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The Cause Of Insanity In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, many characters act out roles that lead to tragedies from the beginning to the end. Shakespeare’s tragic hero, Hamlet, insanity is questionable throughout the play. Through his craftiness, Hamlet illustrates examples to why many think he has gone crazy or he is pretending to be. With this in mind, Laertes another character in the play also displays similar characteristics when he’s hit with the worse tragedy of his life. This becomes a major part of the plot development. Hamlet has many causes affecting his mental state, the root to his madness is the death of his father. After the ghost of Hamlet’s dad revealed the truth to his homicide, Hamlet is out to seek revenge and begins to display unroyal behavior when processing the fact his uncle, Claudius, killed his father: “his doublet all unbraced, no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle.” (Shakespeare pg.79) This quote supports his symptoms of being mental ill within his …show more content…

When Laertes discovered that hamlet killed his father, Polonius, he allowed Claudius to persuade him into killing Hamlet. Also, Hamlet’s dad ghost advised him into killing Claudius for his murder. “I will do’t and for that purpose i’ll anoint my sword,” said Laertes (Shakespeare pg 233). This quote supports the idea that Laertes is willing to seek revenge on Hamlet in honor of his father’s death. In contrast, following through with each of their plans, Laertes became uncertain about seeking revenge once his conscious took over; yet Hamlet was determined, he never thought twice about revenging Claudius. “Each seeks and finally achieve revenge for his father’s murder, although they do so in many different ways.” This quote explains even though both had different ideas of killing their target; it was done. This is a major turning point in the

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