s World View by Richard A. Levine, an English Professor. Also Tenney L. Davis has some good points in his The Sanity of Hamlet. However, act three has the best proof of hamlet’s psychological state as it becomes unstable. …show more content…
Parts of Levine’s The Tragedy of Hamlet’s World View are vigorously argued. The last evidence that will prove hamlets insanity is before he sees the ghost in his mother’s chamber and kills Polonius, In the Sanity of Hamlet by Tenney L. Davis. A piece of his work is agreeable with this essay but still argued.
Hamlet’s stability starts to break. In Act one, Hamlet speaks about suicide. However, he cannot act on these feelings due to the fact that he wouldn’t be able to go to heaven. “O, that this too too sold flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gaist self-slaughter!” (1.2.5) Here, Hamlet is showing his despair for his father’s death. The poor young prince doesn’t get a chance to properly mourn his father’s death. Without having to properly mourn he is lost. On top of his sense of loneliness, his mother,
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Davis has a good point, Hamlet did respond “in a logical fashion.” It seems to barely prove Hamlet’s sanity. Back to act three before the ghost of the dear late King Hamlet appears in Gertrude’s chamber. Polonius decides to spy on the young prince. Well Polonius is hiding behind an arras. He yells “Help, Help, Help.” (3.4.20) Hamlet doesn’t stop to see who is behind the arras, he just takes his sword out and stabs the person behind it. Maybe he thought it was Claudius. Levine says about this particular scene is quite interesting. “Not only was there no time for Hamlet to reflect upon the deed, but neither did he see his adversary nor did he conceive of Polonius in human terms.” (542) Hamlet had penalty of time to pull the arras to the side to look who was behind it; However, he hastily without question kills Polonius. Hamlet doesn’t beg for forgiveness nor is he shocked by what he did. All he simply tells Gertrude is, “A bloody deed? Almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king and marry with his brother.” (3.4.30) Hamlet does not care that he killed an innocent man. Any right minded person would hate themselves for what has happened. How can anyone kill without remorse and still say they are not insane? Hamlet indeed loses himself. At this point he has
death when his mother and the king enter the room and question him on his
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet undergoes a transformation from sane to insane while fighting madness to avenge his father’s death. The material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge. Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story entirely, making Hamlet a philosophically minded prince who delays taking action because his knowledge of his uncle’s crime is so uncertain. To begin with, Hamlet portrays himself as sane.
In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the main character Hamlet experiences many different and puzzling emotions. He toys with the idea of killing himself and then plays with the idea of murdering others. Many people ask themselves who or what is this man and what is going on inside his head. The most common question asked about him is whether or not he is sane or insane. Although the door seems to swing both ways many see him as a sane person with one thought on his mind, and that is revenge. The first point of his sanity is while speaking with Horatio in the beginning of the play, secondly is the fact of his wittiness with the other characters and finally, his soliloquy.
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.
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.
Shakespeare's tragic hero, Hamlet, and his sanity can arguably be discussed. Many portions of the play supports his loss of control in his actions, while other parts uphold his ability of dramatic art. The issue can be discussed both ways and altogether provide significant support to either theory. There are indications from Hamlet throughout the play of his mind's well being.
One of the most analyzed plays in existence is the tragedy Hamlet, with its recurring question: "Is Hamlet’s 'antic disposition' feigned or real?" In truth, this question can only be answered by observing the thoughts of the main characters in relation to the cause of Hamlet real or feigned madness. In the tragedy Hamlet, each of the main characters explains Hamlets madness in their own unique way. To discover the cause behind the madness of Hamlet, each character used their own ambitions, emotions and interpretations of past events. Characters tried to explain Hamlet's "antic disposition" by means of association to thwarted ambition, heartbreaking anguish, and denied love. In the workings of their thoughts, the characters inadvertently reveal something about their own desires, emotions and experiences to the reader.
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.
Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare Hamlet is sane but acts insane to fulfill his destiny of getting vengeance on his father's murderer.
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.
In Lewis Carol’s, Alice in Wonderland, he tells of the meeting between two of his characters, Alice, and the Mad Hatter. Carol writes about the struggles the young girl Alice has with him due to the fact that he appears to be entirely crazy, though the question stands if there is some method to his madness. Playwright and actor, William Shakespeare, uses this controversial connection between real madness and loss in his play Hamlet, portrayed in his characters Hamlet, and his crazed actions towards his loved ones, in Ophelia and her reaction to the death of her father, and lastly, in his character Laertes and his quick, rash reaction to act upon his desire for revenge.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the main character, Hamlet, is often perceived by the other characters in the play as being mentally unbalanced because he acts in ways that drive them to think he is mad. Hamlet may very well be psychotic; however, there are times when he “feigns insanity” in order to unearth the truth surrounding his father's death. This plan seems to be going well until Hamlet's mental state slowly begins to deteriorate. What began as an act of insanity or antic disposition transitions from an act to a tragic reality. After studying Hamlet's actions, one will notice that as the play progresses, his feigned insanity becomes less and less intentional and devolves into true mental illness.
Additionally, a drastic change is noticed when Hamlet is talking to Claudius. When talking to Horatio, he is friendlier and makes more sense; however, when he begins to talk to Claudius, he starts to act mad and says random phrases and words to confuse Claudius. After killing Polonius and taking his body away, Hamlet is confronted by Claudius who demands, “Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?” (IV.iii.16) to which Hamlet answers, “At supper” (IV.iii.17). The answer given by Hamlet is very random and does not answer the King’s question. Thus, indicating that he is now “mad” to fool Claudius. Hamlet acts like this to convince Claudius that is truly mad so he would not doubt or suspect him for any bad event that happens in the future. Moreover, Hamlet acts very differently around Claudius and his henchmen and the people that he trusts which shows that he is indeed feigning his insanity.
Davis, Tenney L. “The Sanity of Hamlet.” The Journal of Philosophy 18.23 (1921): 629–634. JSTOR. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.