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Hamlet's Madness Research Paper

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Hamlet’s madness is not real if that makes sense. In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Hamlet’s fakes acts of madness, later leading to his downfall because it controlled him. The amount of evidence shown in the play shows clearly that Hamlet deliberately feigned fits of madness in order to confuse and unnerve the king and his attendants. Hamlet’s madness is also determined by the people he is surrounded with. While he behaves pretty rationally around Horatio, Bernardo, and Francisco, his acts of madness truly show when he is around people like Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It’s also possible that displaying his “Antic disposition” might be because he wants to determine the legitimacy of the ghost’s words. While …show more content…

As Hamlet returns to Denmark, he got hit with bad news, getting informed that his father, King Hamlet, is dead. While Hamlet is still hurt about his father's death, Hamlet’s mother chooses to marry his uncle, Claudius. During that time period, Hamlet meets a ghost, that looks something like his father, and the ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius murdered King Hamlet while asleep. While this made Hamlet feel confusion, sadness, and madness, he decided to put on what he calls an “antic …show more content…

“What have I done that thou dar’st wag thy/tongue/In noise so rude against me?” (3.4 39-41). Hamlet starts treating those who should be treated with respect, with disrespect, as if they were worthless. Shown in Act 3 Scene 4, Hamlet treats his own mother with disrespect. Also, in Act 3 Scene 1, he treats Ophelia the opposite of how she should be treated, with respect and dignity. “If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague/ for thy dowry; be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as/snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.” (3.1

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The topic of insanity commonly arises on many occasions, particularly in the law. The term “insanity” is defined as the “unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility” (Document A). In terms of the law, there exists an insanity defense, which is a plea that defendants are not guilty because they lack the mental capacity to realize that they committed a crime (Document C). This concept arises in several of Shakespeare's plays as well. In Hamlet, many readers claim that Prince Hamlet was actually mad, his actions guided by the grief he experienced when his father was murdered by his uncle King Claudius.

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Hamlet is a Shakespearean play about a distraught prince who comes home to Denmark at the news of his father’s death. Once he finds out that his uncle Claudius has married his mother and become king himself, Hamlet suspects foul play. When his father 's ghost comes back to tell him of Claudius’s sins, he is asked to murder Claudius for revenge, but he isn’t sure if he can do it. Some scholars, researchers, and casual readers would argue that this drives Hamlet mad by burdening him with decision. Others would say that after he accepts his father 's plea for vengeance, that he uses this cloak of madness as a disguise so Claudius cannot see his murderous intentions.

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One definition of madness is “mental delusion of the eccentric behavior arising from it.” However, as Emily Dickinson once wrote, “Much madness is divinest Sense/ To a discerning Eye.” In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Prince Hamlet, shows apparent madness which proves to serve an important role throughout the story. This erratic behavior consists of his seemingly senseless dialogues, his loss of care for Ophelia, and his increasingly aggressive nature. Such behavior often proves justified by the play’s audience due to its convincing nature despite Hamlet’s predisposition towards insanity.

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In Hamlet by William Shakespeare he uses Hamlet’s madness to cause conflict between Hamlet and the other characters. Shakespeare has Hamlet fake madness throughout the whole play to find out who killed his father, and to trick the new king into thinking that he is really mad. Before Hamlet goes mad he tells Horatio, “How strange or odd some’er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on)” (1.5.176-177).

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William Shakespeare tells the tale of a troubled man in his masterpiece, Hamlet. Imagine your beloved father dying and your mother marrying his brother shortly after. You’re left to grieve on your own. Instead of consoling you, your mother and uncle have a wedding and begin to share the same bed. This is what Hamlet suffers through in the play.

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In Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, Hamlet treats women awful. His mother, Gertrude, convinces Hamlet that women are untrustworthy because she betrayed King Hamlet by marrying Claudius so soon after his death. Hamlets acts extremely rude towards Ophelia. Hamlet has issues with both Gertrude and Ophelia; thus, he does not treat them kindly. Hamlet disapproves of his mother’s marriage to Claudius.

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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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In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare reflects the common early modern beliefs and perspectives about madness by using the character development of the protagonist who feigns madness throughout the play. Given Hamlet 's status as a prince, current knowledge of madness during the time period, and the contrast of the different types of madness of other characters in the play, Elizabethan audiences would have found it plausible that Hamlet feigns madness as part of his plot to avenge his father 's death. This new historicist perspective steers the modern reader away from anachronistic psychological interpretations of the play. Hamlet’s status as a prince gives the character certain roles and expectations to fulfill, such as avenging his father’s

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