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Juxtaposition In Hamlet's Madness

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Hamlet’s “madness” inspires speculation amongst King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and their loyal companions, and they hypothesize that he is the unhinged, shattered product of Ophelia’s seemingly unrequited love and rejection. To confirm such suspicions, Hamlet is set up and drawn into a conversation with Ophelia, with Claudius and Polonius observing, hoping to catch the cause of his newly planted insanity. Though it appears that Hamlet is far ahead of their scheme and develops a tactic of his own, to protect his beloved Ophelia and to mislead his superiors, towards a conclusion that’ll relieve their distrust, allowing him to plot with ease. Under first impression, Hamlet may appear arrogant and vile towards Ophelia, bellowing at her to “get thee to a nunnery” and slandering her femininity, “God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another”, but there are expressions of affection and prayers in his language (3.1.121, 3.1.142-43). …show more content…

Nymphs are typically imagined as ethereal, beautiful goddesses of the woods and are associated with care and motherly affection, aiding those in need in various myths and medieval folklore. If he had wished to condemn her as he had done by the end of the scene, he would’ve initiated his terror then, suggesting he had a different conversation in mind than the one that had played out. Not only that but he pleads her to remember his sins, “in thy orisons be all my sins remembered”, hinting that he desires to part from her, not out of hate or of disgust, but to protect her, to cast her far away from his stony path of revenge (3.1.90-91). This aspiration is fully exploited in the BBC adaptation, but one must be quick to catch onto

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He grows wary of all around him and nearly goes insane as he begins to question his love, Ophelia, on her true intentions with him. Hamlet asks Ophelia whether she is “honest” and “fair” then explains he had loved her but also tells her, “I loved you not.” Ophelia feels deceived and Hamlet shouts expletives towards her and expresses she should “go to the nunnery,” another term for a

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“O horrible, O horrible, most horrible!”. Prince Hamlet is introduced to the truth of his father’s death towards the end of act I in the most impactful of ways. The ghost of old King Hamlet discusses his death by the hands of his brother, Claudius, while portraying the new King as an “incestuous” and “adulterate beast.” With a fast-paced and motivational speech, the ghost hopes that Prince Hamlet will refrain from being a “fat weed” and instead work towards avenging his father. The ghost also ensures that young Hamlet recognizes the potential conflict with a Claudius kingship and how it jeopardizes the whole nation of Denmark.

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After the ghost instructed Prince Hamlet on how to expose King Claudius, Hamlet goes through a period of inner turmoil. The ghost tells Hamlet to feign madness, in order to capture the opportunity to reveal Claudius’ true nature. The ghost reasons this and says that no one will believe Hamlet if he just says that Claudius is guilty. As Hamlet pretends to have gone insane, she falls in love with Ophelia, who is described to be a gentle, cordial person. Polonius, the father of Ophelia, sees Hamlet’s odd behavior, and forbids Ophelia from talking to Hamlet.

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Madness was a reoccurring theme throughout the play and these were the two characters which portrayed it more than others. In Act 3 Scene 1 Hamlet encounters Ophelia and calls her “fair”, creating a calm atmosphere. Later Hamlet rapidly changes his attitude, raging towards Ophelia and telling her “Get thee to a nunnery” implying he loved her once but now denies her love. Hamlet was acting mad in front of her in an aggressive manner and says “God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another”, Hamlet is suggesting that all women are two faced. Hamlet finds out that this was a setup of Claudius and Polonius to spy on him, so they can find out if he is truly mad.

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By verbally harassing Ophelia and estranging himself from her, Hamlet provides the apparent image of losing his prior care without a great amount of consideration. Additionally, Hamlet further displays his anger for his father’s death through this display. By dissolving his relationship with Ophelia, Hamlet furthers his image of insanity to further illustrate himself as incapable within Claudius’s eyes while still communicating distaste for his loss of his father. With Hamlet’s intentionally swift change of heart for Ophelia, Hamlet’s procedure warrants a certain level of sanity. Regardless of the sudden nature, Hamlet’s continual barring from Ophelia possesses procedure which causes further doubt of Hamlet’s mental instability from the audience of the

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The Consequence of Acting Mad How can it be possible that Hamlet denies that he ever loved Ophelia, and then claims that he loves her in her grave? In William Shakespeares’ Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet experiences the stress of overthinking a situation, and it causes him to act mad and harm the relationships closest to him. Throughout the play, Hamlet acts mad to make his presence known and get information to kill Claudius. As a result of acting mad throughout the play, Hamlet treats other characters poorly. Hamlet proves himself throughout the play to be smart with his actions, especially when he writes a portion of the play called The Mouse Trap.

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When Emily Dickinson wrote “Much madness is divinest Sense-/to a discerning Eye,” she was making a point about one of the greatest arguments in literature. Dickinson argues that what others would call “madness” is actually an individual who does not conform to normal standards and it gives “mad” people an advantage over ordinary people. Similarly, in Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet’s sanity is questioned often throughout the play. But Hamlet’s madness comes from the knowledge he holds that others are not privy to, which blocks Hamlet from acting normally. While some may call it madness, having more knowledge than others and being unable to conform to typical standards gives you what Dickinson would call a “divinest Sense.”

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Hamlet 's belief in that habit causes one to do evil without guilt can be connected to his own downfalls. Even so, Hamlet assumes that King Claudius is the habitual action that destroys good senses and strengthens bad behaviour. QUOTE. Hamlet is speaking to his mother about how habits can trigger the fall of an individual. The "monster" in this sense is Claudius, who Hamlet considers is the main cause of Gertrude 's sinful behaviour.

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Hamlet has not only become distraught from his conniving and lying stepfather but also his mother, Queen Gertrude as well. The unfaithfulness that Gertrude shows to Hamlet’s father and Hamlet has a toll on him and plays a part in his insanity. The facade that Hamlet displays slowly leads to his insanity, causing him to show mistreated love towards Ophelia. In the beginning of the play, Ophelia displays a very honest

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In Act III, scene i of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, readers will come upon Ophelia’s soliloquy. After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have failed to find a reason as to why Hamlet is acting in a peculiar and mad way, Claudius is persuaded by Polonius that the reason for Hamlet’s madness is the broken romance between Hamlet and Ophelia. To prove this, Claudius and Polonius plan to spy on Ophelia’s meeting with Hamlet. During their conversation, Hamlet denies ever having loved her and curses her. Ophelia is left fretting over his sanity.

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Hamlet once again fails to understand that Ophelia much like himself is only trying to stay loyal to her father, much like what he is doing himself. In addition, Hamlet blames woman for giving birth to such evil and deceiving men like Claudius and himself. When he was talking to Ophelia he told her "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

Polonius claims that Hamlet “fell into a sadness, then into a fast… and, by this declension, into the madness wherein now he raves” (2.2.156-159). Ophelia’s rejection and Hamlet’s lust for Ophelia are the sole causes of his madness. Polonius expresses that this kind of madness is very common among others as well for “in [his] youth [he] suffered much extremity for love, very near this” (2.2.206-208). However, the play depicts Polonius as inept and foolish. By hastily concluding the cause of Hamlet’s madness without regarding other tumultuous events such as King Hamlet’s death or Claudius’ marriage, Polonius seems ignorant and less credible.

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In the “nunnery scene” which is played in Hamlet, Ophelia (as per her father’s and King Claudius’ instruction) attempts to push Hamlet away. As Hamlet realizes that Ophelia is trying to cut ties with him, his mood changes from sweet and loving to angry and sour. In a fit of rage Hamlet curses Ophelia’s name, ruins her name in a public setting and leaves her, upset (and crying in most adaptations) as she expresses her sorrow about having to leave Hamlet. In Ophelia’s soliloquy following her interaction with Hamlet, Ophelia mourns the loss of her ‘one true love’ and the way that Hamlet was behaving.

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Hamlet is a play that incorporates betrayal, vengeance, misguided love, and death into its plot to showcase the downfall of Hamlet. There are many questions that arise within the plot that are left una nswered such as the significance of the Ghost and why Hamlet hesitates to take revenge on Claudius. But, a critical question to ask is how revenge influences the interactions between people. Answers to this question are evident throughout the play and they give context to Hamlet’s affairs with Ophelia and her father Polonius, as well as his interactions with Claudius. The structure of this question and its answers are divided based on how the plot itself progresses; as Hamlet becomes exceedingly disconnected from his surroundings, his flaws

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Hamlet Hamlet is a tragedy play written by William Shakespeare. It is a play that involves numerous deaths. Hamlet is the main character in the play and he is depicted as an insane person. Hamlet faked his madness so as to confuse Claudius and his assistants in order to find the truth about the death of his father.

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