ipl-logo

Hamlet Soliloquies Prove Him A Mad Man Analysis

950 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Hamlet and psychological approach

His Soliloquies Prove Him A Sane Man: Hamlet’s soliloquies are his inner, but deep thoughts of his mind, he through his soliloquies out-poured his emotions and feelings, his disgust and contemplation on life, death, fortune and freedom. Granville-Barker (1936) says that, “when he is alone, we have the truth of him, but it is his madness which is on public exhibition.” Hamlet in a true picture, as a man of highly scholarship and as a student of deep philosophy, is revealed through these soliloquies. The thoughts which he reveals in these soliloquies have a universal appeal and are remarkable for their poetic quality and excellence of language. Through his soliloquies the inner hamlet is shown out, his feelings for others, and his feelings for …show more content…

Here it must be Hamlet’s trick to continue with his task of avenging his uncle Claudius. Why Should Hamlet Assume Madness? Here a question arises finally, why should Hamlet assume madness, first of all before the very girl whom he loved from the core of his heart? There could be many reasons, but one of those is that of hasty marriage of mother has produced a sort of disgust for woman in his heart. Thus, he said; “Frailty, thy name is woman.” And after that the revelation of his father’s ghost made him mentally unnerved and disturbed him extremely, “He is shaken with terrible disillusionment, he is on the verge of dark dungeon beyond which loom of ominous shadows of utter despair and disbelief in the good of mankind(Umrani;______;41).” Nothing in the world interests him, neither man nor woman. He feels disloyalty and treachery in everyone except Horatio. Other reason is that, “He assumes madness as a means of concealing his actual disturbance of mind. His over-excitability may betray him, but if it be a received opinion that his mind is unhinged, such as excess of over-excitement will pass unobserved and unstudied (Dowden; 1899; 24).” Hamlet was a keen observer of other characters and he had a sharp sense of judging others thus, to fool other by his ‘antic disposition’ he progressed towards his goal and the way he behaved and talked with others would be taken as due to his madness. Thus, he felt …show more content…

He pretended his madness to know the plans, actions and loyalties of others towards him, and it was a trick to be played by Hamlet to know what others are thinking of him and to do what he wanted to. The word of Stopford Brooke (1913;96) would be best to take as a conclusion about the madness of Hamlet, “All man of genius are mad, genius itself is a kind of madness.. . . . . If genius is a madness, Hamlet was mad, but the maddest man that ever lived in England was Shakespeare, who made Hamlet. The fact is that Shakespeare never intended to represent Hamlet as mad or half mad, or verging on madness, and when he wished to represent real madness and to contrast it with feigned madness. He created the real madness of Ophelia and did it with wonderful truth and skill. There is not a trace of madness in

Show More
Related
733 Words | 3 Pages

A thing a lot of psychologist people forget that hamlet is a character acting inside the play. During the entire play it is very easily noticed when he is acting as an insane person. The way he speaks and the words he chooses is evidence towards the idea of Hamlet being sane. Most modern day men act like Hamlet when he is insane but the modern men are not always seen

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

Would one be able to live a full prosperous life acting insane? The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is about a young prince who lost his father and has many issues dealing with his sanity and his family. Hamlet is not crazy because he says he is faking it, he may have severe depression, and he wants to avenge his father. Hamlet is faking being insane for his own sake.

Read More
948 Words | 4 Pages

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakespeare uses range of literary techniques such as soliloquies to express Hamlet’s depression and anger. Hamlet’s emotions play a crucial role to achieve his secret ambitions. Events such as King Hamlet’s death, Hamlet’s mother’s expeditious marriage, conflict between Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet’s depression and anger is expressed throughout the play but what are the causes. The root of Hamlet’s feelings of depression and anger was his father’s death.

Read More
932 Words | 4 Pages

Hamlet's insane behavior is a significant part of the story because it is supposedly part of his revenge plan, but also because of the additional problems, it creates. Some have argued that his madness was indeed an act, but rather real madness that he was trying to cover up by telling people

Read More
1457 Words | 6 Pages

The question of whether or not Hamlet was insane is of a never-ending debate. Was he always crazy? Was he always faking it? Or was he somewhere in between? In this paper I will share three different views and provide my own interpretation of Hamlet’s sanity.

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the play, Hamlet is forced to make difficult decisions; as he is conflicted with almost every decision he makes, his uncertainty and unsophisticated thoughts will eventually lead to his downfall. Man vs. Self is a common theme in Shakespeare’s work, and Hamlet is no exception. The most distinct example of this sophisticated concept is Hamlet himself. When analyzed thoroughly, Hamlet is his greatest obstacle and enemy. The earliest of his internal conflicts is when his mother married his uncle, Claudius, in such a short window of time after his father’s death.

Read More
1879 Words | 8 Pages

“Man pleaded innocent by reason of insanity for the murder of his mother”(Gross). Although the case of the man murdering his mother is not entirely similar to what Hamlet does they do share some similarities. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet , Shakespeare uses the idea of a someone murdering one of their own family members in his play. In Hamlet the once ruler of Denmark ,king Hamlet, is long dead before the play begins with everyone thinking his cause of death was from the bite of a snake This is proven to be a lie however, when Ghost of king Hamlet visits his son Hamlet and reveals to him that his true killer is Hamlet’s uncle ,the new king of Denmark, Claudius. The play then follows Hamlet as he tries to take revenge for his father’s death.

Read More
1544 Words | 7 Pages

He uses his deception of madness to make this sound like mad ramblings to everyone else, but he is truly asking these questions and wondering about the ins and outs of how life truly works, and what it all means. So Hamlet basically acts insane to cover up the seriousness of these questions he is seeking the answers to. “But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,/Could force his soul so to his own conceit,/That from her working all his visage wann’d,/ Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,/ A broken voice, and his

Read More
1153 Words | 5 Pages

He did not want anyone knowing about his encounter with his father’s ghost. This shows that Hamlet can not be acting mad. Consequently, he believes that one should not perform a role, but actually become the person they 're pretending to be. This shows in his stunt when instead of pretending to be mad, he becomes mad in all

Read More
542 Words | 3 Pages

When the play first began Hamlet did not seem crazy but more depressed and suicidal after his father’s death, he did not begin to act crazy until learning about his father’s murder. ”How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself, to put an antic disposition on...”, here Hamlet tells Horatio that he will start to act crazy but for them to just ignore it. After this when Hamlet only acts mad around thoses who he does not trust but when

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

There are plenty of examples of Hamlet appearing mad, but there are just as many examples of Hamlet appearing sane, even intelligent. Hamlet is even aware of his madness, which can be seen in the quote, “What I have done that might your nature, honor, and exception roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness… It ‘t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy” (273). Hamlet is clearly aware of his own madness, but this does not necessarily invoke his sanity. Hamlet still appears insane,

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

His detailed plans and keen mental ability make him the most intelligent character in the entirety of the play. Hamlet is a very clever and motivated individual who creates extravagant plans to achieve success. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet creates a false persona to divert the kingdom’s attention away from his intention to kill Claudius. He tells Horatio that he will “put an antic disposition on,” (I.v.172) to create a sense of madness. This falsehood is created to ensure Hamlet will not be taken seriously and can follow through with his plans without being suspected.

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

Hamlet is sane because he only acts mad in front of certain people, he told his friends of his plan of revenge, and the fact that many people continuously doubted his insanity. Hamlet only acted insane in front of the king and his chairmen. In other times, he acted completely normal. This is because to get revenge for the death of his father, he needs to buy time distracting King Claudius so that he can kill him. He admits to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is “but mad north-north-west.

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

In the play, Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as a dynamic character to cause a mental state conundrum among the audience and explore the themes of suicide, spying, friendship, madness, providence, love, hate and humour. Furthermore, by utilising literary devices such as soliloquy, characterisation, dialogue, personification, metaphor, dramatic and situational irony Shakespeare exploits these themes and questions Hamlet’s sanity. In the beginning, Hamlet is portrayed as an overthinking person, claiming to act an antic disposition. However, as the play advances his manic rage and irrational acts such as Polonius’s murder and

Read More
1457 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More

More about Hamlet Soliloquies Prove Him A Mad Man Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document