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Comparison Of Insanity In Hamlet And The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison

483 Words2 Pages

“When the world goes mad, one must accept madness as sanity; since sanity is, in the last analysis, nothing but the madness on which the whole world happens to agree.”-George Bernard Shaw. Insanity is a process. No two minds are the same whether sane or insane. Toni Morrison shows insanity in The Bluest Eye as a slow process in which the main character loses their grasp on reality. In Hamlet, Shakespeare starts the book off with Hamlet off kilter and this insanity slowly grows throughout the course of the play. Both writers demonstrate insanity in very different ways yet the same purpose is fulfilled. The true purpose of insanity within writing is to cause conflict; from narrators unable to separate fantasy from reality to antagonists who cannot truly be reasoned with, insanity is a tool to perpetuate the conflict that allows the story to exist.

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, insanity is used toward the end of the book to show how toxic the racial prejudice is. Pecola was slowly driven insane over the course of the book until a single moment shattered her capacity to perceive reality as it truly is. Rather than seeing and hearing what is real she becomes paranoid and talks to herself as if she were another. “Quote about blue eyes goes here”. Pecola’s process of losing her sanity happened through no fault of her …show more content…

Hamlet himself could be called insane due to his depression, and his obsession with revenge. Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be”, shows off his depression, his want of death but inability to draw the blade on himself for fear that the end is worse than the now. Another quote of Hamlet’s, “With wings as swift / As meditation, or the thoughts of love,' he will 'sweep to [his] revenge.”, shows his dedication to vengeance. The ghost only he can speak to, the ghost that resembles his father, continues to push Hamlet to seek revenge, eventually causing Hamlet’s

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In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator should not be guilty by reason of insanity. “Insanity Defense” states that a man is innocent by means of insanity if he has committed the crime because he is “unable to control his impulses” as a result of mental disease (“Insanity Defense” 1). Similarly, the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” viewed the old man’s “pale blue eye, with a film over it” with hatred (Poe 1). When the old man’s eye looked upon the narrator, he would uncontrollably increase in fury and anger. This led the narrator to “[make] up [his] mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid [him]self of the eye forever” (Poe 1).

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In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, and Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the sanity of the characters Hamlet and Ralph McMurphy is questioned. While circumstances of these characters cause them to look insane, their motives for acting crazy or irrational come from an underlying agenda: Hamlet wants revenge for his father’s death and McMurphy wants to gain control from Nurse Ratched. The death of Hamlet’s father causes Hamlet to fall into a depression leading to suicidal ideation. McMurphy is a criminal brought to a mental hospital on account of his psychopathic tendencies. Devastated by the news of his father’s death, Hamlet becomes utterly depressed and hopeless, bearing “more grief inside [him] than you could ever see

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Some may claim that he did feel “morally responsible for his actions” (D). Being morally responsible would be like not killing a brother because he is a family member. However, Hamlet did not feel upset at killing his father or his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, so he is not feeling morally responsible for his actions. Therefore, he must be insane. However, in the case of Hamlet, his uncle killed his own father, the one who raised him.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.

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In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Ophelia descends into madness after losing her father. In her insanity, she loses reason and the ability to formulate cohesive ideas, her speech becoming “nothing” (4.5.9). Ophelia’s madness transforms her into a new person, “divided from herself and her fair judgment” (4.5.92). The breakdown of Ophelia’s character ends with her suicide, a complete succumbency to her insanity. Moreover, in Shakespeare’s play and in Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein, Hamlet and Frankenstein both fall into madness with complexity in the insanity of both characters.

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This quote is from the play-within-a-play and doesn’t suggest his insanity. Though his actions throughout the play may lead to it. His obsessive focus with the play in order to trap and accuse his uncle Claudius as the murderer, to his verbal attacks on Ophelia. The play-within-a-play might have deeper meaning and with the unhealthy obsessiveness he has with it, it could be a leading reason why he became truly insane. Hamlet interrogates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and in Act 2, Scene 2, Line 246 he laughs.

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Was Hamlet Really Insane? Published in 1603, Hamlet was one of Shakespeare’s many tragedies that follows Prince Hamlet as he faces themes of loyalty and betrayal and love and revenge. His character allowed Shakespeare to depict a complexity of human emotions that is still significant today, as the discussion of Hamlet’s insanity remains a topic for debate. Numerous events support both theories throughout the play on whether Hamlet was genuinely insane or not, but Hamlet’s insanity truly being an act is more plausible because he stated since the beginning it was an act, planned when and where he would appear to be mad, and allowed for others to observe what underlined his insane act.

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“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” ( Shakespeare 99 ). Renown for the intricate and complex orchestration of characters, Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a psychological playground of many themes and emotions. Without a definite answer to Hamlet's teetering insanity the readers must examine various factors to understand the well being of the book's main character. Over hundreds of years, Readers still argue the psychological state of Hamlet. Ultimately Hamlet as a character is meant for readers to examine and come to terms with their own perspective if he is truly insane or not.

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Hamlet is in control of his mental state in the entirety of the play. Although he attempts to present himself as insane, it is only a manipulative tactic he is using in order to hold back suspicion from his uncle and the circle around him while Hamlet plans to murder him. Hamlet has been told by his father’s ghost that Claudius, his father’s brother, had poisoned him in order to become king of Denmark. First, clear evidence that Hamlet was sane throughout the play was the fact that he stated it himself.

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In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many references to sanity and insanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet goes back and forth between sanity and insanity, whether pretending to be insane just to mess with those he does not like or to save himself from getting in trouble. Hamlet is actually one of the smartest characters in the play, which is why he can pull off acting crazy so well. Shakespeare uses this idea of sanity and insanity to help the plot change and take a different directions. One of the most discussed topics of the Hamlet is whether Hamlet is insane or if he was just pretending the whole time.

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Madness is often a symptom, and in the case of Hamlet this may be the reason behind his actions. The death of Hamlet’s father is the catalyst for Hamlet, causing him to see the ghost and ultimately become obsessed with the idea of revenge. A common theme for shakespeare is to explore a character’s mind and reasonings, and Hamlet’s character being mad was a perfect opportunity to continue this theme. Hamlet’s debatable madness, Ophelia being truly mad and the death of every character involved with Hamlet or his father is a prime example of tragedy, which Shakespeare is known for. While Hamlet’s madness is not certain, it is indisputable that the play Hamlet was built off of the idea of what is madness, and how does it affect one’s

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“Insanity: n. mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior” (Hill). This definition describes the narrator, a sweet yet deadly man, of “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe seamlessly. (Appositive) A few prominent characteristics demonstrate the narrator’s insanity, and those include his motives, his actions, and his thoughts.

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In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, there are a series of events that causes Hamlet to act abnormally. He has to deal with his father’s death, mother’s remarriage, and his lover Ophelia. However, it is often argued whether Hamlet’s madness is real or fake. Throughout the tragedy, he is over-exaggerating his madness for his plan of revenge.

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Insanity is an idea that has been examined for a long time in numerous mediums such as films, music, plays, and even works of literature. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is no exception to that rule. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters, and many scholars have been debating for centuries whether or not Hamlet is truly insane, or whether there is a particular reason for his odd behavior. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet merely pretends to be mad but in reality is sane.

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By using this definition of insanity, it establishes a set of guidelines that establish Hamlet as being mad and as proves that he is insane. The first evidence that shows Hamlet’s insanity would be when he first sees his father’s ghost. In the play after Hamlet has already confronted his mother and killed Polonius, he is confronted by the ghost who tells him to not hurt his mother. As their conversation takes place the Queen is unable to see the ghost of the late king Hamlet, and this can be seen when she states “And with th’ incorporal air do hold discourse” and “Whereon do you look?”(III.4), meaning Hamlet who are you arguing with.

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