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Shakespeare’s obsession with madness
Shakespeare’s obsession with madness
Shakespeare’s obsession with madness
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Many people question the psychological condition of the character Hamlet in the sixteenth century play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare. One of the reasons that the mental health of hamlet is in question by many people is the result of hamlet's actions as well as his reactions to events that occur during the play. Some people argue that the character Hamlet is insane, while others may argue that his insanity can be justified by several means such as his need for justice of his father's murder. However, Hamlet's need for justice or revenge does not necessarily justify Hamlet's behavior in the play. In addition, Hamlet's behavior falls into several categories of insanity such as shizophrenia. Therefore, there are many ways in which it can be proven that hamlet may truly be insane.
According to the article “9 Signs You Might Be Going Insane” by Mamapedia, Hamlet falls into several categories of mental illness ( Mamapedia). One of the mental ilness's that show Hamlet is insane schizophrenia. Hamlet can be considered to be schizophrenic due to his paranoia that everyone is on claudious's side and his his hallucination of his father's ghost in his mother's chambers as well as his delusion for revenge of his father's murder. In act 3, scene 4 Hamlet talks to his father's ghost in front of his mother but the ghost is completely imaginary to his mother Gertrude and she even calls him mad because hamlet seem to be talking to some kind of a hallucination (3, 4, 105-7).Therefore, this supports the argument that Hamlet is actually insane in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
Moreover, another mental illness that Hamlet seems to suffer from that emphazises the idea that Hamlet is insane is that he seems to have a bipolar disorder. The reason Ha...
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...tal murder of polonious and his decision to have his friends Rozencrantz and Guildenstern murdered for conspiring against him also contributed to Hamlet's mental instability. Moreover, the death of his beloved Ophelia and his mother Gertrude lead to Hamlet's decision to commit suicide.. Each of this events had some pshychological impact on Hamlet and ultimately contributed to Hamlet's insanity and his death. Therefore, even thought Hamlet had not been insane at the beginning of the play he gradually became insane due to the dramatic events that occurred to him and how he dealth with them.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 9th ed. Edgar V. Roberts. Pearson Education, 2009. 1318-1421. print.
Mamapedia staff. “9 Signs You Might Be Going Insane.” Mamapedia Voices 21 Oct. 2009. Mamapedia.web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Throughout the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the unclear representation of the protagonist’s actions is present. The protagonist, Hamlet, conducts the idea that he is turning mad. Although, there are many indications which support that this so-called “madness” is part of an act that Hamlet portrays. The other characters within the play try to understand the reasoning behind Hamlet’s madness, but cannot figure out the truth behind it. The main cause of Hamlet’s madness is the realization of his father’s death and the numerous influences his father’s death has on his life. Hamlet can control his actions of madness and specifically acts differently around certain characters. The characters who are more concerned
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet undergoes a transformation from sane to insane while fighting madness to avenge his father’s death. The material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge. Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story entirely, making Hamlet a philosophically minded prince who delays taking action because his knowledge of his uncle’s crime is so uncertain. To begin with, Hamlet portrays himself as sane.
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 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.
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.
Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes more and more believable in his act, even convincing his mother that he is crazy. However, through his thoughts, and actions, the reader can see that he is in fact putting up an act, he is simply simulating insanity to help fulfil his fathers duty of revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet shows that he understands real from fake, right from wrong and his enemies from his friends. Even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what is going on around him. Most importantly, Hamlet does not think like that of a person who is mad.
He was truly a victim of a fatal situation that led him to his insanity. People who suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder are “considerably more likely to the victim of violence, including rape and other crimes,” (“What is BPD?”1). Although Hamlet is a casualty if the disorder, it is completely justified by the occurrences in his life. The traumatic event of losing his father really did affect the way he will live on throughout the play. In conclusion, Hamlet may not be completely psychotic, but he does suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder, that he exhibits when interacting with other
I’m not saying that Hamlet was faking the whole thing. I mean, having your dad die is bad, but to have your mom marry your uncle. Also to see the ghost of your dead dad. That might make you a bit crazy, but not as crazy as everyone thought Hamlet was. If it wasn’t for Hamlet’s insanity, the King would have known that something was wrong with Hamlet, and might have him killed. If Hamlet didn’t act to make the king believe that he was insane, then the King would have seen it and would figure that Hamlet knew the truth.
Hamlet experiences dissonance between his surroundings and his thoughts. He wants to mourn for his father’s death, but Claudius and Gertrude try to stop him due to their own self interest in the throne. Claudius asks Hamlet to stop mourning “T’is unmanly grief/It shows a will most incorrect in heaven” (1.2 94-95). This confliction helps to trigger not only his revenge plot, but also Hamlet’s insanity, or schizophrenia. He experiences other major dissonance that are a result of his revenge plot, but this is the point where his schizophrenia begins.
Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare Hamlet is sane but acts insane to fulfill his destiny of getting vengeance on his father's murderer.
In the play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare the reader gets to see how Hamlet's life pertains to his insanity. “In life of Hamlet as represented by Shakespeare we have a full history of a case of insanity, of a peculiar kind” (Kellogg). “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane” notes Philip K. Dick. Even though Hamlet is aware in the play there is a side to Hamlet that takes control of him. Though Hamlet often demonstrates awareness; his mind ultimately succumbs to insanity, which brings about his tragic end.
But based on the many instances throughout the play show it was more than that. He had many stressful events happen to him in life, like his father’s death or his mother moving on quickly to his uncle right after. He is still a young man, so that is a lot of thing to process through. Most young men worry about a career and women but he has to deal with his father’s death and then founding out on top of that, that the killer was his uncle. Also the inability to trust no one with anything, being alone in a tough time is very hard. The topic of suicide comes up often and it is related to being alone. He gets very paranoid and it just add fuel to the fire. So throughout the play Hamlet thinks he is acting about his insanity but in truth he was
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.
In the play Hamlet, the author, Shakespeare portrays madness or insanity through most of its characters. What is madness, it is a state of mind in which doesn’t let ones ideas flow normally or think with a clear mind. In this case it is evident that there is something wrong with almost all the main characters. All the characters in the play in some form or fashion display madness either through thoughts, actions or words.