Murder, Monarchy, and Madness in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'

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A time of murder of the monarchy in Shakespeare ‘Hamlet’ At a time of murder, mystery, and suspense all unravels in William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'. This common occurrence within the Middle Ages from Queen Elizabeth herself was when she murdered and tortured people, to Mary I, when she was responsible for burning 227 men and 56 women, in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages related to the play 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare because they both had to deal with kings and queens, and also murders. Shakespeare utilized many themes that develop other characters but deception, indecision, and mental instability played huge roles with in the characters Hamlet, Claudius, and Ophelia. Throughout the play 'Hamlet' Shakespeare uses multiple devices to picture Claudius deceptive. In act l of the play Hamlet discovers how deceptive and fake Claudius appears to be in his indirect speech. After discovering that his uncle Claudius killed his father, Hamlet …show more content…

In Act IV of the play, Ophelia showed the most mental instability throughout her direct speech. Ophelia was singing about her father and so she sang “And he will not come again? And he will not come again? No, no he is dead, go to thy deathbed” (4.5.186-190). Ophelia showed her mental instability when she found out her father got murdered by Hamlet; therefore, she went insane and kept singing about her dead father. Towards the end of act IV Ophelia showed the most mental instability through her actions, by drowning herself. When she drowned herself because of how emotional and insane she was about her dead father, Gertrude saw her in the lake drowning herself, and so she went and told Laertes “One woe doth tread upon another’s’ heel, so fast they follow, you sisters drowned Laertes” (4.7.159-160). That was the end of Ophelia in act IV and so she ended her last scene floating on the top of the lake

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