In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, the principal character, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, uses a charade of madness in order to further his plot of revenge. However, his mind is not able to justify murder for any reason; therefore, he truly goes insane before he is able to fulfill his scheme. In contrast, Ophelia is openly mad and is used by Shakespeare to show the various forms of insanity.
According to Carney Landis and James D. Page, there are "three levels of social adjustment:" there is the "normal individual," the "neurotic," and the "psychotic"(Landis and Page 9). The normal individual is just what the title says. He is accepted into society as a logical and stable person. Most people are classified as normal. The second level is the neurotic. These people have "desires, emotions, and interests" that are not accepted by their society (Landis and Page 9). Some symptoms of the neurotic person include "undue worry, chronic fatigue, absurd fears, obsessions, and compulsions" (Landis and Page 9-10). Despite all of this, these people are generally able to maintain a life within the demands of society. He is able to recognize his problems even though he cannot fix them. The third level is psychotic, completely maladjusted to society. These people's actions are uncontrollable by either themselves or others. "His behavior is...looked upon as irrational and incomprehensible by his associates" (Landis and Page 10). People with this mental disorder are usually hospitalized. There are many differing varieties of neurosis and psychosis, all are characterized by a lack of judgment, childish or incomprehensible behavior.
Bernard Hart identifies the presence of complexes within the human psyche. He says that, "Complexes[...]a...
... middle of paper ...
...im.
With the appearance of the ghost and the relating of his murder, Hamlet begins his downward spiral towards his ultimate downfall. He develops a revenge complex in which his desire for revenge conflicts with his personality. This complex steadily evolves as the play progresses, creating intense discord within Hamlet himself. Ultimately Hamlet is forced to take action, which then leads to the downfall of almost everyone involved. Through this elaborate evaluation of Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, it is easy to see that Hamlet was mad both in craft and in reality.
Works Cited
Hart, Bernard. The Psychology of Insanity. London: Cambridge, 1914.
Landis, Carney, and James D. Page. Modern Soceity and Mental Disease. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1938.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Norton Critical ed. Ed. Cyrus Hoy. New York: Norton, 1992.
Blanche’s immoral and illogical decisions all stem from her husband's suicide. When a tragedy happens in someone’s life, it shows the person’s true colors. Blanche’s true self was an alcoholic and sex addict, which is displayed when “She rushes about frantically, hiding the bottle in a closet, crouching at the mirror and dabbing her face with cologne and powder” (Williams 122). Although Blanche is an alcoholic, she tries to hide it from others. She is aware of her true self and tries to hide it within illusions. Blanche pretends to be proper and young with her fancy clothes and makeup but is only masking her true, broken self.
Throughout the book of Judges, Israel falls away from worshipping their God no fewer than six times. Each time, they are invaded by neighboring nations and eventually forced into war. The judges God appointed led Israel back to their heritage in the Lord every time, but the death of a judge often signaled Israel’s imminent relapse into idolatry and immorality.
death when his mother and the king enter the room and question him on his
Blanche Dubois the main character of the play, was an English teacher in Mississippi. She presents herself as a very prim, proper, and prudent person. She once proudly told her sister Stella that her name in French meant white woods. Blanche Dubois is also overly concerned with her appearance, accessories, bathing and age. She was very disturbed by the light, and usually preferred to be in the dark. Many believe it was to prevent people from noticing her real age. Deep inside she was hurt and destroyed. All of this pain was caused by the death of the love of her life. She was married to a young man named Allan, and they loved each other very much. Until one day Blanche found out that Allan was sleeping with another man. Once she confessed to him she knew his secret he committed suicide. Ever since, Blanches’ life was never the same again.
Shakespeare's tragic hero, Hamlet, and his sanity can arguably be discussed. Many portions of the play supports his loss of control in his actions, while other parts uphold his ability of dramatic art. The issue can be discussed both ways and altogether provide significant support to either theory. There are indications from Hamlet throughout the play of his mind's well being.
Ascione’s (1993) definition of animal cruelty is defined as “socially unacceptable behavior that intentionally causes unnecessary pain, suffering, or distress to and/or death of an animal” exclusive of socially condoned behavior, such as legal hunting and certain agricultural and veterinary practices. Not all violent individuals have been previously cruel to animals but studies have shown that a great number of them have exhibited this behavior. A great majority of the literature calls for a better understandin...
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, main character Blanche Dubois to begin with seems to be a nearly perfect model of a classy woman whose social interaction, life and behavior are based upon her sophistication. The play revolves around her, therefore the main theme of drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the misfortune of a person caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present.
The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck’s life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck’s struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim’s struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary element in this novel is apparent in this chapter and is primarily expressed through Huck’s sarcasm. A major element of superstition is introduced and continues throughout the entire book. This superstition is used to give insight into Huck’s character, which is very naive and gullible, as well as foreshadow events. For example the killing of the spider in chapter 1 and, in a later chapter, the spilling of the salt does result in bad luck in the form of Pa coming home. Twain puts together an interesting juxtaposition of theft with honor when Tom Sawyer establishes his robber band with Huck and the other boys and they swear to their code of ethics. Interestingly, this is also paralleled at the end of the book when Tom is able to help steal Jim “honorably” because Jim is already a free man. Throughout this section, Huck’s character and personality is established. He is revealed as humble in that he constantly underplays his own intelligence. An example is when he plans his own death and then whi...
Huck decides that Jackson island would be a good place to go. He knows his way around the island, knows that almost nobody goes there, and it’s big enough to sustain him. The river is a huge part in the story as Twain uses it for a scene of “romance”. This is, and always will be a big part of Huck’s evolution into the archetypal hero. Once Huck arrives on the island, it is time for huck to truly find out his place in society, and find his own ways from society’s grasp. Just as Huck thinks he is alone on the island, it turns out that Jim has run away from his owner, Miss Watson. Huck actually goes up to Jim with a gun, until he realizes who he is. Jim is quite scared at the start, as he believes Huck is dead, so he thinks that this figure in front of him is Huck’s ghost. “Doan’ hurt me—don’t! I hain’t ever done no harm to a ghos’. I alwuz liked dead people, en done all I could for ‘em,”(Twain 41). Although Huck does have an opportunity to be like Tom here, and pretend he really is a ghost, the reader sees Huck resist the urge to be a jokester. Huck tells Jim immediately that he is not truly dead. Now the reader sees a Huck vs. society battle, while Jim is hesitant to tell Huck
The characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, most notably Blanche, demonstrates the quality of “being misplaced” and “being torn away from out chosen image of what and who we are” throughout the entirety of the play.
“There can be many reason for animal cruelty, like any other form of violence, is often committed by a person who feels powerless, unnoticed, or under control of others. Some who are cruel to animals copy acts what they have seen or that have been done to them, others see harming an animal as a safe way to get revenge against--or threaten-- someone who cares about that animal”. (“Animal… Statistics”) Concerns towards abusing animals have gone up in the past. Although there are not many cases on animal abuse, many have occurred. Abusers are charged with Criminal Animal Abuse and then sentenced to life in prison. Some animals that are physically abused are sometimes rescued by Animal Control, and are taken it to an animal shelter. However, many shelters have not had the space to keep the animals so the workers would have to put them down (Carol Roach). Researchers have shown that the main animals getting abused are dogs, chickens, horses, and livestock (“Animal...
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is a complex and ambiguous public exploration of key human experiences surrounding the aspects of revenge, betrayal and corruption. The Elizabethan play is focused centrally on the ghost’s reoccurring appearance as a symbol of death and disruption to the chain of being in the state of Denmark. The imagery of death and uncertainty has a direct impact on Hamlet’s state of mind as he struggles to search for the truth on his quest for revenge as he switches between his two incompatible values of his Christian codes of honour and humanist beliefs which come into direct conflict. The deterioration of the diseased state is aligned with his detached relationship with all women as a result of Gertrude’s betrayal to King Hamlet which makes Hamlet question his very existence and the need to restore the natural order of kings. Hamlet has endured the test of time as it still identifies with a modern audience through the dramatized issues concerning every human’s critical self and is a representation of their own experience of the bewildering human condition, as Hamlet struggles to pursuit justice as a result of an unwise desire for revenge.
Hamlet’s mourning about the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother drives him to madness. This is the main characters inner tragedy that Shakespeare expresses in the play. First he considers suicide but the ghost of King Hamlet sends him on a different path, directing him to revenge his death. Shakespeare uses Hamlet to articulate his thoughts about life, death and revenge. Being a moral character he must decide if revenge is the right thing to do. Shakespeare relays many scenarios of reasoning to the audience about mankind His hero sets the wrongs on mankind right again.
The madness of each individual is not realistic, but the idea that death, grievance, and revenge can drive someone to do things that seem to be mad or make them do things out of their nature. Overall, we see that the theme of madness has a significant impact on the conflicts and overall development of the play as well as the characters themselves and is successfully conveyed. Shakespeare developed a theme that tied the many important emotions and ideas together to make the play what it is. He used Ophelia’s grief and love, Hamlet’s wit and ruminative nature to convey a theme that could be related to more than the one character, and tie all of the conflicts and complications down to one cause.
To escape this miserable fate, Huck soon fakes his own death and rides a stray canoe to Jackson’s island, where he later meets Jim, a runaway slave of Douglas’s, ironically. The two coexist for a time, but eventually catch wind that search parties are being sent for both of them, so they decide to board a stray raft and float down the river, away from St. Petersburg. The two hope to stop at the mouth of the Ohio River, where Jim can travel north to become a free man. They encounter many an interesting sight as well as close call along the way: a sinking steamboat with hostile robbers aboard, a group of slave-hunters in a thick fog (which causes them to float past the mouth of the Ohio), and a steamboat which splits their raft as well as their company with one another, as Huck ends up washing...