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

Two months have elapsed since Hamlet swore to avenge his father; but he has not yet moved “with wings as swift/as meditation or the thoughts of love”(I, v, 29-30). Hamlet is very emotional because Claudius is still alive. This emotional balance has become risky, is shown when he encounter’s with Ophelia. When Hamlet enter Ophelia closet while she is sewing. She is very frightened, and rushes to her father to tell him what happened. She says, “Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced; no hat upon his head; his stockings foul’d, ungarter’d and down- gyved to his ancle; pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; and with a look so piteous in purport as if he had been loosed out to hell to speak of horrors, (II, i, 78-83). She describes Hamlet’s strange behavior to her father Polonius. Polonius begins to wonder that there may be an explanation to his strange behaviors, and this led Polonius to believe: “This is very ecstasy of love; whose violent property fordoes itself and leads the will to desperate undertakings, as oft as any passion under heaven that does afflict our natures” (II, i, 102-106). Polonius is certain that Hamlet is having these behaviors due to the fact that he loves Ophelia. This is due to the fact that Ophelia has followed her father’s instruction to stay away from Hamlet, causing him to be mad. Polonius hopes are strengthened when he reads the note that Hamlet has

When we first meet Hamlet, he is dressed all in black and conveys all the “moods, forms and shapes of grief”. This depression is caused by his father’s recent death. Gertrude, his mother and

Hamlet is the main character in the play Hamlet so the protagonist. He’s about thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. He feels responsible to avenge his father’s murder (his uncle Claudius). Prince Hamlet is talking to a ghost, but not only a random ghost, it is his father who were killed. Hamlet was loved by the people so it was difficult for King Claudius to deal with that because Hamlet was dangerous, but he couldn’t hide Hamlet because the people loved him. So King Claudius tried everything that Hamlet so feeling good again.

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.

Hamlet, a play written by William Shakespeare, is all about revenge. All is not well in Denmark where a king is murdered and his son is out to avenge him. The only two females in the play, Gertrude and Ophelia, are completely overlooked. The two have little role in the story and are only present when talking to one of the men. Gertrude lost her first husband and quickly remarried to his brother, Claudius. Her son, Hamlet, greatly despises her for it. Ophelia believes that she and Hamlet are in love and she is the cause of his madness. None of the men pay much attention to them unless they are being scolded or used in a plan. Ophelia and Gertrude have many similarities like how they do as they are told and are victims of Hamlet’s madness, yet are different like how they love Hamlet and how they react to death of a loved one.

William Shakespeare wrote the play Hamlet around the 1600, telling the story of a young prince dealing with the tragic death of his father and the subtle remarriage of his mother to his Claudius. The play uses mental health, both real and faked, as a way to show human behavior and emotions. The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgust for his mother’s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts.  Hamlet’s mental state was originally fake to create concern in King Claudius, but ended up truly taking root as people died and his false state of mind had the wrong consequence of what he expected.

Hamlet begins play by breaking bonds with his family. The death of his father, the former king of Denmark, leaves Hamlet in a state of depression. During Gertrude’s, Hamlet’s mother, and Claudius's, the new king and Hamlet’s paternal uncle, wedding ceremony, Hamlet is the only one wearing “nighted colour” (1.2.68), which are clothes for mourning. He isolates himself from the joys of everyone and instead chooses to wallow in his own dark world, with his initial grief for his father being the catalyst for his descent into isolation. Hamlet begin to have hopes to commit “self-slaughter” (1.2.132) as he is frustrated with his life in its current state. Hamlet is rejecting his family as it is, instead lamenting on his father, to the point where he contemplates suicide. By isolating himself from the land of the living, Hamlet believes he does not have a purpose anymore. When his mother comments on Hamlet seeming sad during the ceremony, Hamlet replies that he “know not ‘seems’” (1.2.76), commenting on his mother’s use of the seem and saying that his depression is not an act, but genuine. His mother notices that “His father’s death and our o’er-hasty marriage” (2.2.57) could be the cause of his emerging familial isolation and regrets to not have been able to do anything to help her son. Having seemingly lost his purpose in life, Hamlet begins his isolation by removing himself from his family.

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character Hamlet must deal with both external and internal conflict. Hamlet encounters many struggles and has trouble finding a way to deal with them. With so many corrupt people in his life, Hamlet feels as if there is no one that he can trust and begins to isolate himself from others. A result from this isolation leads Hamlet to become melancholy. Hamlet struggles with suicidal thoughts, wants to kill King Claudius, and is distraught over his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle Claudius.

The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is set in an anti-feminist era. Women traditionally have been seen inferior to men. This was an intellectual as well as a physical issue. Women were to raise a family, cook, clean, be pretty and not be smarter than any man. The main characters Ophelia and Gertrude are both depicted with these characteristics as powerless and frail people. This illustration of helpless women affects one's understanding of what their true selves could be.

Shakespeare writes in a way that is difficult to understand for anyone that speaks the modern language. His story Hamlet is understood through the emotions felt by his characters. Hamlet is the main character who is conflicted with revenge and conspiring friendships. Hamlet returns home from Germany for his father’s funeral only to find far more troubling things. Hamlet is a conflicted character but that doesn’t stop him from knowing what he wants. Revenge is the main cause of his confliction but with great reason, which is important to understand about this play because it helps explain all the betrayal and tragedy.

We begin with a wedding celebration between Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, and Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet's father, the King, has suddenly died an untimely death. The colors in this scene are bright and white, the color of innocents and newborns. Flower petals are descending from the ceiling in joy, and everyone is cheering. From there, we pan over to a solitary figure in the hallway, Hamlet. Hamlet, clad in black, watches the kingdom rejoice at the celebration while he is still in mourning for his late father. As a viewer, we realize here that the subject of this scene is not the extravagant wedding,

To start with, it is important to acknowledge Hamlet’s mental state in the beginning of the play. It is clear that Hamlet is in great despair due to the death of his beloved father and his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle. This becomes evident in Hamlet’s first soliloquy when he expresses his desire to disappear by contemplating suicide; “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, / Or that the Everlasting has not fixed / His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (1.2.129-132). The death of Hamlet’s father was the first tragic event that Hamlet had to deal with and the fact that Hamlet thought so highly of his father (“So excellent a King...(1.2.139)) goes to show how greatly his death had impacted Hamlet.