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Hamlet: The Development Of Insanity In Hamlet

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“Hamlet”: the development of insanity of the main character Hamlet is the protagonist of the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (or simply Hamlet) written by William Shakespeare. The man finds out his father was killed by own brother, who wanted to take the throne. Hamlet decided to take vengeance on for the former king. His actions led to the death of all main characters, including the prince himself. During the play readers can see changes in Hamlet’s behavior. While someone will say the prince started to act differently deliberately, the standard theory claims he became insane. It is possible to track the development of Hamlet’s mental disorder through acts. The prince looks like a mentally stable person at the beginning of the …show more content…

Hamlet played the insanity, when said the girl should go to the nunnery or advised her: “marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them” (Shakespeare 65). The prince turns to a normal man again during the discussion of the future play with actors or the dialogue with Horatio. “And after we will both our judgments join In censure of his seeming” (Shakespeare 69), this phrase suggest Hamlet is still capable of adequate actions. There can be some level of insanity, as the plan with actors look too convoluted for a normal man. But it was an adequate decision for prince’s conditions, as he could not directly accuse Claudius of murder with the existent evidential base. The real insanity started to develop after Claudius’s reaction to the play. Hamlet saw the proof of ghost’s words and it was another crack-down on his psyche. Actions in the 4th scene shows the prince started to lose the control on his actions. He killed Polonius without any regrets and continued to explain the situation with king’s death to his mother. At the end of the Act 3 Hamlet still understand everything clearly. For example, he knows Rosencrantz and Guildenstern participate in plot against him: “They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery” (Shakespeare 91). But Hamlet started to show signs of sociopathy with his calm attitude to Polonius’s murder. His hallucinations also progressed as the prince saw father’s ghost in Gertrude’s room. The Act 4 does not give many details to the picture of Hamlet’s insanity. The phrase “My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother” (Shakespeare 97) can be a sign the disorder developed slightly, as Hamlet thought Gertrude sided Claudius against

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