Hamlet: A Sane Man
Hamlet was indeed a very sane man. He was only feigning madness to further
his own plans for revenge. His words were so cleverly constructed that others
will perceive him as mad. It is this consistent cleverness that is the ultimate
evidence of his complete sanity. Can a mad person be so clever? No, a mad person
cannot. Hamlet is sane and brilliant.
After Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus see the ghost, Hamlet tells Horatio
that he is going to "feign madness". If Horatio is to notice Hamlet acting
strange it is because he is putting on an act. "How strange or odd some'er I
bear myself/(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/To put an antic
disposition on)/That you, at such times seeing, never shall,/With arms
encumbered thus, or this headshake ,/Or by pronouncing of some doutful
phrase,/As "Well,well,we know," or "We could an if we/would,"/Or "If we list to
speak," or "There be an if they/might,"/Or such ambiguous giving-out, to
note/That you know of me-this do swear,/(I,v,190-201).Hamlet states that from
this point forward I may act weird but to ignore my acts of madness for they are
just that, acts, and are in no way a sign of true madness. Only a sane and
rational person could devise such a plan as to act insane to convince others
that he is insane when he actually has complete control over his psyche.
Hamlet only acts mad when he is in the presence of certain characters.
When he is around Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern he acts completely irrational. When Hamlet is around Horatio,
Bernardo, Fransico, the players, and the gravediggers Hamlet acts completely
sane.
When Hamlet and Polonius meet in II,ii Hamlet calls Polonius a
fishmonger and makes strange conversation with him. In IV,iii Hamlet refuses to
tell Claudius were he has hidden the body of Polonius and goes on about how
Polonius is at supper. When Hamlet encounters Gertrude in her closet, an unusual
place, in III,iv. He yells at his own mother. In II,i Hamlet enters Ophelia's
closet, a highly unusual act, he is dressed badly, and acts very strange towards
her. Claudius and Polonius set up a clandestine meeting between Hamlet and
Ophelia in III,i. Ophelia then tries to return some gifts that Hamlet gave to
her and Hamlet claims that he did not give her any gifts and that he never loved
her at all. During the play in III,ii Hamlet sexually harasses Ophelia in front
of the entire audience of the play. In IV,ii Hamlet refuses to tell Rosencratz
The African empires, kingdoms, and cities had many achievements before the arrival of the Europeans. Some of these achievements had influences many other places in the world. Three major achievements were the trading systems, their military forces and strengths of its people, and the wealth and success.
that they had seen a ghost during the night watch. Hamlet was shocked at the
There was also a great city in Mali called Timbuktu. It was very important because it was a center for trade and it aided the Muslim art and culture which helped to spread Islam.
He decided to improve the status of his land on his arrival from a pilgrimage from Mecca in 1324. Furthermore, he transformed his trading city of Timbuktu to a center of learning and religion and built a mass, which set a new style of architecture in West Africa. “Caravans of Gold” underlines the importance of Timbuktu because it concentrated on African scholarship, politics, teaching theology, and Islamic law. Timbuktu was a significant place in Africa during this time because it became a market right after and made a profit for the region. Likewise, it was a religious, cultural, and profitable center whose people traveled north across the Sahara through Morocco and Algeria to other parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia. According to The History of Africa, “Because of his devotion to Islam, Mansa Musa strengthened Islam and promoted education, trade, and commerce in Mali” (Asante, 2014, pg. 135). It was a successful center for the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade and grew as the center of Islam. This statement launches the truth that Timbuktu supported Islamic values and knowledge because it was a city most well-known for the education of important scholars whose backgrounds were of Islam. Asante supports the fact that Mansa Musa was effective in reforming the city of Timbuktu and the trade in that area. Asante also states that “Musa did not forget the control of the gold and salt; it was fundamental for the
The sickness of insanity stems from external forces and stimuli, ever-present in our world, weighing heavily on the psychological, neurological, and cognitive parts of our mind. It can drive one to madness through its relentless, biased, and poisoned view of the world, creating a dichotomy between what is real and imagined. It is a defense mechanism that allows one to suffer the harms of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination, all at the expense of one’s physical and mental faculties.
What is madness? Is madness a brain disorder or a chemical imbalance? On the other hand, is it an expressed behavior that is far different from what society would believe is "normal"? Lawrence Durrell addresses these questions when he explores society's response to madness in his short story pair "Zero and Asylum in the Snow," which resembles the nearly incoherent ramblings of a madman. In these stories, Durrell portrays how sane, or lucid, people cannot grasp and understand the concept of madness. This inability to understand madness leads society to fear behavior that is different from "normal," and subsequently, this fear dictates how they deal with it. These responses include putting a name to what they fear and locking it up in an effort to control it. Underlying all, however, Durrell repeatedly raises the question: who should define what is mad?
In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the main character Hamlet experiences many different and puzzling emotions. He toys with the idea of killing himself and then plays with the idea of murdering others. Many people ask themselves who or what is this man and what is going on inside his head. The most common question asked about him is whether or not he is sane or insane. Although the door seems to swing both ways many see him as a sane person with one thought on his mind, and that is revenge. The first point of his sanity is while speaking with Horatio in the beginning of the play, secondly is the fact of his wittiness with the other characters and finally, his soliloquy.
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.
Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to seek revenge for his father's murder. As the play progresses, the reader may start to believe Hamlet’s “insane” act, but throughout the scenes, Hamlet shows that he knows right from wrong, good from bad, and his friends from his enemies. Hamlet shows that he still has power and control over his actions. As Elliot says “Hamlet madness is less than madness and more feigned”. Hamlet portrays a mad man, in order to be free from questioning, thus allowing him to have an easier path towards revenge.
Insanity, then, is inordinate or irregular, or impaired action of the mind, of the instincts, sentiments, intellectual, or perceptive powers, depending upon and produced by an organic change in the brain.
The origin of the Sophocles’ Greek tragedy “Antigone” has created much controversy about the definition of a tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle. A literary character that makes a judgment error that leads to his/her own downfall. Both Creon and Antigone challenge each other’s conception of the divine and civic law while each has lawfulness in their argument. It is evidently noted that Antigone is the hero of the tragedy; she was a romantic idealist whose beliefs on family loyalty and religious values could not be condemned by civil laws.
Freedom of Speech, Assembly, Petition, Press and Freedom of Religion was granted to us on 1791, but what about the time before that? What were people’s rights, did they even have any? Nicolaus Copernicus was one of the many people who lived through the early Reformation. During that time the Catholic Church controlled the people. Anyone who disobeyed the Catholic Church was either put into prison or even sentenced to death. The major concept that the Catholic Church held was the geocentric theory, that the Earth is the center of the universe. Their argument was that God had not only blessed humans with its nature but also granted humans a special place to live, which was in the center of the universe. However Copernicus was not completely satisfied with this theory. He went on to study and observe the mysterious sky and constantly search for mathematical proofs.
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:
Darwin’s father kept the family tradition and became a doctor though he didn’t like his work, he expected his son Charles to take the same sacrifice and keep doctors in the family and complained about Charles’s lack of direction. Charles wanted to set sail and see the wonders of South America, before returning to England and to become as he planned a country gentleman and parson. Darwin considered the voyage the most important experience of his life and he was right, it provided him the evidence that would change Biology. However, it also ruined his health. A bite from a poisonous insect may have been the cause of Darwin’s chronic illness later on in his life. After returning to London, Darwin became an independent scholar like his older brother, though he proved to be a much more serious naturalist. People had said that Darwin happened upon one of science’s most important theories while on his visit to the Galapagos Islands. Darwin devised no great theory until after his r...
Numerous studies have been conducted on where humans evolved from and how they have developed over the years. Some people believe in the theory of evolution and others believe in the theory developed in religion. The researcher is interested in this topic because this is the theory of how human’s evolved over time. This theory marks where humans first started from, to now and the phenomena continues today. Another reason is because there are so many different facts and evidence found throughout the years to prove that humans have evolved over the years into the people they are today. Charles Darwin is not the founder of evolution, but with help from history and these scientists, Thomas Henry Huxley, Alfred Wallace and John Gould, he was able to develop the theory of evolution. These scientists contributed a huge amount to Charles research and helped him come up with the conclusion of where humans evolved.