In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, it is clear that Hamlet was once sane, but the tragic events of his life led him to be insane. Grieving over the loss of a loved one, yet a parent, is extremely difficult. These hardships can cause a lot of problems in one’s life. In Hamlet, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness to serve a motive. In fact, Hamlet is not initially crazy, but plans to use the insanity as a trick to achieve what he wanted-- revenge. As the end of the play is reached, Hamlet's false madness becomes a reality. Hamlet converts from sane to insane in a matter of time due to plotting revenge on Claudius, losing Ophelia, and living with the new, quick marriage of his mother and Claudius.
One’s mental state can be altered when the death of a loved one occurs. In Williams Shakespeare's Hamlet, great loss and betrayal play a crucial role in Hamlets spiral into insanity. His grieving mind and vengeful thoughts fill Hamlet with illusions of his father's Ghost, the late king of Denmark. Along with the sudden death of his father comes the suspicion of his uncle Claudius, the new king of Denmark, as the king’s murderer. This betrayal leads to Hamlet questioning his feelings for Ophelia. With all of this taken into consideration, it is effortlessly seen how this young prince, engulfed in his studies before his family’s tragedy, begins to lose his mind.
People refer to him as being mad. Claudius thinks Hamlet may be a danger to others with his “turbulent and dangerous lunacy” and says that “madness in great ones must not go unwatched.” (3.1.44) Claudius then watched Hamlet with Ophelia and was clever enough to realize that Hamlet wasn’t lovesick, or mad “Love? His affections do not that way tend, nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, was not like madness. There’s something in his soul o’er which his melancholy sits on brood.” (3.1.42) It’s at this moment when Claudius first realized that Hamlets madness could be because of his possible knowledge of Claudius killing his father. From this point on Claudius keeps a close eye on Hamlet to try and find out what his intentions are while also scheming to get rid of him so that his murder isn’t exposed to the
Most of society would agree that anyone who kills his childhood friends and uncle has lost his mind, but sometimes, without giving it a second thought, they overlook the motivation and purpose behind the actions which would disprove the underlying assumption of insanity. Shakespearean scholars have always pondered the question of whether Prince Hamlet of Denmark feigns insanity or truly goes mad because of the circumstances. His dead father, King Hamlet, appears to him as a ghost and informs him that his brother and current king, Claudius, murdered him using poison. He asks his son to avenge his death and kill Claudius but leave his wife Gertrude, who married Claudius, out of the whole scheme. Prince Hamlet goes off on a quest for revenge,
When Ophelia returns all his letters and gifts he tells her that he has never loved her and that she should “get thyself to a nunnery.” This is one example how his mood changes throughout the play. Then after all this her father, Polinous, is murdered by Hamlet. The Hamlet is sent away to England All of these actions result in her feeling such stress that she becomes insane in the end.
What would one expect the personality of a man whose father was murdered by his uncle, who becomes his step-father? The personality in question points to Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark—who William Shakespeare depicts in his play “Hamlet.” A character analysis of Hamlet reveals that through his internal dialogue, his interpretation of his father 's murder, and his actions, his traits—bitterness, depression, and anger—emerge. Scholars have studied Hamlet for decades, and most have concluded that Hamlet 's personality indicated insanity. However, after observing Hamlet 's actions, his actions throughout the play do not resemble those of an insane person. An overwhelming amount of evidence shows that Hamlet faked his insanity to confuse the king and his accomplices.
The question of whether or not Hamlet was insane is of a never-ending debate. Was he always crazy? Was he always faking it? Or was he somewhere in between? In this paper I will share three different views and provide my own interpretation of Hamlet’s sanity.
Hamlet is a very clever and motivated individual who creates extravagant plans to achieve success. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet creates a false persona to divert the kingdom’s attention away from his intention to kill Claudius. He tells Horatio that he will “put an antic disposition on,” (I.v.172) to create a sense of madness. This falsehood is created to ensure Hamlet will not be taken seriously and can follow through with his plans without being suspected. There are many reasons for Hamlet to truly go mad including the death of his father, his mother’s remarriage and the relationship he holds with Ophelia, leading many away from the fact that he is “not
In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet assumes the disguise of a man that has lost his mind. Hamlet uses this madness to masquerade around in such a way as to not draw attention to his true plan, to avenge his murdered father. Many readers debate as to whether Hamlet is truly mad, or whether he is fully aware of his actions and what he is doing. However, both sides of the debate can agree that Hamlet’s apparent madness is a key element of the play, Hamlet.
In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many references to sanity and insanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet goes back and forth between sanity and insanity, whether pretending to be insane just to mess with those he does not like or to save himself from getting in trouble. Hamlet is actually one of the smartest characters in the play, which is why he can pull off acting crazy so well. Shakespeare uses this idea of sanity and insanity to help the plot change and take a different directions.
In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare reflects the common early modern beliefs and perspectives about madness by using the character development of the protagonist who feigns madness throughout the play. Given Hamlet 's status as a prince, current knowledge of madness during the time period, and the contrast of the different types of madness of other characters in the play, Elizabethan audiences would have found it plausible that Hamlet feigns madness as part of his plot to avenge his father 's death. This new historicist perspective steers the modern reader away from anachronistic psychological interpretations of the play.
In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, there are a series of events that causes Hamlet to act abnormally. He has to deal with his father’s death, mother’s remarriage, and his lover Ophelia. However, it is often argued whether Hamlet’s madness is real or fake. Throughout the tragedy, he is over-exaggerating his madness for his plan of revenge. Hamlet is sane because he only acts mad in front of certain people, he told his friends of his plan of revenge, and the fact that many people continuously doubted his insanity.
In our daily life, when someone does some bad things to make your uncomfortable or make you feel very angry, you may come up with an emotion that you want them also feel bad and be angry. This is called the desire to revenge. In Hamlet, because his uncle kills his dad who is the king, Hamlet manages to revenge for his dad through the whole book. This book shows great deep madness towards his uncle. Due to the great depression, the desire to revenge even makes him become crazy and lose his mind though he is a very smart person. I feel so confused about it at first. Does revenge really have such power to drag people crazy like that? So, I looked up the word revenge online and the definition for the word is that the action
This is a very rude statement to his mother as he does not know if she was even involved in his father’s murder. Yes she was involved with his brother, but he still said something very hurtful. I think this kind of shows that Hamlet is becoming a little crazy (truthfully now). He murdered someone and didn’t even really react when it turned out not to be the king. He actually told Polonius that he deserved it. This first murder leads to the rest of the play because Hamlet gets in trouble and the king wants revenge, which is also the theme of the play. I feel like now he killed Polonius, it makes him even more hungry for revenge which will add to his motivation to kill
Insanity is an idea that has been examined for a long time in numerous mediums such as films, music, plays, and even works of literature. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is no exception to that rule. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters, and many scholars have been debating for centuries whether or not Hamlet is truly insane, or whether there is a particular reason for his odd behavior. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet merely pretends to be mad but in reality is sane.