No Matter The Reason, Revenge Causes A Cycle That Continues

There is a distinct division of opinion among the other characters of the play about Hamlet's sanity and the split is along gender lines. Ophelia and Gertrude both state that Hamlet has gone mad, but the major male characters, on the other hand, like Polonius think that there is "method" in Hamlet's "madness," that his insanity is a surface mask to shield him as he plans the darker purpose of revenge. Since Hamlet is disturbed by the sudden death of his father and his mother's marriage to his uncle, King Claudius, the abnormality of his behavior to some extent is also understandable. Hamlet is naturally withdrawn, dark, and passive in the wake of those traumatic events. He also shows this when he constantly releases his anger with lines like "How (weary), stale, flat, and unprofitable seems to me all the uses of this world!" His self-exile and his self-reproach are essentially normal reactions to a series of events that he must avenge at his dead father's command but without further direction against a powerful chain of power within the guilty King.

In another scene, Polonius orders Ophelia to return the gifts that Hamlet gave her, and to make her rejection of him unmistakable and absolute. Polonius believes that if she is the cause of Hamlet’s madness, this would be the proof. “That Hamlet loses his mental stability is arguable from his behavior toward Ophelia…” (Foster, par.16) In Branagh’s version, we see how terribly this tears Ophelia’s heart. When Hamlet sees her, he walks up to her, telling her how much he loves her. After Hamlet kisses her, she returns the love letters that he wrote back to him. She sees how crushed he is, which makes her feel even worse; but she also believes she has to do this because her father ordered her to. Hamlet tells her “Get thee to a nunnery” (William

Hamlet also uses Ophelia as a pawn, perhaps more than her family. Hamlet uses the court’s knowledge of his relationship with Ophelia in order to draw attention away from his real purpose of killing his uncle. In Act III, Scene I, Ophelia approaches Hamlet in order to return his letters and other pledges of affection for her, according to her father’s wishes. Hamlet appears to be very distraught, and accuses Ophelia of lying to him and being prostituted by her family. This outburst, however, is used solely to camouflage his real purpose-to have revenge of Claudius, his uncle, for killing his father. Hamlet is aware that Polonius and Claudius are watching this encounter between him and Ophelia, and uses the situation to his benefit- he can pretend to be heartbroken by Ophelia’s supposed

Laertes voices his concern of Hamlet's true intentions towards Ophelia and advises her to be wary of Hamlet's love. Laertes impresses upon Ophelia that Hamlet is a prince who, most likely, will have an arranged marriage. Hamlet's strong love for Ophelia withers after she rejects his affinity. Hamlet's extensive love for Ophelia resulted in grave suffering for Hamlet once his affection was rejected. Hamlet's appearance decays due to the rejection of his love for Ophelia "Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other" (Act 2, Scene 1, line 82). The loss of Ophelia's love for Hamlet causes Polonius to believe it has caused Hamlet to revert to antic disposition. Once Laertes learns of the death of his sister, he is afflicted with sadness. In the same way, Hamlet is shocked and enraged over Ophelia's demise. Both Hamlet and Laertes are so profoundly distressed at the death of Ophelia, they jump into her grave and fight each other.

Laertes tries his best to convince Ophelia that “if [Hamlet] says he loves [her],/ it fits [her] wisdom [...] to believe it” (1.3.24). By this, it could be assumed that Laertes is predicting that it would seem likely that Ophelia would fall under the impression of Hamlet loving her, regardless if it was true. As her brother takes his leave, Ophelia tells him that she will lock his warnings in her mind with Laertes holding the key to this memory. In this instance, Ophelia’s place in her family is shown as being the lesser of the siblings. Her father tries to convince her that “when the blood burns, how prodigal the soul/Lends the tongue vows” (1.3.116). By this, Polonius’s words reinforce the idea that Ophelia’s ideas of Hamlet are led by passion rather than logic. If she were to be thinking logically, it is assumed that she would not have been confused about the meaning of Hamlet 's words that were said to her in their moments of passion. Ophelia’s agreement with her father that she will not believe Hamlet’s words of passion led to the push of Hamlet becoming obsessed with his hatred of her.

Hamlet is a young man who has become crazy from his trials and tribulations in life. He lost his father due to his uncle murdering them and then had to watch his mother marry the killer. Hamlets insanity can be demonstrated by his crude language and disregard for the well being of his mother. It can also be shown by his depression, which causes him to second guess everything including his life and finally his love, Ophelia helps to justify his absurdness by acting as a mirror. His foolish behavior worries many in the kingdom and creates a hostile and paranoid environment for those around. While some in the castle may believe that Hamlet is putting on an act, he proves that he is mad through his violet actions, his mental health and Ophelia.

Throughout the play, Hamlet and Ophelia have a very strong love connection. They loved each other and wanted to eventually get married. Hamlet and Ophelia hit some bumps in the road in their relationship but they always secretly wanted to be together. In Act 1, Scene 3, It was hard for Ophelia to comprehend when Polonius told her that he thought Hamlet's love for her wasn’t real, but she didn’t know what to believe. When Hamlet could no longer see Ophelia he began to get mad a frustrated, to add on also that he was going crazy over his own father's death.

Hamlet’s insanity can be thought of as a tragedy or misconception of reality. The death of his father had shaped the first few impressions of his own persona as well as a new experience with his new aunt. As  a result of his genius insanity prince Hamlet has devised a plan to make things more clear to the audience. “Hamlet’s behavior strikes the audience as abnormal on  several occasions. For example, Hamlet seems to be really mad when he is in front of Ophelia in disordered clothes. He behaves as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of the horror”.  As the progress of the play foreshadows a significant end to his insanity that he acts upon.  As the play progresses throughout, Hamlet finds ways in order to give others the impression that he has lost his sanity from his “love” of Polonius’s daughter Ophelia. “(Ophelia)He grabbed me by the wrist and held me hard, then backed away an arm’s length and just looked at me, staring at me like an artist about to paint my

In this case, Hamlet is obsessed with yet unable to act out his revenge since he is a man of thought and reflection, not of action and impulsiveness. "Revenge, said Francis Bacon in his essay on the subject, is a kind of wild justice, and something in Hamlet is too civilized for stealthy murder," says Northrop Frye (Frye). While he knows it is his duty to avenge his father's murder, Hamlet's desire to fulfill this obligation constantly wavers. In self-pity he cries, "O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!" (1.5. 188-189), and yet in rage he utters, "Now could I drink hot blood / and do such bitter business as the day / Would quake to loot on," (3.2. 397-399). Hamlet hesitates numerous times to fulfill his duty to avenge his father, and in the end he must actually convince himself to kill Claudius. "... I do not know / Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do', / Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means / To do't... / ... / O, from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!" (4.4. 43-46, 65-66). This unusual flaw leads to Hamlet's inevitable demise, and is the most convincing evidence that Hamlet is, indeed, a tragedy. The protagonist, however, is not the only character in the play that experiences a want for revenge. Shakespeare uses all three of the sons seeking vengeance to reveal the complexity of the human yearning for

As the play progresses there is an evident change in Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s relationship. Hamlet appears to have gone insane, not being able to be with Ophelia, as shown in Act III. When he first sees Ophelia in the opening in the opening scene of Act III, his behaviour is rather normal. Be that as it may, Hamlet’s actions change radically at the point where Ophelia is returning Hamlet’s love letters. At this point, Hamlet is rather forceful and says, “I loved you not”, [3.1.129], and by advising her to “get … to a nunnery”. He then begins to act much more antagonistic and violent when he hears a clamour close-by. He suspects that Claudius and Polonius are eavesdropping, leaving Ophelia in a frightened state. She says, "O, help him, you sweet heavens!" and

Hamlet loves Ophelia from the bottom of his heart, but the situation that Hamlet has been put into forces him to break this relationship. The fact that Hamlet is the heir to a kingdom and Ophelia is of a lower social class shows that this is not just a superficial relationship. Polonius questions the sincerity of Hamlet's love and argues with Ophelia over it. In response to Polonius, Ophelia explains that, “He hath importuned me with love/ In honorable fashion” (1.3.109-110). Ophelia tries to explain to Polonius that Hamlet is honourable and that the love that he expresses towards her is not fraudulent in any way. Ophelia and Hamlet have a very loving relationship, in which the two of them are happy. In Hamlet's pursuit of killing King Claudius, their relationship collapses. Hamlet knows that if he is to kill the king, then he must separate himself from Ophelia. When Hamlet encounters Ophelia he acts very impolite and insults Ophelia so that she will not associate with him anymore. Hamlet says, “To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell” (3.1.139-140). With this phrase, Hamlet is telling Ophelia to leave and to get away from him. Hamlet purposely pushes Ophelia away to save her; he wants to ensure that she will not be hurt emotionally when Hamlet finally goes ahead with his plan, and that she will not get in trouble for having a connection with a conspirator. When Ophelia passes away we see that Hamlet is struck with grief and sorrow. At

In the beginning of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Hamlet is introduced as a depressed and sulky prince due to the tragedy of his father's death. To add to his distress, his uncle, Claudius, only a month after his father's death, marries his mother and soon obtains the place as king. Throughout the play Hamlet's character changes more and more. He wants to prove that Claudius was the reason for his father's decease. Throughout the play Hamlet's character deteriorates and he starts to show his insanity because of all the flaws in his life such as; his father's death, the marriage between his mother and uncle, and finding out how his father died.

Aside from making Hamlet upset, the people he truly cares about have been betraying him. For instance, when Hamlet was alone in a room, Hamlet said to himself, “yet even so, within a month of my father’s death, even pancakes before she had broken in the shoes she wore to his funeral… there she was marrying my uncle, my father’s brother,” (Shakespeare 29). Hamlet feels this abandonment from his mother because Hamlet is still depressed and his mother quickly moved on and married her brother-in law. Hamlet is hurt that she did not help him overcome his father’s death and she only cared about herself and her happiness. In addition, Hamlet is not only deceived by his mother, but also by his girlfriend Ophelia. In the same way, when Polonius and Ophelia were speaking, Ophelia agreed by saying, “i’ll do as you say father,” (Shakespeare 49). Ophelia letting down Hamlet by obeying her father because she needed to stop taking and distant herself from Hamlet when he needs her the most which caused him to act in a foul way. Even though Hamlet has been emotionally unstable, he was also inspired by others to take

While Hamlet’s love for Ophelia often takes backseat to his revenge plans, it is evident throughout the play that he truly does love her. His courtship of her appears to be honorable and driven purely out of love. During Ophelia’s first scene, she tells her father that Hamlet “hath importuned me with love in honorable fashion…and hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, with almost all the holy vows of heaven” (1.3 109-113) Despite warnings from her brother and father, Ophelia falls hard for the young prince of Denmark. He sends her gifts and love letters in which he expresses his great affection for her. One of these letters is made known to the court when the king and the queen are attempting to figure out what has caused Hamlet’s

The plot thickens and Hamlet's mind begins to ponder the possibilities of a confession by the king. His love for Ophelia is also strongly noticed by all. The nobles of Elsinor also notice the love he shows and they begin to realize the possibility that Hamlet love for Ophelia would benefit them all. When Polonius reads from one of Hamlet's love letter's to Ophelia, in which he says to her "But that I love thee best, O most best, believe it." (2.2.121-122). Queen Gertrude wishes to use Ophelia's love to bring her only son out of madness. Claudius wishes to do the same. His reason, however, is to end the threat of his own life. Once the king and queen realize this remedy they quickly act to use it by persuading Ophelia to talk to Hamlet.