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Madness, Madness And Insanity In Shakespeare's Hamlet

1155 Words5 Pages

Hamlet One of Shakespeare’s famous play such as Hamlet is a tragedy involving several different themes which we still deal with daily. Many themes that occur throughout the play is revenge, madness, mortality and deceitful people.
In the beginning of the play, the first theme that takes place is revenge. Hamlet encounters his father’s spirit whom tells him that his father was murdered unusually and that only revenge will set it free. For example, Hamlet states, “Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift /As meditation or the thoughts of love, /May sweep to my revenge”(1.5. 33-35). Hamlet is saying to hurry up and tell him who killed his father, so he can avenge his father’s death. At these lines Hamlet does not know who exactly killed his father yet. The ghost reveals after that his …show more content…

These characters are Ophelia and Hamlet. The difference of their madness is that Ophelia was truly insane while Hamlet only was pretending to be mad. Hamlet was more depressed than mad since he is faking madness to get to his objective which is revenge but got delayed by his mental illness. For example, Hamlet states, “Out of my weakness and my melancholy, /As he is very potent with such spirits, /Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds / More relative than this. The play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King” (2.2. 604-608). Hamlet actually says he is melancholic which is another word for depression or sadness. He says the ghost might take advantage of him and needs better evidence than the ghost. A couplet at the end indicates that his plan with the players will hopefully reveal the king’s guilt; therefore, he wouldn’t have to pretend to be mad anymore. Hamlet was never mad, but was pretending to be mad so that no one becomes suspicious of him and Claudius won’t suspect that he knows the truth.Thus, madness and mental illness is a frequent theme in the

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The definition of insanity is the state of being seriously mentally ill. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the character Hamlet is the epitome of insanity. Hamlet shows no remorse or emotion for killing an innocent Polonius, and his two friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, or while he forces a dying Claudius to drink the poisonous wine as Claudius screams for help. His relationship and actions towards his lover, Ophelia, become violent after she withdraws her affections. He is both verbally and physically abusive to Ophelia; until after her death when he claims that he loves her more than her own brother.

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Polonius explains Hamlet 's madness to Claudius and Gertrude, “Mad call I it, for, to define true madness. What it 't but to be nothing else but mad? But let that go (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 93-94). Polonius then goes on to describe his ides of the stages of Hamlet 's madness and his inability to sleep, “And he, repelled-a short tale to make- Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, Thence to a lightness, and by this declension Into the madness wherein now he raves, And all we mourn for” (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 146-151).

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