Hamlet Madness Essay

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Living the royal life can take a toll on a person. In this case, young Hamlet is under a great deal of stress from his role as the prince of Denmark. Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays, tells the tragic story of the prince. Hamlet is the son of King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. He seems to enjoy a normal life- as normal as it can be as a member of the royal family. He also has a love interest, Ophelia, who appears to love him, too. Unfortunately, Hamlet’s comfortable life quickly transforms into a life of sadness and confusion. After his uncle kills his father and takes over the throne, Hamlet is not the same. In fact, he starts behaving crazy. However, one can argue that Hamlet is pretending the whole time. Hamlet’s strange …show more content…

At least that is what Polonius, Ophelia’s father, believes. He reads the king and queen a love letter written by Hamlet for Ophelia. Polonius, oblivious to the story behind the Hamlet’s father's death, tells them the reason Hamlet has been acting strange is because of the recent break up between him and Ophelia (II.ii.130-149). The king and Polonius agree to spy on a conversation between Ophelia and Hamlet. Hamlet is overheard telling Ophelia he did not love her. With that being said, as the conversation goes on, Hamlet tells her to join a convent and never get married (III.i.135-140). I think that Hamlet is doing this to protect Ophelia from himself because he realizes that after he kills his uncle they would have no chance to remain together. In addition to this, he continues acting strange so others will be convinced he is crazy. When he finds out that Ophelia died ,he proclaims his love for her by saying, “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum” (V.i.221-223). While, I was left guessing for most of the play if Hamlet’s love was true, I knew that he was distraught about his broken relationship with Ophelia and her ultimate death. Hamlet’s shattered heart made him act

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