More handpicked essays just for you.
Character of Hamlet in Hamlet
How does Shakespeare present the idea of madness in Hamlet essay
Hamlet's mental illness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The novel “Hamlet”, started as one of the world’s most famous plays known for the main characters’ struggle with two opposing forces and the melancholy, somber tone shown throughout it. Hamlet has been said to be one of the most complex characters seen throughout literature, being one that defies essay explanation. While trying to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet proposes that he shall fool everyone by putting on a façade of being mentally ill. As he progresses throughout the play, it is unclear whether or not it is an act or if Hamlet is truly mentally unstable making the play more attractive to the reader. Hamlet is also believed to be one of the most intelligent characters in all of literature because of his constant effort to avenge his …show more content…
He is acting one way but is feeling another; People think he is going crazy, but in all reality, he knows what he is doing and it is all part of his plan to trick everyone. Although I believe he eventually goes insane, that wasn’t his intention. In the article "Hamlet, Shakespeare's Masterpiece in Our Times", the author states, "He seems to step very easily into the role of a madman, behaving erratically and upsetting the other characters with his wild speech and pointed innuendos." Hamlet is already on the verge of mental insanity, so when he makes the vow to honor his father's name and avenge his death, it is easy for him to act in this deranged manner. He is often unable to see the world lucidly and his perception of the world is too clouded by his melancholy thoughts and constant soul searching. He states, "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw" (2.2. 351-352). Hamlet is saying that he is mad but he often has times where he is able to see the world clearly and he knows what's what. As stated earlier, Hamlet is a very self-contradictory character which adds to his complexity. Shakespeare created the character of Hamlet as a prince which is a position that is one to protect and have control over the people, but in the end Hamlet is the one having to be watched and is feared the most. His wit and knowledge are what should lead to a victorious ending to the play, but despite his efforts, Hamlet along with his mother, girlfriend Ophelia, and uncle Claudius end up all being killed. Hamlet is seen as a complex character and can be re-analyzed in different ways each time he is studied because of his many personality
There is a great controversy amongst those who have read and studied Hamlet by Shakespeare. People argue whether or not Hamlet had gone mad or not. Many people believe that Hamlet had actually lost his mind, while others believe that it was all just an act. Since Hamlet is the most widely published book in the world, besides the Bible, this question has been asked and analyzed many times to little avail. The answer is open to whatever one wants to believe, which may intrigue some and bother others. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s personality changed after certain events. The play starts with him very upset over his father’s death. Then, after he saw his father’s ghost, he became full of vengeance. He seemed to have completely
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.
In act three, he even admits that his actions are insane, horrible and evil. He says, “I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft” (3.4.191). For Hamlet to admit that his actions are mad or insane, is the most insane trait of Hamlet. For him to openly admit that he is fully aware that his actions are mad, only ignites the flame of his insanity. This quote seals the deal for the reader that Hamlets mind is a wasteland of madness, but also of planned insanity and horrible actions.
In William Shakespeare?s Hamlet, Hamlet leads an antic disposition that causes his downfall and leads him to insanity. His antic disposition affects his judgment, destroys relationships and creates a belief that he is truly mad. Throughout the play, Hamlet is consumed with anger which causes him to act through emotion and without reason. Hamlet?s main goal is to avenge the death of his father but, his actions to do so are hindered because of the irrational decisions he has made through the antic disposition he has put on. Hamlet?s antic disposition began with the death of his father. Hamlet returns to his home, Denmark, to find King Hamlet, his father, dead. As any normal human being would be allowed to grieve, Hamlet was not. Hamlet was expected to accept the death of his father and move on. (Do not forever with thy vailèd lids/Seek for thy noble father in the dust./Thou know'st 'tis common. All that lives must die,/Passing through nature to eternity.)(1.2.68-73). Without the time to grieve, Hamlet was left with the echo of his mother?s and Claudius?s hurtful and unsympathetic words of advice. While Hamlet was forbidden to ?useless mourning? (We pray you, throw to earth/This unprevailing woe, and think of us/As of a father.)(1.2.106-108), his mother quickly marries to his uncle Claudius and undoubtedly moves on with her life. In T.S. Eliot?s The Sacred Wood, Hamlet?s ?disgust envelops and exceeds her. It is thus a feeling which he cannot understand, he cannot objectify it, and it therefore remains to poison life and obstruct action.? With little time to grieve and a mother that seems to care less about her deceased husband, Hamlet?s mind was given the perfect recipe for insanity. In mid night, a mysterious ghost appears to Prince Hamlet in the shape of his 2father, King Hamlet. The strange and mystifying ghost guides Hamlet away from Horatio and Marcellus, as if wanting privacy. Hamlet becomes defensive and mad and believes his fate is to follow the ghost, ?My fate cries out/And makes each petty artery in this body/As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve./Still am I called.?Unhand me, gentlemen.?(1.4.86-89). Hamlet is determined to hear the words of the ghost and threatens Horatio and Marcellus to death if they do not let him go. Horatio and Marcellus follow him for his safety but believe ?He waxes desperate with imagination.?(1.4.92). The ghost is the first obvious sign that Hamlet?
Some of his actions do not align with his humanist values and his university education, such as stabbing Polonius through the tapestry in Act 3, Scene 4. He does this somewhat erratically rather than using his intellect like usual, showing he has somewhat become insane. His melancholic nature subjects him to more emotional suffering which makes him more susceptible to going mad like he partially does. “Hamlet is a man of painful sensitivity,” according to F Richmond, showing Hamlet’s nature to being
Hamlet was a young man who lost his father the king of Denmark to an early death, therefore; he was grieving his father dead and this type of maddens not in a crazy way because her mother and uncle believed that he was grieving to long over his father death, and only a few months after his father death his mother betrayed he by marrying his uncle his father brother, and Hamlet was angry about that. He felt like his father had just dead and they was disrespecting him by getting married shortly after his death. Then, after all this hurt and betrayal he find out that his father was killed by his uncle, and his mother knew all about it, so now the hurt and betrayal turn in to rage because now he had to revenge his father death. Also, Hamlet loved and care for Ophelia with his heart and soul, and he believed that she love him too, but he find out that she also was betraying him for her father whom work for the king Claudius. Now Hamlet did not know who to trust, and how would he get his revenge for his father. As a young man he has a lot on his mind and he was betrayed, grieving over your father, and find out the person that he loved has betray him too; he fall in depression over all these, but he knew he had to stay strong to get his father revenge. Hamlet was mad, but not the mad like wildly impractical or having foolish ideas, but more in the way of hurt and felt a lot of betrayal from the people he care for; therefore, Hamlet acted like his was going crazy because he did not want Claudius to know that he knew that he killed his father, and to hide the hurt he was feeling.
Many people including the characters believe that in the play Hamlet goes mad. Hamlet was in fact not mad, he clearly states in the play that he was going to pretend to be mad. Throughout the play Hamlet goes through states of depression and anger. A lot of pressure is put on Hamlet when the ghost of his father asks him to take revenge for his murder. He becomes confused and contemplates whether or not to kill the murderer, his uncle, now king. This is all expressed through his soliloquies. The actions and emotions of Hamlet are what make him to be believed he is mad in Hamlet written by William Shakespeare.
Hamlet’s madness was deliberately acted in order to follow his future plans. He deeply wanted to gain revenge for his father’s murder. Hamlet wisely began to feign his madness intentionally to get around Claudius’ back and eventually kill him. He was fully aware of strategies and he acknowledged it himself, “That I am not in madness, but mad in craft.” (III. iv. 187-188) Hamlet also shows his “madness” towards particular characters and not to others. “When moving among his intimate friends, he is consistently sane, and feigns madness only in the presence of those who, he fears, will thwart his secrest design.” (Blackmore, 54) With Horatio, Hamlet seemed sane and kept his wits closely. However, with Claudius, Gertrude, and Ophelia, he hid behind a mask of insanity.
While it is said that Hamlet acted to be insane towards his goal of vengeance, his emotionally depressed state causes his mental sanity to deteriorate. Not to say that he was a madman out of touch with reality, but a man who was driven to insanity by thought. His behavior throughout the play, especially towards loved ones, is inconsistent and uncontrolled. Hamlet first shows signs of his madness with his mother Gertrude. She tries to explain to Hamlet that he has offended his stepfather, Claudius.
When Guildenstern and Rosencrantz question Hamlet’s sanity, he replies “I am but mad north-north-west. When the/wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.” (Shakespeare 2.2. 402-403) Hamlet says he is mad only some of the times, but his response to his old friends say otherwise.
Hamlet Essay Of considerable question in Shakespeare’s famed Hamlet is whether the titular character’s descent into madness is, as he claims, an act, or in actuality is Hamlet’s feigned insanity becomes real, imbuing his real consciousness and thoughts with the frantic madness that inspires his desire to kill. Certainly his initial behavior is planned; he intends to pretend madness for his own ends: “How strange or odd some'er I bear myself / (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on.)” (1.5.190-192) However, the pressures upon him of royal status, his quest for vengeance, and his sense of morality contribute to a decline of his mental lucidity.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play: Hamlet, it is clear as a summer’s day, that Hamlet himself acts quite mad in some situations. Madness can come from many causes in a person’s life, Hamlet’s directly coming from his father’s, King Hamlet’s, death. He seems to go insane over whether or not his father was murdered, who did it, and how to get revenge upon this person. Whether or not he has actually gone insane is the big question. It is easy to assume that he is just playing a game, to gain attention to him and his plot against Claudius to confess over King Hamlet’s death, but without realizing it, Hamlet seems to actually go mad over this without realizing it.
Some people are driven to madness due to love, depression, or an event; however, this is not the case with hamlet. Hamlet is so intelligent that he has found a way to make everyone around him, no matter how close they may be to him, to think that he has been driven insanity. Hamlet says "How strange or odd some'er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on).” Hamlet is not insane, he has merely fooled everyone into thinking he is. He has done this through the way he speaks, acts, and leads others to realize how inferier they are.
The tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare is about Hamlet going insane and reveals his madness through his actions and dialogue. Hamlet remains one of the most discussed literary characters of all time. This is most likely due to the complex nature of Hamlet as a character. In one scene, Hamlet appears happy, and then he is angry in another and melancholy in the next. Hamlet’s madness is a result of his father’s death which was supposedly by the hands of his uncle, Claudius. He has also discovered that this same uncle is marrying his mom. It is expected that Hamlet would be suffering from some emotional issues as result of these catastrophes. Shakespeare uses vivid language, metaphors, and imagery to highlight how Hamlet’s madness influences several important aspects of his life including his relationships and the way he presents himself.
Hamlet’s madness is questionable through his actions and the reactions from others. Shakespeare seems to leave it up to us to decide whether his madness is feigned or real. In conclusion we can see that he acts different from Ophelia who we know is truly mad. Hamlet played his antic deposition very well, not only did he fool King Claudius, it seems he fools a lot of people who are reading it. The theme we can see in Hamlet is sometimes you have to act insane to achieve the goals you