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.
In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare the reader is brought into a story of a heartbroken son and a kingdom that is filled with deceit every which way. Focusing primarily on the deceit brought about by Prince Hamlet and the reasoning behind using so many lies and plots towards those around him. Hamlet can be described as having untrust for people and to even lead to his actions being seen as “madness” to others. For the people closest to him question whether his emotions and his motives for doing certain things are all just an act or if he truly has lost it after his father’s death. These continues behaviors and dishonesty throughout the story carry a certain motive that contributes a great meaning to the work as
Hamlet says that he “essentially [is] not in madness, but mad in craft” in order to deceive everyone and draw attention away from his suspicious activities as he tries to gather evidence against Claudius (3.4.191-2). In this passage, Hamlet tells Horatio that he will be acting mad in the near future. Indeed Hamlet begins to act mad and this is obvious to others by his responses. This shows that Hamlet is not truly mad he is just trying to deceive everyone so that he can eventually kill claudius without others being suspicious of the murder, he wants them to simply blame the murder on the madness. Hamlet stages the Murder of Gonzago which is an elaborate attempt to
In this way we can see that every action Hamlet performs in the play is tainted by his need to kill Claudius. The prince becomes painfully suspicious of everyone around him, not knowing who is or is not spying on him. He questions his mother violently, mocks Polonius before killing him, suspecting him to be Claudius, and he sends his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths because he believed that they were spying for
It can be argued that Hamlet is the most complex character Shakespeare has ever written, there has been many debates revolving around his insanity (real or fake). The progression of Hamlet is quite astonishing he begins as a young prince with the world in his hand, to a lunatic who becomes obsessed with revenging his father’s death. The revenge theme is acted upon throughout the novel and is essentially what drives Hamlet. He believes that Claudius has killed his father (we later find out this is true), this begins his investigating. We can be easily fooled by Hamlets insanity but there is intelligence behind his every move.
Believing that both men seduced his wife is another reason to continue his ruthless scheme against the two. This is where Iago’s jealousy and envy commenced and seeking of revenge. Iago is the villain of the play. He is very good at manipulating people and misleading to get the reaction he wants. He
How Shakespeare links the deception between the characters show how each of them vary in character and personality, as Macbeth started out as a noble and caring guy but quickly changed into someone that murdered and took things into his own matter when they don’t work out his way. He was fooled by his wife and the witches, but solely because he let it get to him, he had the choice and the chance to prevent it, but instead did nothing to change anything. He gave into the evil ways that they followed, and let it change him into someone he’s
The protagonists respond in methods connected by their shared roots in deception. Both Macbeth and Hamlet wear masks to mislead the characters around them in their own quests to fulfill their destinies. Because of these blurred lines regarding what is real and what is not, interesting assertions regarding life
In William Shakespeare 's play Othello, most characters commit something wrong, there are two characters who execute most of the play, but there 's one character who commits the greater wrong. The characters hurt and betray one another frequently, the play is focused on Iago trying to plot his plan as the play goes on, his intentions are to get revenge on Othello for one not promoting him to lieutenant and believing that Othello slept with his wife Emilia. For that Iago manipulates Othello 's wife Desdemona, Roderigo, Emilia and Cassio. Iago commits the greater wrong, for being manipulative, deceivious, and betraying. Iago and Othello are both main characters who have their way of making trouble, some would say Othello commits more wrong for falling into Iago 's lies and causing trouble, but Iago is actually the one who made the deaths happen and made more problems than Othello did or any other character.
In the play “Hamlet”, written by William Shakespeare there are numerous accounts of characters deceiving each other; more specifically, king Claudius. His deception is the primary cause for many of the events that unfold within the play. He causes many characters to become upset, and he manipulates the storyline with his deceitful actions. The motives that king Claudius has for doing what he does are strengthened merely by his actions, thus causing an infinite loop of wrongdoing. King Claudius is a character that has simple yet unpredictable methods of redirecting conflict in a way that gets him what he wants without having to deal with the consequences of his devious behavior.