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Why Was Hamlet's Madness

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The play Hamlet is one of the most-famous plays written by William Shakespeare. This play dealt with madness, revenge, mortality, deceit, religion, and much more. Overtime, this paper will explain why Hamlet is so upset. Hamlet first learned that it was his uncle, Claudius, who had murdered his father. “Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge” (I.v.23). In this line, Hamlet told the ghost to tell him everything so he can get revenge quickly. Soon after, the tragic hero started to question his sanity on whether to be alive or to die. Hamlet was a victim of a corrupt world and was more alienated and lonely than he was insane. It is obvious at the end of the play, Hamlet is …show more content…

The country of Denmark was portrayed as corrupt. Living in this country was a huge factor on the way Hamlet felt about life and his mental stability. The murder of King Hamlet set the course into other characters’ madness. Murdering one’s brother in order to marry their wife is not the desire of a sane person. Hamlet stated that he was going to put on an act of being mad. “As I perchance, hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on” (I.v.28). Hamlet puts on this act so that he would be able to minimize his seeming threat to Claudius. There were reasons as to why Hamlet did not immediately kill Claudius after speaking with the ghost. He really did not want to kill anybody, which is why he made excuses for it. He did not know whether the ghost was just a demon out to ruin his life or if it was really his father. Hamlet wanted to be one hundred percent sure that he knew who his father’s killer was before he made any wrong decisions. Hamlet’s mind and conscience will not let allow him to go ahead with the murder of Claudius without making completely …show more content…

“He does confess he feels himself distracted, But from what cause he will by no means speak” (III.i.51). Hamlet wanted to leave everyone clueless and confused about the way he have been acting. The king and others came up with techniques, like spying on Hamlet, so that they could find out the reason. Also, in the beginning of the play, another one of Hamlet’s plans was to pretend his love for Ophelia was not true. It was very much confusing to the audience about his true feelings towards her. Hamlet began to suspect he was being watched and spied on. By the way he acts around Ophelia when he is alone wither, he shows that his feelings for her are true. I believe Hamlet really does love Ophelia. “Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love” (II.ii.37). Those lines in the play came from the letter Hamlet wrote to Ophelia. In other words, this means that among everything else around her may not be true, his love for her was real. Once Ophelia gave the letter to her father Polonius, Hamlet then knew he had to hide and cover up his love for Ophelia. “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brother could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum” (V.i.108). Hamlet lastly confessed his love for Ophelia at her grave. He believed that his love for Ophelia is greater in

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