When Insanity is Sane: Hamlet's Duty and Clever Path Taken to Honor His Father and Denmark
Traumatic experiences can cause for a negative impact on one’s emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. Sometimes, individuals internalize this trauma and harbor feelings of distress which creates deep-rooted issues that need to be addressed. In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, readers are heart broken and intrigued by the events following a great king’s death. The main character and protagonist, Hamlet, is dealing with the his father’s death as he returns home from studying at a university to not only find that his father has been murdered, but his mother remarried to his uncle. Angered by his mother’s betrayal and fathers sudden death, Hamlet
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The old King Hamlet was believed to be a harsh fighter, but Claudius seems to be a notably immoral man whose main defense is using his wit to avoid charges against him. Claudius’s love for Gertrude may come off to be genuine, but it also seems obvious that he married her as a deliberate move to benefit him and win the authority away from Hamlet after the passing of his father. Hamlet is convinced his Uncle Claudius’s apparent intentions are in fact untrue and all part of his evil plan. Claudius had Hamlet and even Gertrude fooled while all along, his only true desire was to be the king. The reader is first exposed to Hamlet's true opinions of Gertrude and Claudius in his first important …show more content…
but at what price? His vengeful quest is followed by a blood trail that is shocking not only because it exists, but more so because of how many people make up that trail. What is so great about the playwright Shakespeare is he creates a character who goes on a noble quest to avenge his fathers, which will appeal to the audience, but on a different note, the reader will question Hamlets actions by how destructive they were to others around him. To add to these points, the reader will undobtedly also draw similarites with Hamlet with those around themselves, and maybe even more importantly, them themselves. Do the end results justify ones actions? And if so, how far can one go to achieve that end? These questions are so profound, Kant wrote Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, a piece on actions and morality. Kant's firm belief was that ones morality is judged by their actions, and not the product of those action, and in this respect, he would say Hamlet failed. Although there are those who believe Hamlet let himself and his father down, they must realize and take into account Hamlet's goal was to make Claudius pay with his own life for taking King Hamlet's life. And by the end of the play Hamlet does just
As Hamlet transforms from a motivated intellectual to an obsessed griever, Shakespeare evaluates the fluidity of sanity.The juxtaposition of Hamlet’s desire to act and inability to do so unveils Hamlet’s inner turmoil, for as Hamlet disconnects from family, distrusts his environment, and forms an obsession with perfection, the audience realizes his fatal flaw and watches him tumble into the grasps of insanity. This degeneration forces the audience to consider how equilibrium between thought and action influences the conservation of sanity, not only for Hamlet, but also for all of humanity.
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet undergoes a transformation from sane to insane while fighting madness to avenge his father’s death. The material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge. Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story entirely, making Hamlet a philosophically minded prince who delays taking action because his knowledge of his uncle’s crime is so uncertain. To begin with, Hamlet portrays himself as sane.
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.
Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.
Hamlet, a Shakespearean character, constantly struggles in a battle with his mind. He leads a very trying life that becomes too much for him to handle. Hamlet experiences hardships so horrible and they affect him so greatly that he is unable escape his dispirited mood. In speaking what he feels, Hamlet reveals his many symptoms of depression, a psychological disorder. While others can move on with life, Hamlet remains in the past. People do not understand his behavior and some just assume he is insane. However, Hamlet is not insane. He only pretends to be mad. Because Hamlet never receives treatment for his disorder, it only gets worse and eventually contributes to his death.
One single moment or event during the course of an individual’s life can effectively alter their priorities and transform their identity drastically. In The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare introduces the readers to the protagonist Hamlet who is draped in anger and emotions and has a new-found mission in life. Initially, Hamlet is portrayed as an individual in mourning over his father's death and his mother's haste in remarrying to her brother-in-law and Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. However, Hamlet’s character and personality were drastically altered after meeting the Ghost and discovering the true nature of his Father’s death. Hamlet is now a man with a lust for revenge and a willingness to do anything that will enable him to accomplish this goal. When burdened with the task of killing Claudius, Hamlet chooses to sacrifice all he holds dear by transforming his identity in a noble effort to avenge his father’s death.
Dearest friends, family and the people of Denmark. We gather here today to mourn the loss of the noble prince, loyal son and true friend, Prince Hamlet. But we are not here only to mourn, but to reminisce the times we have spent with him, both the good and the bad and to remember him as the person he was. Prince Hamlet did not live a very fortunate, on the contrary his final weeks were filled with a tragedy none of us should have to bear, but he lived his life to the full and I am sure that he has, in some way touched the lives of all of us here today.
One of the central theme’s throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the question of madness versus sanity. From the first few scenes of the play, one cannot help but question the way that various character’s throughout the play think and behave. In line with Sigmund Freud’s ideas concerning the Id, Ego, and Superego, we see that various characters’ behaviors are clearly defined by these distinct personality structures although not always in the way they are traditionally expected to. Gertrude and Hamlet both find themselves eventually losing control of their lives as they all give way to the Id portion of their personality. It is this downfall that will continually come across as the madness so central and destructive throughout the course of the play.
Madness is a condition that is often difficult to identify, especially when trying to analyze the behavior of a fictional character in a play that was published in 1603. In the play, Hamlet is asked to avenge his father’s death and to accomplish this task in a less apparent manner, Hamlet decides to put on an antic disposition. The madness of Hamlet is often disputed, for good reason, as his behavior is frequently baffling throughout the play. Shakespeare, the author of this tragic play, leaves the audience to decide whether Hamlet is truly mad or not. However, through careful examination and analysis, it becomes clear that Hamlet’s act of madness was just that—an act. Hamlet’s antic disposition was an act of deception, fabricated to draw attention
Throughout the play, Hamlet thinks about the moral consequences of revenge, and as a result his revenge is delayed. Morality is the quality of being in accord with the standards of right or good conduct. In Hamlet, Hamlet struggles morally to accomplish his fathers’ ghost demand of revenging for him. A great example of Hamlet acting morally, is when as he was heading to his mother, who asked for him, he sees the king in church praying to God for forgiveness. When he sees the king praying, he thought it will be better if he killed him now in order to end his struggle. But as he was approaching the king to revenge his fathers’ death, he is he...
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one of the most evident and important themes is the theme of madness. The theme is apparent throughout the play, mainly through the actions and thoughts of Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes. Madness is defined as the quality or condition of mental illness or derangement (being insane). Madness is at the center of the conflicts and problems of the play and is conveyed through Shakespeare’s elaborate use of manipulation and parallels between Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes to contribute to Hamlet’s tragic character. All examples of madness begin and end with death.
Old Hamlet is killed by his brother Claudius. Only two months after her husband’s death a vulnerable Gertrude marries her husband’s brother Claudius. Gertrude’s weakness opens the door for Claudius to take the throne as the king of Denmark. Hamlet is outraged by this, he loses respect for his mother as he feels that she has rejected him and has taken no time to mourn her own husband’s death. One night old Hamlets ghost appears to prince Hamlet and tells him how he was poisoned by his own brother.
As illustrated through his speeches and soliloquies Hamlet has the mind of a true thinker. Reinacting the death of his father in front of Claudius was in itself a wonderful idea. Although he may have conceived shcemes such as this, his mind was holding him back at the same time. His need to analyze and prove everythin certain drew his time of action farther and farther away. Hamlet continuously doubted himself and whether or not the action that he wanted to take was justifiable. The visit that Hamlet recieves from his dead father makes the reader think that it is Hamlet's time to go and seek revenge. This is notthe case. Hamlet does seem eager to try and take the life of Claudius in the name of his father, but before he can do so he has a notion, what if that was not my father, but an evil apparition sending me on the wrong path? This shows that even with substantial evidence of Claudius' deeds, Hamlet's mind is not content.
Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.
Hamlet is the best known tragedy in literature today. Here, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet’s flaws as a heroic character. The tragedy in this play is the result of the main character’s unrealistic ideals and his inability to overcome his weakness of indecisiveness. This fatal attribute led to the death of several people which included his mother and the King of Denmark. Although he is described as being a brave and intelligent person, his tendency to procrastinate prevented him from acting on his father’s murder, his mother’s marriage, and his uncle’s ascension to the throne.