Hamlet's Heightening Insanity In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

Forgettable Heros In the Shakespeare 's play Hamlet Polonius is the tragic hero. Hamlet 's describes a person “who was in life a foolish prating knave.”(Shakespeare 3.4.338) In the eyes of the reader what Polonius is doing is foolish. However, his foolishness does not take away the virtues in Polonius actions. In fact, it compounds the tragedy in his story. Hamlet on the other hand is the main antagonist of the story and causes all of the calamities.

Throughout the play we see Macbeth question his manhood and bravery, his wife adds onto that doubt by calling him a coward and showing him a way he could fix his problems overall. With the question: what is more dangerous, an opportunity or a thought? an opportunity gives you the chance to take it, but a thought makes the action come to life. Macbeth may be partially responsible for the deaths, because he was the one to do them, but without the push and thought given from Lady Macbeth, he would not have followed through with his temptation and killed anyone innocent. Ergo, Lady Macbeth bears most responsibility for the deaths in this play, because without her push, Macbeth would never have gone through will these multiple

Looking at the overall story, Hamlet would be considered more villainous than his uncle. Yes, it is true that Claudius is corrupt and killed his brother for the throne. However, he tried to do his best as king and you could also say that Hamlet is making it difficult to do so. Claudius and Gertrude attempt to console him for the loss of his father and yet hamlet rejects everything to proceed on the path of revenge. Hamlet tries to blame his sanity, but what he doesn’t even realize is that he has created on his own sanity.

Throughout the play, Hamlet claims to be feigning madness, but his portrayal of a madman is so intense and so convincing that many readers believe that Hamlet actually slips into insanity at certain moments in the play. Do you think this is true, or is Hamlet merely playacting insanity? What evidence can you cite for either claim? In William Shakespeare’s classic, Hamlet, the question concerning Hamlet’s underlying sanity is a major element in the interpretation of the text. In the play, Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as a dynamic character to cause a mental state conundrum among the audience and explore the themes of suicide, spying, friendship, madness, providence, love, hate and humour.

He practically confesses his insanity is all for show because he says so and because he tells his best friend, Horatio, not to worry about him whatsoever. Towards the end of act 5, Hamlet again admits his insanity caused his previous actions. Rather this time, it may have been more for saving his life rather than planning to end someone else’s. Before the deadly duel against Laertes, Hamlet decides he should apologize for his actions at Ophelia’s grave and for killing Polonius. “What I have done, That might your nature, honor, and exception Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness,” he pleads.

Insanity is contagious. Prince Hamlet is the sole cause of all of the insanity in the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. He starts off upset about his father’s death. He soon becomes vengeful after a visit with his father who became a ghost. With his vengeance for King Claudius, he slowly loses his sanity and becomes insane.

Hamlet puts on the guise of insanity, but in reality he is sane all through the story. Ophelia, on the other hand, her sanity shatters suddenly and truly goes mad. She struggles with her fathers death and her lovers absence so much that she is driven insane and eventually commits suicide. One of the most important quotes from Hamlet is "As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, To put an antic disposition on"(1.5.191-192). This quote is crucial to the story as a whole because it tells the audience that from then on Hamlet will only be acting mad.

Hamlet shows some signs of insanity in these few examples. The very first quote in this paragraph goes to talk about how Hamlet is depressed about his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage. Hamlet is wishing that his flesh would melt and that he would die. Just in that one quote of Hamlet saying these things you can infer that he is insane, even in the slightest of ways. Throughout the story you see more than enough examples to prove this theory.

This amorality stems from his desire to avenge the “rank and gross[ly]” (Shakespeare, 29) cruel actions of his uncle, the King Claudius. In the end however, both Hamlet and Claudius die with little pomp, victims of each other in a cyclical stream of karma. Shakespeare uses this eventuality to denounce the use of cruelty as a means to an end, for it brings nought but meaningless death. The fact that Hamlet becomes so cruel specifically because of Claudius’ treachery is a testament to the relationship between oppressor and oppressed. As Hamlet becomes that which he once hated, Shakespeare emphasizes the fact that the line between victim and oppressor is often more blurred than defined.

Crawford states that Shakespeare includes Hamlet’s fits of madness were deliberately used to make Claudius and his attendants confused and for them to think Hamlet’s mental health is deteriorating. Crawford analyzes, “The fact that he [Hamlet] has made it appear like real madness to many critics today only goes to show the wideness of his knowledge and the greatness of his dramatic skill” (Crawford. 1916. p 1.). Crawford states that Hamlet is merely acting insane and he is extremely clever for doing this. He says that because there is such a big debate over Hamlet’s sanity goes to show how clever Hamlet was in his approach to revenge.