A Brief Comparison Of Hamlet And Martha's Madness

Madness can be viewed as extremely foolish behavior that is accompanied by a state of frenzied or chaotic activity. It is an emotional mentality that can lead to not knowing the difference between reality and illusion. In the mind it eliminates all rational thought leaving an individual with no proper conception of what is really happening around them. While both Hamlet and Martha have madness in their lives, their reasons why are quite different. Throughout both their stories, each character is faced with events that impact their sanity. Martha is a character from the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She is married to a man named George who works at the local university for her father. Martha is never satisfied with George and always views him as a disappointment. George is never able to

In the beginning, he is depressed for the death of his father and the fact that his mother remarried so quickly. Stating that his “flesh” would “melt”, meaning he wanted to die. The difference of the madness between Hamlet and Martha is that Hamlet went mad on purpose. Although it can be seen that Martha did as well to escape the fact that she did not actually have children and she went mad to make up her own son to fill the void. Hamlet tells Horatio that he is going to “feign madness.” And that if Horatio notices any strange behavior from him, it is because he is outing on an act. (Act I, Scene v, lines 166-180). Also Hamlet’s madness only manifests itself when he is in the presence of certain characters. In reference, his encounter with Polonius after he tells the king and Hamlet’s mother that he believes he has gone mad because of his daughter, he goes and talks to Hamlet. Throughout the whole conversation Hamlet acts quite strange, which Polonius notices. Polonius asks “What do you read, my lord?” to which Hamlet replies eccentrically, “Words, words, words.” In attempt to convince Polonius that he has in fact gone