Examples Of Insanity In Hamlet

Mental illness was highly disregarded and an under-researched element in the Elizabethan Era. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet, the main character, is commonly analyzed and discussed regarding his mental state. However, another important character with a questionable mental state is Ophelia. Shakespeare utilizes the indirect characterization of Ophelia and the theme of patriarchal conflicts in order to comment on Elizabethans’ views on madness in women. He emphasizes the suppression of women and the detrimental effects associated with said suppression.

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

Meanwhile, he receives support from many citizens while Hamlet just has about one or two loyal people who try to help him. The actions of Laertes reveal that he is calm because he doesn’t kill Claudius right away even though he hears many rumors before on the way to Denmark. Another similar point between these two people is that they both love Ophelia, but in different ways. Laertes loves Ophelia as a brother, so he gives many suggestions to Ophelia when he knows that Hamlet shows affection toward Ophelia; he keeps telling her that Hamlet is a young prince that his affection is not permanently, which alludes that he is really concerned about the future if Ophelia agrees to be with Hamlet. Hamlet loves Ophelia as a man since he writes a long letter showing his feelings toward Ophelia.

Laertes believes Hamlet is to blame not only for his father’s death, but also for Ophelia’s death because the death of her father is ultimately what drove her to killing herself. Once Laertes returns, he asks King Claudius who is responsible for the death of his father and is informed that Hamlet is the one to blame. Ophelia enters and reveals to everyone that she has gone crazy and ends up killing herself. Hamlet returns to Denmark and is surprised to find out that Ophelia has died. Laertes and Hamlet start fighting at her burial service and Hamlet says he wants to be

As the innocent victim of Hamlet’s feigned madness, Ophelia’s insanity is a product of her inability to cope with Hamlet and her father’s death. Her songs show hidden grief and sorrow; her flowers represent the fact that beneath the innocent exterior, there is a weakness or flaw in everyone. Hamlet was able to look past his grief for his father’s death, but he caused someone he loves to be in pain. Whether it is the frailty of women, sorrow, or death, anything, including love, can appear to be pleasant, but can be the ultimate cause of a person’s

When Ophelia returns all his letters and gifts he tells her that he has never loved her and that she should “get thyself to a nunnery.” This is one example how his mood changes throughout the play. Then after all this her father, Polinous, is murdered by Hamlet. The Hamlet is sent away to England All of these actions result in her feeling such stress that she becomes insane in the end.

In Act 4, Scene 5, Ophelia’s speech is disjointed, incomprehensible, and illogical; she chants songs about death and a heartbreak that confuses the King and Queen of Denmark. Laertes, upon

Hamlet decides the best course of action is to act like he has gone mad, so that nobody will be suspicious with his actions with investigating the cause of his father’s passing. “Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, / How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself, / As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on,” (1, 5, 170-173). Hamlet does not want to just go out and commit a crime against his uncle as this would just lead to more family trouble and drama that is not needed. The reason this is important in the play to isolate this part of the scene is because it leads to the basis of whether Hamlet himself is mad or not. Hamlet talks of how he will be pretending to have gone insane, and this is a key role to him in finding out who killed his father.

This can be presented through the events with Laertes, In the scene showing the burial of Ophelia they both jump in the coffin and start fighting. Hamlet pulls out from the fight first, giving us a hint of his Maturity growth. We see that with all the trouble Hamlet has experience, his become a bigger person and realizes that Laertes also lost his father and sympathizes with him. He comes clean and admits his wrongdoings saying “give me pardon sir…. I have done you wrong”.

After the death of her father and departure of Hamlet, Ophelia arrives at the castle and pays an unsolicited visit to the royal majesties. She sings, “Young men will do’t, if they come to’t./ By Cock, they are to blame” (4.5.60-61). This passage is often interpreted as Ophelia airing the grievances that Hamlet has committed toward her--namely, he used her solely for sexual pleasure and discarded her when he lost interest. In summary, Ophelia exposes the double standard prevalent in her society: to a man, a woman’s value lies only in her virginity. She blames “Cock”, which represents the patriarchy at large, for society’s willingness to excuse male lust and irresponsibility.

Ophelia is grieving the loss of her father after Hamlet kills him. Ophelia doesn't know that Hamlet killed her father. But Ophelia has gone mad from learning about her father's death. Also, after Hamlet telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, Ophelia is a little bit discouraged. She is discouraged because Hamlet had told her before that if Ophelia would sleep with him that they would get married.

Insanity is an idea that has been examined for a long time in numerous mediums such as films, music, plays, and even works of literature. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is no exception to that rule. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters, and many scholars have been debating for centuries whether or not Hamlet is truly insane, or whether there is a particular reason for his odd behavior. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet merely pretends to be mad but in reality is sane.

Madness, a theme that runs throughout William Shakespeare's Hamlet, manifests itself as both an authentic illness as well as a shrewd manipulation. By play's end, there is even a gray area between the two that is difficult to discern. But whether the concern is Ophelia truly losing her mind following her father's murder, Hamlet's act of madness after meeting with his father's ghost, or the arguable proposition that Hamlet's "antic disposition" has devolved into the genuine article, one thing is for certain—Hamlet's relationships with Gertrude and Claudius have the greatest effect, directly or indirectly, on all of these instances. Ophelia's madness is the only example that is assuredly real. Throughout much of the play, she is level-headed

In the exposition, Laertes is introduced as the brother to the beautiful Ophelia, the girl to whom Hamlet secretly loves. As a “loving” friend and relative, they both share a common bond in wanting to care for Ophelia, but the future shows differently than what they intended. When Ophelia died towards the end, that common bond they shared for her grew stronger and added to the fire that ultimately drew them to go against one another. Hamlet became rejectful of the news and anger soon took over. When confronted by Laertes and challenged by his feeling for

His levity, repetition of phrases, and puns act as his emotional relief and not the deliberate plan in dissimulation. His emotions act as buffoonery towards finding an outlet to his actions and makes him weak. However, he manages to kill the King, but that comes at a price. Everyone he meets dies even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who are innocent characters in the play (Bali 84). Hamlet loose his first objective from the play’s beginning, which makes the reader wonder whether Shakespeare’s main objective was to delay the killing or prolong the play.