Theme Of Insanity In Hamlet

Hamlet

Throughout Hamlet, Prince Hamlet feigns insanity, takes his emotions out on others, and murders multiple people. In the beginning of Hamlet, Prince Hamlet appreciates honesty, loyalty, and truthfulness. Because of his honor for these character traits, he develops antagonism toward King Claudius. King Claudius killed his brother, King Hamlet, to gain the powers of a king and to marry King Hamlet’s wife, Queen Gertrude. Claudius is a shrewd, lustful, conniving king ("Hamlet: Analysis of Major Characters." ), whose egoistic actions are shown through his actions of deceiving Gertrude into believing that he wants the best for Hamlet by sending him to England; However, Claudius’ plan is to send Hamlet to England to be imprisoned and to have his head severed from his body. These antithetic characteristics disgust Hamlet and taint Hamlet’s views of his uncle, the usurping king of Denmark. Hamlet’s actions of feigning insanity are bolstered in

Bring me to the test,

And the matter will reword, which madness

Would gambol from.” And "I essentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft." (Shakespeare, William)

Hamlet is distraught by his father’s death and disgusted with his mother’s hasty marriage after his father’s death. Because his mother has tainted Hamlet’s view of women through her hasty marriage to her deceased husband’s brother, Hamlet takes his anger out on Ophelia in their conversation in Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1, calling women two-faced and untrustworthy. The actions that take place in Hamlet change Hamlet from a man that appreciates honesty, loyalty, and truthfulness, to a man that justifies murdering two of his childhood friends, who finally avenges his father’s death by killing King