Analysis Of The Genius Of Hamlet

The Genius of Hamlet, the Somewhat Sane Prince of Denmark
Sometimes, revenge can be utterly nasty and repeated. A Serbian patriot once slayed an Austrian archduke to exact his revenge for Austria’s occupation of his land. Austria retaliated by starting World War I. After the war, the Allied powers took revenge by enforcing massive fines and taking away land from the defeated countries. One of them was Germany. This led to Hitler’s rise to power and took revenge against France by making them sign their surrender in the same train where Germany gave up in World War I. Following World War II, Germany was obligated to repair some of the damage done by paying war reparations to the Allies and Jewish people after the war. When countries recur to revenge, history reiterates, more often than not, it means war. On a smaller scale, in Hamlet, the prince of Denmark begins an inner war that provokes quite significant inner struggles as well as an outer war with Claudius to avenge his father’s death. William Shakespeare masterfully portrays Hamlet, whose experiences and emotions drive him to alternate between the realms of sanity and insanity to achieve his ambition. As the ancient proverb states, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” These “desperate times” include the murder of his father Hamlet Senior, King of the Danes, by his malicious uncle, Claudius, the seeming suicide of his love, Ophelia, his mother's quick remarriage to Claudius after his father's death.
It is key to grasp the meaning of madness in order to understand Hamlet’s audacity to utilize it as well as to why he unconsciously fell into his own act. Madness is a condition of the mind that abolishes all rational thought leaving an individual with no accurate compreh...

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Another way of assessing his mental stability consists of thoroughly analyzing his behaviors and reactions during the arranged meeting with Ophelia. Ophelia, after Gertrude, is supposed to be the woman who knows him most. However, Ophelia’s judgment can be altered by her affection and the juxtaposition of the pain he has brought upon her life, which is why Polonius, the king, and the queen are all observing the happenstance. In the movie, Hamlet, he is depicted acting normally towards her, although reserved. Abruptly, he drastically modifies his conduct when he catches a glimpse of a shadow; the shadow’s appearance is greatly emphasized in the movie. The message that is transmitted is that the shadow makes Hamlet aware of the spying and observations around him, therefore he continues with the façade.