Hamlet and King Lear - Edgar and Lear

1826 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of the role Ophelia plays in hamlet

Hamlet and King Lear: Madness - Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear

In both Hamlet and King Lear, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness with two characters: one truly mad, and one only acting mad to serve a motive. The madness of Hamlet is frequently disputed. This paper argues that the contrapuntal character in each play, namely Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear, acts as a balancing argument to the other character's madness or sanity. King Lear's more decisive distinction between Lear's frailty of mind and Edgar's contrived madness works to better define the relationship between Ophelia's breakdown and Hamlet's "north-north-west" brand of insanity. Both plays offer a character on each side of sanity, but in Hamlet the distinction is not as clear as it is in King Lear. Using the more explicit relationship in King Lear, one finds a better understanding of the relationship in Hamlet.

While Shakespeare does not directly pit Ophelia's insanity (or breakdown) against Hamlet's madness, there is instead a clear definitiveness in Ophelia's condition and a clear uncertainty in Hamlet's madness. Obviously, Hamlet's character offers more evidence, while Ophelia's breakdown is quick, but more conclusive in its precision. Shakespeare offers clear evidence pointing to Hamlet's sanity beginning with the first scene of the play. Hamlet begins with guards whose main importance in the play is to give credibility to the ghost. If Hamlet were to see his father's ghost in private, the argument for his madness would greatly improve. Yet, not one, but three men together witness the ghost before even thinking to notify Hamlet. As Horatio says, being the only of the guards to play a significant role in the rest of the play, "Before my God, I might not this believe / Without the sensible and true avouch / Of mine own eyes. (I.i.56-8)" Horatio, who appears frequently throughout the play, acts as an unquestionably sane alibi to Hamlet again when framing the King with his reaction to the play. That Hamlet speaks to the ghost alone detracts somewhat from its credibility, but all the men are witness to the ghost demanding they speak alone. Horatio offers an insightful warning:

What if it tempts you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And draw you into madness?

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis in A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

    538 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonathan Swift is the speaker in the story, A Modest Proposal. He is also the author of many other books and stories. In the text of A Modest Proposal, Swift addresses what he believes to be a big issue in the magnificent country of Ireland, Dublin to be exact. Therefore, he proposes a solution to the problem, however, the solution is not what we would call humane, orthodox, reasonable, or even one that we would consider performing today. Swift wrote this piece for anyone that can read and comprehend what the text implies.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal a Rhetorical Analysis

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Swift’s satirical essay he stated the main issue to be the hunger and starvation of Irish country and their lack of money to support oneself. He said the complication was they themselves don’t have food, to many families in poverty, and that the Englishman took their land and charging high prices for rent. Swift makes this argument because he too is an Irish men and he struggles to see his fellow men parish in the streets. He desires his people to stand up against England and take back what’s theirs. He argues that the Irish...

    Read More

  • To Be Mad Or To Be Melancholic

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    “He is far gone, far gone” (2.2.8). The play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare is the story of young Hamlet whose father was killed by his uncle, Claudius, then his uncle took the throne and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, which ultimately caused hamlet to become melancholic or ‘mad’. In the essay ‘Madness and Melancholy in Hamlet’ written by Kate Flint she explores the idea of madness and melancholy in the Elizabethan time in reference to the actions of Hamlet. She states that Hamlet is neither mad nor melancholy but does display symptoms of each. Flint states that to categorize Hamlet as either mad or melancholy the characters would have to be viewed as real people which they cannot be. She shows that Hamlets madness is only an excuse to expose the truth and teach the audience a lesson. The essay takes the position that hamlet’s strange behaviour was neither madness nor melancholy because those are human emotions but that they were a way to break the barrier between player and audience.

    Read More

  • Ophelia as a Foil to Shakespeare's Hamlet

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pennington, Michael. "Ophelia: Madness Her Only Safe Haven." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of "Hamlet": A User's Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996.

    Read More

  • Questioning the Sanity of Hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, we, as readers, increasingly question the sanity of the protagonist, Hamlet, as the play continues. His seemingly psychotic banter with the other characters in the play begins to convince us that Hamlet is, indeed, insane. Hamlet, however, states, “How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself, as I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on” (1.5.171). He specifically tells Horatio and Marcellus that he will be acting mad, as a front. Hamlet has an exceptional grasp on mental philosophy and the uses and effects of logic, more so than the other characters in the play.

    Read More

  • A Modern Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the essay, Swift uses quite a bit of logical fallacy in order to convey to the reader that there is indeed a crisis within Ireland, which needs to be dealt with. To achieve this, Swift beings his essay by laying a foundation of the issues at hand by revealing how the streets are littered with female beggars, and bastard children. These women are unable to work for a living and must resort to begging in order to care for the infants, and in return, these children grow up to be thieves themselves. While

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Sanity

    1524 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article “The Modest Proposal” the credible author known as, Johnathan Swift informs us readers on the starving families in Ireland. Swift’s total purpose of the article is to educate the article readers on how these families struggle for survival from the problem of starvation. Swift adopts an emotional and relatable feeling in his readers. Swift further conveys his explanation later on in the article.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    The issue that is at hand in his persuasive essay is that Ireland is over populated and they need to think of a way to deal with this said problem. They need to deal with this problem over else the population will keep going up and they will run out of food for people even faster. The context of this issue is that they are living in a place where there are not enough food, water, and clothes for everyone so they have children starving and tons of people are begging for anything to get them through the day. Johnathon Swift is making the argument that we should slay and eat all children under the age of 1 because we have way too many of them anyways. He’s an educated writer and well known author and a father of children. There might be some biased because he doesn’t have a child under the age of one so maybe he doesn’t want to have to kill his own child. The target audience is the people of Ireland because they are all living in the struggle along with himself. The main point is the Ireland is over populated and people are poor, hungry and in poverty. The argument is structured in a way that he catches the reader’s attention then at the very end he says that everything he said he doesn’t actually want any of that stuff to happen and that there needs to b...

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of 'The Potato Famine' By Jonathan Swift

    1640 Words  | 4 Pages

    In a time of trouble, Ireland was desperate for solutions. The Potato Famine left many families in search of a way to preserve their land, lives, and families. While numerous people looked for feasible ways to solve their problem, Jonathan Swift decided to write about it. His writing however, did not provide a solution people would be willing to carry out. Swift’s approach was to show the people of Ireland just how absurd their predicament was. His main focus in his essay was the landlords and the English. He believed the landlords had so much control that families may as well sign their children over to them, because they would never be able to pay off debts owed. Swift also had a problem with English government and its rule over Ireland.

    Read More

  • Hamlet- Truly Mad, for Freigned Madness?

    1234 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, must seek revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to murder Claudius. Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes more and more believable in his act, even convincing his mother that he is crazy. However, through his thoughts, and actions, the reader can see that he is in fact putting up an act, he is simply simulating insanity to help fulfil his fathers duty of revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet shows that he understands real from fake, right from wrong and his enemies from his friends. Even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what if going on around him. Most importantly, Hamlet does not think like that of a person who is mad. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to seek revenge for his fathers murder.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis of a Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Johnathan Swift wrote this he wanted to get people to realize that there was a big problem in Ireland and that the Irish needed to fix it. So he suggested an over the top proposal that outraged many people into finding a better way to fix it. Which solidifies the fact that Jonathan Swift in a modest proposal tried to get his audience to see the problem in Ireland by taking the problem, providing an inhumane way to fix it and then using rhetorical devices to bring out people’s emotions.

    Read More

  • Theme of Madness Conveyed in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1161 Words  | 3 Pages

    The madness of each individual is not realistic, but the idea that death, grievance, and revenge can drive someone to do things that seem to be mad or make them do things out of their nature. Overall, we see that the theme of madness has a significant impact on the conflicts and overall development of the play as well as the characters themselves and is successfully conveyed. Shakespeare developed a theme that tied the many important emotions and ideas together to make the play what it is. He used Ophelia’s grief and love, Hamlet’s wit and ruminative nature to convey a theme that could be related to more than the one character, and tie all of the conflicts and complications down to one cause.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1729 Ireland was subject to English control, which resulted in the Irish facing famine and poverty. Jonathan Swift was of English decent, yet lived in Ireland, which he considered himself to be a loyal citizen to. Swift cared deeply for Ireland and its people, which motivated him to write his satirical piece, “A Modest Proposal,” addressing in full, the issues Ireland faced. Swift’s purpose was not solely to call attention to these issues, but inspire both the Irish and English to bring an end to the suffering at hand.

    Read More

  • Hamlet- A Revenge Tragedy

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society, coupled with his innate tendency to over-think his actions, leads to an unfocused mission of vengeance that brings about not only his own death, but also the unnecessary deaths of nearly all of the other main characters in the revenge tragedy.

    Read More

More about Hamlet and King Lear - Edgar and Lear

Open Document