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Throughout the play The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo is a very interesting play written in 1970. The play is set in Milan, Italy in a police station after a man plummeted to his death out of a window, where a man is currently being questioned and this man leads to a whole myriad of sequences throughout the play. The main character of the play, the Maniac, is an intelligent and educated, documented psychopath who was in multiple institutions and had been acquitted of multiple crimes before the current crime he committed before he was introduced in the play. Inspector Bertozzo is the officer questioning the maniac for his most recent antics and gets outwitted multiple times by the Maniac and is even set up shortly after their meeting comes to an end. There are also a few Constables that appear …show more content…
When he showed the characters of the play his paperwork to show he was “insane”, one of the titles brought up for him was a forger. If he was able to act this well and forge documents, it is possible he forged all those other documents that he claimed were real and that he was insane just to get out of trouble for his criminal activity. At no point in the play can it actually be proven that he was mentally institutionalized besides paperwork, and being as smart as he is and a potential forger, it is completely possible that part is fake. All the time it would have taken to learn law from a mentally institutionalized patient would’ve been greater than any normal person to learn from someone who was clinically insane. Also understanding latin and knowledge of forensics, being a lecturer, is rather superior for an someone who was institutionalized 16 times as well for
Volunteers took on the role of the constable by appointment and served a year period of office. They were also expected to carry on their day jobs much like the Special constables of today. Similarly, men w...
He pretended to be illiterate in order to have others underestimate him. The people that evaluated him while in Washington claimed that he was skilled in the ways of the system. (Petersen, 2) During his time spent locked up he managed to study Scientology, and even took a Dale Carnegie course called “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. It was in these classes that Manson learned to manipulate the naive. (Carlson, 1) This would be a skill that he would rely upon later in life. His life of crime did not appear to stop either. He first entered the adult prison system at age twenty five and was released seven years later in 1967 at age thirty two. By the time he released from prison Manson had spent more than half of his life locked up. (Petersen,
The second point showing his sanity is the fact that he was able to match wits with the other characters in the play. If he was an insane person why would he plan a way to let Claudius know that he knows about the death of his father. Most insane people don’t have the mind for that type of thing, but he was able to do it. He was able to let Claudius know without saying a word. He had the players act it out for him and what a job they did to let him know. He even knows when his good friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, show up that they are they to spy and find information about him to give to the king. (Act2 sc2 Line293-298). If he was insane why would he recognize the fact that his friends are turning on him.
To begin, it is important there be an established definition of insanity. Though the original work is set in the turn of the 17th century, and Branagh's in the late 19th, it is important that insanity be described based on current definitions. Antiquated understandings of the matter will provide very little as far as frames of argument. Thus, for this task, the paper will employ law.com's vast legal dictionary for a current definition of insanity. The dictionary tasks itself to such extent. It defines insanity as “mental illness of such a sever...
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.
Throughout the Shakespearian play, Hamlet, the main character is given the overwhelming responsibility of avenging his father’s "foul and most unnatural murder" (I.iv.36). Such a burden can slowly drive a man off the deep end psychologically. Because of this, Hamlet’s disposition is extremely inconsistent and erratic throughout the play. At times he shows signs of uncontrollable insanity. Whenever he interacts with the characters he is wild, crazy, and plays a fool. At other times, he exemplifies intelligence and method in his madness. In instances when he is alone or with Horatio, he is civilized and sane. Hamlet goes through different stages of insanity throughout the story, but his neurotic and skeptical personality amplifies his persona of seeming insane to the other characters. Hamlet comes up with the idea to fake madness in the beginning of the play in order to confuse his enemies. However, for Hamlet to fulfill his duty of getting revenge, he must be totally sane. Hamlet’s intellectual brilliance make it seem too impossible for him to actually be mad, for to be insane means that one is irrational and without any sense. When one is irrational, one is not governed by or according to reason. So, Hamlet is only acting mad in order to plan his revenge on Claudius.
... way for him to escape his criminal deeds. Insanity is when a person cannot decipher right from wrong or know the effects of their actions. They are generally unaware of what they are doing. If in a state of insanity you commit a crime, the charges are dropped and this has been done throughout history. However, in Hamlet’s case all evidence shows that not only do Hamlet’s actions have reason behind them, but he is well aware of the result that they would trigger. In all the points given, it is seen, that the motif behind Hamlet’s disposition is carried out sanely, even though to others they may seem mad, to Hamlet and those who know his intentions they are not. Therefore, the evidence that has been presented proves that Hamlet was in a normal state the entire time, and hence, he should be punished for the deaths of the three people for which he is responsible for.
In Hamlet, he seems to be mad, but there is a question that everyone asks when reading or watching this play “was it, or was it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity, really suffering, or maybe even both.” First, this is what insanity is: insanity is acting crazy, but not knowing that they’re acting crazy. Also, it’s going through a lot of stress at the same time causing you to act stranger then a normal person. Hamlet was not totally insane. It doesn’t fit.
Much of my skepticism over the insanity defense is how this act of crime has been shifted from a medical condition to coming under legal governance. The word "insane" is now a legal term. A nuerological illness described by doctors and psychiatrists to a jury may explain a person's reason and behavior. It however seldom excuses it. The most widely known rule in...
In an article titled, What is Forensic Psychology, Anyway?, John Brigham attempts to explain the beginnings of psychology and law; Forensics Psychology. Brigham explains that, “forensic psychology involves the interaction of psychology and the legal process” (Brigham 274). Brigham further highlights a historical case and the precedent established by the House of Lords through the induction of the McNaughten Rule, which translates, “To establish a defense on the ground of insanity it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was laboring under such defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know nature and quality of the act he was doing, or he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong” (Finkel, 1988, p21; Brigham p275). Brigham explains that the concept of introducing psychology into the field of law ...
Hamlet throughout the play seems insane but in reality it is only an act to achieve his goal of killing his father's murderer. Hamlet chooses to go mad so he has an advantage over his opponent and since he is the Prince of Denmark certain behavior is unacceptable, so by faking madness he is able to get away with inappropriate sayings and actions. We can see this when he talks to Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia and his mother. When Hamlet talks to Horatio in the first act he says how he is going to "feign madness" and that:
Amongst other things, “The Dead Man” is a story of political ambition, and personal pride which ends up being the downfall of our protagonist. Benjamin Otalora, the Argentinean Buenos Aires hoodlum turned Uruguayan gaucho, is ambitious and most of all brave. However, he is also reckless and lacks any kind of discretion whatsoever. His physical daring is un-complimented by any higher meaning or purpose. He doesn’t save Azevedo Bandeira, the mobster boss, in the knife fight because of any morals or virtues he believes in, but simply because he was drawn “to the sheer taste of danger.” Otalora’s braveness is also completely selfish. It is a raw, violent, braveness that ultimately blinds him to the reality to which he becomes self-aware in the last moments of his life; he is a man who is completely oblivious to forces outside himself. Otalora’s uncontrolled ambition and unchecked bravery disallows him the ability to calmly make calculations, to make the most intelligent choices, to think things through; all essentials in leadership and especially in ultimately coordinating a power grab from someone the likes of Azevedo.
They argue that elusive insanity does not manifest itself through conventional and recognizable signs, and it is hence undetectable by the untrained eye, propelling a need for expert witnesses. This strategy was evident as the Esquirol circle proposed the concept of “monomania” in the courtrooms in 1820s. The Esquirol circle took the assessments of insanity beyond of the sphere of common sense and construed them niche expertise, necessitating the need for their intervention. This technique was useful as they presented monomania as a form of elusive insanity. As Goldstein remarked, the success of this strategy is manifested in the fact that advocates “accepted it prematurely” and was hence free from significant scientific debate for decades.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the main character, Hamlet, is often perceived by the other characters in the play as being mentally unbalanced because he acts in ways that drive them to think he is mad. Hamlet may very well be psychotic; however, there are times when he “feigns insanity” in order to unearth the truth surrounding his father's death. This plan seems to be going well until Hamlet's mental state slowly begins to deteriorate. What began as an act of insanity or antic disposition transitions from an act to a tragic reality. After studying Hamlet's actions, one will notice that as the play progresses, his feigned insanity becomes less and less intentional and devolves into true mental illness.
To Hamlets credit, he seemed to be an intellectual individual. This may have been possible due to the fact that he was a student. He came up with some reasonable ideas in his quest to uncover the truth. His idea of staging the scene of his fathers death was a magnificent idea in my opinion and this is what ultimately led to his conclusion that Claudius was indeed responsible. However, it is his brilliance that could be the most valid argument in favor of his madness being feigned for the fact that some of his decisions did seem to come from a reasoning mind.