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The Cause Of Insanity In Hamlet

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Insanity is contagious. Prince Hamlet is the sole cause of all of the insanity in the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. He starts off upset about his father’s death. He soon becomes vengeful after a visit with his father who became a ghost. With his vengeance for King Claudius, he slowly loses his sanity and becomes insane. And because of this, Prince Hamlet essentially destroys the whole Danish court. Prince Hamlet becomes very depressed and upset over his father’s death. King Hamlet’s death is virtually the cause of the downfall of Prince Hamlet’s mental state. Hamlet even becomes suicidal at one point. Hamlet contemplates suicide “To die, to sleep -/ To sleep perchance to dream” (III.i.72-73). He compares sleep to dying and dreaming to the afterlife. Queen Gertrude tells Hamlet that he has made his father angry “Thou hast thy father much offended” (III.iv.12). Hamlet becomes very upset because King Claudius is not his real father. Hamlet contemplates suicide more “sullied flesh would melt” (I.ii.129). He doesn’t enjoy his life and he’d rather let …show more content…

He is told to be careful of his his mind becoming tainted by his father. Polonius notices Hamlet’s craziness “Though this be madness, yet there is/ method in ‘t (II.ii.223-224). He doesn’t realize that the method gets lost. Hamlet tells his friends that he’s putting his madness on and that it’s not real “How strange or odd some'er I bear myself/ [As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on]” (I.v.190-192). His antic disposition that he puts on soon becomes him. Ophelia becomes frightened after Hamlet bursts into her room “My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,/ Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;/ No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,/ Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,” (II.i.87-90). Hamlet does this to make sure word of his madness spreads around the Danish

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