More handpicked essays just for you.
Character of Hamlet in Hamlet
How does Shakespeare present the idea of madness in Hamlet essay
Hamlet's mental illness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The novel “Hamlet”, started as one of the world’s most famous plays known for the main characters’ struggle with two opposing forces and the melancholy, somber tone shown throughout it. Hamlet has been said to be one of the most complex characters seen throughout literature, being one that defies essay explanation. While trying to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet proposes that he shall fool everyone by putting on a façade of being mentally ill. As he progresses throughout the play, it is unclear whether or not it is an act or if Hamlet is truly mentally unstable making the play more attractive to the reader. Hamlet is also believed to be one of the most intelligent characters in all of literature because of his constant effort to avenge his …show more content…
He is acting one way but is feeling another; People think he is going crazy, but in all reality, he knows what he is doing and it is all part of his plan to trick everyone. Although I believe he eventually goes insane, that wasn’t his intention. In the article "Hamlet, Shakespeare's Masterpiece in Our Times", the author states, "He seems to step very easily into the role of a madman, behaving erratically and upsetting the other characters with his wild speech and pointed innuendos." Hamlet is already on the verge of mental insanity, so when he makes the vow to honor his father's name and avenge his death, it is easy for him to act in this deranged manner. He is often unable to see the world lucidly and his perception of the world is too clouded by his melancholy thoughts and constant soul searching. He states, "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw" (2.2. 351-352). Hamlet is saying that he is mad but he often has times where he is able to see the world clearly and he knows what's what. As stated earlier, Hamlet is a very self-contradictory character which adds to his complexity. Shakespeare created the character of Hamlet as a prince which is a position that is one to protect and have control over the people, but in the end Hamlet is the one having to be watched and is feared the most. His wit and knowledge are what should lead to a victorious ending to the play, but despite his efforts, Hamlet along with his mother, girlfriend Ophelia, and uncle Claudius end up all being killed. Hamlet is seen as a complex character and can be re-analyzed in different ways each time he is studied because of his many personality
There is a great controversy amongst those who have read and studied Hamlet by Shakespeare. People argue whether or not Hamlet had gone mad or not. Many people believe that Hamlet had actually lost his mind, while others believe that it was all just an act. Since Hamlet is the most widely published book in the world, besides the Bible, this question has been asked and analyzed many times to little avail. The answer is open to whatever one wants to believe, which may intrigue some and bother others. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s personality changed after certain events. The play starts with him very upset over his father’s death. Then, after he saw his father’s ghost, he became full of vengeance. He seemed to have completely
Another reason why Hamlet is not mad is in the way he escaped his awaited execution in England. Hamlet knew that he was to be sent to England to be killed on the orders of Claudius. But once he saw a chance of escape on the pirate ship, he took this opportunity to board the ship, which made him escape death, thus prolonging his life a little longer. If Hamlet were actually mad, it would be doubtful that he would know of Claudius’ plans,...
In act three, he even admits that his actions are insane, horrible and evil. He says, “I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft” (3.4.191). For Hamlet to admit that his actions are mad or insane, is the most insane trait of Hamlet. For him to openly admit that he is fully aware that his actions are mad, only ignites the flame of his insanity. This quote seals the deal for the reader that Hamlets mind is a wasteland of madness, but also of planned insanity and horrible actions.
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.
Shakespeare’s enduring play Hamlet (1601) examines the concept of mortality through the introspective protagonist of Hamlet. The play explores how verisimilitude and deception are used by characters, as a result of death like in Hamlet, or ends in fatality, such as with Claudius. Hamlet uses an ‘antic disposition’ to convince people he has gone mad and this is shown all throughout the play in different instances. Hamlet is not completely sane or completely insane; his actions show a mixture of both. The metatheatre in Act 3, Scene 2 is used as a guise by Hamlet to determine Claudius’ innocence or guilt but leads him onto more procrastination. Most of the characters’ deceptions come into light in the last scene of the play, especially those of Laertes and Claudius. Deceit and verisimilitude are themes that drive Hamlet’s plot and can be a consequence of or lead to death.
Hamlet was a young man who lost his father the king of Denmark to an early death, therefore; he was grieving his father dead and this type of maddens not in a crazy way because her mother and uncle believed that he was grieving to long over his father death, and only a few months after his father death his mother betrayed he by marrying his uncle his father brother, and Hamlet was angry about that. He felt like his father had just dead and they was disrespecting him by getting married shortly after his death. Then, after all this hurt and betrayal he find out that his father was killed by his uncle, and his mother knew all about it, so now the hurt and betrayal turn in to rage because now he had to revenge his father death. Also, Hamlet loved and care for Ophelia with his heart and soul, and he believed that she love him too, but he find out that she also was betraying him for her father whom work for the king Claudius. Now Hamlet did not know who to trust, and how would he get his revenge for his father. As a young man he has a lot on his mind and he was betrayed, grieving over your father, and find out the person that he loved has betray him too; he fall in depression over all these, but he knew he had to stay strong to get his father revenge. Hamlet was mad, but not the mad like wildly impractical or having foolish ideas, but more in the way of hurt and felt a lot of betrayal from the people he care for; therefore, Hamlet acted like his was going crazy because he did not want Claudius to know that he knew that he killed his father, and to hide the hurt he was feeling.
Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare Hamlet is sane but acts insane to fulfill his destiny of getting vengeance on his father's murderer.
Many people including the characters believe that in the play Hamlet goes mad. Hamlet was in fact not mad, he clearly states in the play that he was going to pretend to be mad. Throughout the play Hamlet goes through states of depression and anger. A lot of pressure is put on Hamlet when the ghost of his father asks him to take revenge for his murder. He becomes confused and contemplates whether or not to kill the murderer, his uncle, now king. This is all expressed through his soliloquies. The actions and emotions of Hamlet are what make him to be believed he is mad in Hamlet written by William Shakespeare.
The tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare is about Hamlet going insane and reveals his madness through his actions and dialogue. Hamlet remains one of the most discussed literary characters of all time. This is most likely due to the complex nature of Hamlet as a character. In one scene, Hamlet appears happy, and then he is angry in another and melancholy in the next. Hamlet’s madness is a result of his father’s death which was supposedly by the hands of his uncle, Claudius. He has also discovered that this same uncle is marrying his mom. It is expected that Hamlet would be suffering from some emotional issues as result of these catastrophes. Shakespeare uses vivid language, metaphors, and imagery to highlight how Hamlet’s madness influences several important aspects of his life including his relationships and the way he presents himself.
While it is said that Hamlet acted to be insane towards his goal of vengeance, his emotionally depressed state causes his mental sanity to deteriorate. Not to say that he was a madman out of touch with reality, but a man who was driven to insanity by thought. His behavior throughout the play, especially towards loved ones, is inconsistent and uncontrolled. Hamlet first shows signs of his madness with his mother Gertrude. She tries to explain to Hamlet that he has offended his stepfather, Claudius.
Hamlet Essay Of considerable question in Shakespeare’s famed Hamlet is whether the titular character’s descent into madness is, as he claims, an act, or in actuality is Hamlet’s feigned insanity becomes real, imbuing his real consciousness and thoughts with the frantic madness that inspires his desire to kill. Certainly his initial behavior is planned; he intends to pretend madness for his own ends: “How strange or odd some'er I bear myself / (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on.)” (1.5.190-192) However, the pressures upon him of royal status, his quest for vengeance, and his sense of morality contribute to a decline of his mental lucidity.
When Guildenstern and Rosencrantz question Hamlet’s sanity, he replies “I am but mad north-north-west. When the/wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.” (Shakespeare 2.2. 402-403) Hamlet says he is mad only some of the times, but his response to his old friends say otherwise.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play: Hamlet, it is clear as a summer’s day, that Hamlet himself acts quite mad in some situations. Madness can come from many causes in a person’s life, Hamlet’s directly coming from his father’s, King Hamlet’s, death. He seems to go insane over whether or not his father was murdered, who did it, and how to get revenge upon this person. Whether or not he has actually gone insane is the big question. It is easy to assume that he is just playing a game, to gain attention to him and his plot against Claudius to confess over King Hamlet’s death, but without realizing it, Hamlet seems to actually go mad over this without realizing it.
Some people are driven to madness due to love, depression, or an event; however, this is not the case with hamlet. Hamlet is so intelligent that he has found a way to make everyone around him, no matter how close they may be to him, to think that he has been driven insanity. Hamlet says "How strange or odd some'er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on).” Hamlet is not insane, he has merely fooled everyone into thinking he is. He has done this through the way he speaks, acts, and leads others to realize how inferier they are.
Hamlet’s madness is questionable through his actions and the reactions from others. Shakespeare seems to leave it up to us to decide whether his madness is feigned or real. In conclusion we can see that he acts different from Ophelia who we know is truly mad. Hamlet played his antic deposition very well, not only did he fool King Claudius, it seems he fools a lot of people who are reading it. The theme we can see in Hamlet is sometimes you have to act insane to achieve the goals you