Hamlet, By William Shakespeare

What is madness? Is someone considered mad or insane simply because they are different, and they, in turn, see the rest of the world as insane? William Shakespeare 's play Hamlet is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who plays the role of a tragic hero. He encounters several misfortunes from experiencing his beloved father’s death, witnessing his mother 's incestuous remarriage to his uncle, and seeing his father’s ghost. Due to all of this, Hamlet falls into a deep depression. Hamlet begins his journey by seeking revenge against Claudius after discovering that his noble father was murdered by his own uncle. Hamlet is a character whose actions and emotions may seem like one of an insane person, however, in the beginning of the play, it is clear that he decides to fake madness in order to gain an advantage over Claudius. This would aid in him in accomplishing his revenge. Hamlet is sane throughout the play: he only shows signs of insanity in front of certain people whom he does not trust. However, even they believe that his madness is not sheer madness but has a reason to it. Hamlet’s character is sane as in the play his rationality is shown through the logic and intelligence he uses in his plots. He usually calculates his movements and his impulsive acts are justified. While there are reasons to believe that many of the hardships could have driven Hamlet to the point of insanity, his display of intelligence and rational thinking throughout the play proves his sanity.

In this play “Hamlet” written by William Shakespeare, there are many soliloquies that are said by Hamlet to depict various meanings of his thoughts, feelings, and actions that are inside of him. More specifically the soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1, in lines 57-91 starts off with the famous saying known as “To be, or not to be”. Throughout this soliloquy, Hamlet is asking himself the question of whether it is better to live or not to live. In life, we are faced with many situations where we feel the need to give up our life and not face the problems. Only by facing all the troubles, will a person become stronger and more courageous to handle anything in life. By believing in one’s self, can man have the courage to follow what they think is right. Killing yourself or giving up is never a solution in life. This soliloquy reveals Hamlet’s fearful personality by showing that his decision-making process is slow and that he fears risks or uncertainty. These character traits are depicted thoroughly by Hamlet throughout the play.

The male characters in Hamlet continually abuse both Ophelia and Gertrude, physically and psychologically, as a pathetic attempt to gain power and control over the situation. One of the greatest examples of psychological abuse comes from the harrowing scene where Hamlet and Ophelia have their final conversation before Hamlet leaves for England. During this rage-induced altercation, Hamlet refuses to accept Ophelia’s returning of the gifts previously given to her from him, saying “I never gave you aught” (3.1.97). Ophelia is appalled as Hamlet continues to insult her and laugh in her face. In the climax of the argument, Hamlet tells Ophelia that she “should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not” (3.1.117-119). The immense amount of psychological damage received by Ophelia between the addition and removal of love by Hamlet and her father’s death is enough to drive anyone to madness. David M. Smith recounts this as Hamlet’s necessity “to genuine outsideness because of the danger of being co-opted by love” (Smith, 1). However, Hamlet no longer needed to protect himself in his situation. His actions from this scene were not only uncalled for, but added to the slow mental demise of his sweet Ophelia. Hamlet’s next scene of abuse come shortly after this when he goes to speak to Gertrude about her participation in the murder of Old Hamlet. His rage, yet again, takes over, but this time he adopts physical abuse

Within Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, the churning tides of and hate are very prominent, but, as the character’s personalities collide and develop, revenge is the key that unlocks their unprecedented doom. There are different styles of writing in this piece that represents revenge. From the start of the play (the epilogue) there were signs of different styles of writing. Looking more closely to the text, Hamlet would address the royalty in the poetic form while addressing to people under him in old English. Revenge is indubitably Hamlet’s forte, but it also made the reader’s understand the morality of the issue. Mortality was mentioned in almost every line in Hamlet.

Almost every story involves a conflict between hero and villain. In some stories, there is a plot twist where the hero is also the villain—but in Hamlet, there are no heroes and many villains. In Hamlet, every character has lied, kept secrets or is seeking revenge that leads to a tragic ending at every corner, but what we fail to see is who the true villain is. Looking at the character of Hamlet throughout the play, it is easier to spot his many dishonorable actions than his few honorable ones.

On the journey through life, there are encounters with various incidents and situations where one must act accordingly. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character Hamlet must deal with both external and internal conflict. Hamlet encounters many struggles and does not know how to cope with all of them. By having so many corrupt people in his life, he feels isolated from everyone because he does not know who to trust anymore. A result from this isolation leads Hamlet into depression and forces more issues to occur. Both inward and outward conflicts are displayed in the play when, Hamlet struggles with suicidal thoughts, wants to kill King Claudius, and is distraught over his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle Claudius.

When first reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet it may seem like Hamlet took much longer that it should have for him to take action against his uncle. To the readers it is as if Hamlet already has all of the information he really needs to defend his actions but he does not. Hamlet passes up on some perfect opportunities to avenge his father, but why? Hamlet’s delay is perfectly justified; if he had gotten his revenge too soon it would not have been a true tragedy.

aspects of Hamlets character. It is used when referring to the garden, to poison and to

During the time of Shakespeare, women had a limited role within society. Even though a female monarch ruled England, women had no control over their own lives, and females were completely dominated by a patriarchal society. Ophelia’s role in Hamlet, written by Shakespeare in 1603 was a perfect example of a female who, despite her own feelings and desires, had to adhere to society’s construction of a submissive female. Her love for Hamlet ultimately was the reason for her destruction, because it caused her to become a pawn for her father, Polonius, and her love interest, Hamlet. Since Ophelia’s role was as a pawn, she constantly received mixed messages from her father, who was the man who controlled her entire life, as well as from the man she loved, Hamlet. The burden of double messages she received from the men in the play, lead her to question the duplicity of love, man, and society, and ultimately culminated in her madness and death; through her madness she was finally able to express how she felt because she was no longer required to behave in a way that was deemed acceptable by society, but because she rejected society’s rules, she had to come to a tragic end.

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character Hamlet must deal with both external and internal conflict. Hamlet encounters many struggles and does not know how to cope with all of them. By having so many corrupt people in his life, he feels isolated from everyone because he does not know who to trust anymore. A result from this isolation leads Hamlet into depression and forces more issues to occur. Both inward and outward conflicts are displayed in the play when, Hamlet struggles with suicidal thoughts, wants to kill King Claudius, and is distraught over his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle Claudius.

Multiple characters in Hamlet that are at least somewhat relevant end up tragically dying in the play. Each of the character’s death is caused by the same evil that had spread to each character at some point in the play. Claudius starts this spread of evil by murdering Hamlet the First with poison that Claudius put in Hamlet the First’s ear. This evil spreads first to Hamlet the prince, who plots his revenge on Claudius. The same evil further spreads to every other relevant character at some point in the play, but since the play is set in the late middle ages, this evil takes a long time to affect and eventually kill some of the characters. The world has advanced remarkably since the time of Hamlet, and there is still the same evil around

In Williams Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, tells a story of Hamlet who seeks revenge against his father’s murderer, who ends up being his uncle, King Claudius. In order to avenge his father’s death Hamlet believes he would need to distract the kingdom from them knowing what he is up to. Hamlet says to Horatio: “To put an antic disposition on” (Act.1, SC.5, Ln.171). By this statement Hamlet is letting Horatio know that he will pretend to go mad. Nevertheless, his false madness leads to him killing Polonius, who is the father of his lover Ophelia. Ophelia ends up going crazy after knowing her father was killed by Hamlet. Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s madness are both caused by their father’s death. However, Hamlet only pretends to be mad, while Ophelia goes insane.

In the tragedy, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the audience is presented with a character who suffers inner and external conflicts. Hamlet, the young prince, continues to mourn his father’s death from the beginning of the play until the end. Hamlet’s inner conflict is that he discovers Claudius, his uncle, has committed the murder of his father. Hamlet does not analyze how he will seek revenge and murder his Uncle Claudius without his conscience interfering. The external conflict that Hamlet endures is that his father orders him to avenge his death, but in a heightened state of emotion, he accidentally kills Polonius thinking that it is Claudius, the man who is the source of anger. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet pretends to be insane, but as his inner and external conflict continue to pressure him into killing his need for revenge drives him to actually become insane.

Throughout the play Hamlet, Hamlet is involved with two females; Ophelia his girlfriend and his mother Gertrude. Ironically enough these are the only two females featured in the play. The relationship Hamlet has with both of these females has its ups and downs and they have their share of distrust. The actions as the reactions from these characters are typical and expected. Hamlet 's unstable relationships with women are also a reflection of his characteristics and his situation

William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet focuses on Hamlet, a 30-year old man who tries to seek revenge for his father. Reading the play and looking at it through a contemporary lenses, one can assume the title character is homosexual. Even though Shakespeare does not mean for hamlet to be a homosexual, a contemporary reader can assume this argument; through Hamlet’s characterization and misogynistic relations.