Hamlet's Dramatic Irony

While people are typically able to balance their emotions and rationality when faced with trials and difficulties, insurmountable adversities can upset that harmonious balance. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, portrays a grieving man languishing with anger; whose resulting actions were caused by his darkening emotions. A far-cry from being simply deranged. The play commences with a pair of adversities that occurs towards the protagonist. His psych is first tested after he received sudden news of his father’s untimely death. While he grieves for his father, Hamlet finds out that his mother, Gertrude had wed his uncle, Claudius. These events ultimately take a toll on Hamlet’s mental health, causing him to take actions that he deemed were justifiable

The first scene that ignited most of the characters’ notions of Hamlet’s sanity would be with Hamlet’s encounter with his deceased father’s ghost. The ghost was trying to lure Hamlet to an isolated location, so Hamlet felt the urge to follow his emotional instincts because of the possibility of all the answers to his questions. Hamlet was enlightened by the ghost’s information of how his father was murdered by Claudius, and the ghost tells him to plot revenge on Claudius for being the root cause of his death. Hamlet was speaking to two of his colleagues about the night that they have experienced, and he told them vow to not speak about the night ever. He specifically said, “How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on)” (Hamlet I.v, 171-174). The idea of the night that they all experienced escaping to someone else’s ears would ruin Hamlet’s plan; the portion of Hamlet’s plot is to pretend to be in a less conscious mental state, so everything surrounding him will fall into place in his favor. The key to the plot of revenge was to act deranged, so the intent of revenge would not seem obvious or suspicious to everyone else. Prior to the play, Hamlet conspired with the actors to advise them to execute the play in a specific manner; the orders for the

After the play within a play, Claudius spoke to Gertrude and two other colleagues to discuss Hamlet’s current condition; the conclusion that they came to would have the two colleagues to escort Hamlet to England, where Claudius has sent England a document to murder Hamlet once he arrives. Hamlet was able to find the document and rewrite it with details of “… the view and knowing of these contents,Without debatement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death,”(Hamlet V.ii 47-49). The colleagues were once Hamlet’s close friends that were summoned by the king to figure out what was going on with Hamlet’s current behavior; they were sent to England to bring the news to England. The action of rewriting the letter to murder his previous close friends is quite insane, and it was because of the deceit that was surrounding him. He was feeling consumed by everything that was occurring around him, so he felt that his actions were just and logical because they were trying to harm him. He had his intentions to do justice and thought clearly about his actions to get rid of an