What Is Ophelia's Idea Of Madness In Hamlet

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, there are two characters that display qualities of insanity. Specifically, Hamlet and Ophelia, although they both appear to be mad at times, their downfall (or supposed downfall) is quite different. Ophelia's madness seems complete while Hamlet's is questionable throughout the play. Hamlet's madness comes and goes; Ophelia's does not. Ophelia tells no one that she is "mad"; on the other hand, Hamlet shows everyone about his madness. Hamlet turns his madness on and off depending on the company he keeps. Ophelia on the other hand, cannot handle the loss of Hamlet's love, her brother's absence, and her father's death. It is all too much for her and she snaps. Hamlet and Ophelia’s position in society, along with the

Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, whose uncle and mother betray him. Ophelia, a pure figure in the play, loves Hamlet, but he and her mind betray her. Through conflicts between their minds, and interactions with others, the madness of Ophelia and Hamlet progressed into something more than they could handle. With a lack of support given by their families, or peers, they only spiraled deeper into themselves. In the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the author uses the characterization of Hamlet and Ophelia’s insanity to further illustrate how madness is a vehicle to truth.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the obsession that titular character Hamlet has with the perfection of various aspects of his life leads to chaos and his tragic downfall. Hamlet’s obsession with the perfection of his plan, the perfection of his moral character, and the perfection of feminine sexual purity help contribute to his tragic fall as he started to lose his sanity and control of his life. His obsessions also created conflict with those around him, as his actions when confronted with his obsessions pitted other characters against him.

Great authors can develop the same idea in different ways. Shakespeare introduces the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia to mental illness throughout “Hamlet”. Hamlet a, Depressed and Monomaniacal Psychopath, runs off of the vengeance of his father to kill his uncle, King Claudius. Ophelia A victim of, hysteria and depression, cannot function without the support of her father and lover without this support she can loses the will to live. Shakespeare uses metaphors, gender, tone, and word choice to develop the progression of mental illness in his characters throughout “Hamlet”.

Psychotic behavior is prevalent in Shakespeare’s Hamlet as two of his characters, Hamlet and Ophelia, exhibit madness during the play. The play commences after Claudius killed King Hamlet, leaving him in purgatory. Hamlet, after discovering this fact, feigns madness, which he calls an “antic disposition” (1.5.192) in his plot for revenge to ultimately free his father. Ophelia, on the other hand, succumbs to madness after the death of her father Polonius and Hamlet’s rejection of her love. Both experience deaths within their families, which lead to a loss of identity because their identities are greatly shaped by their familial

It is in act 4 scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet where we first see Ophelia go mad. The language used to describe this event is chilling in its genius. Her madness is thought by those around her to be triggered by her father’s death, but if they listened to her they would know the truth. Ophelia is driven to madness by many different factors, the major one being her relationship with Hamlet. Towards the start of her mad episode, she says, “ So would I’a done, by yonder sun, / An thou hadst not come to my bed.(4.5.70-71)” She is talking about a woman who was tricked into having sexual intercourse with a man, a man who lured her in with the promise of marriage. It seems to be that Ophelia feels duped and taken advantage of, that she has in some way been devalued.

On the other hand, Ophelia did have a real problem with insanity. After her father was accidently killed, she drowned herself. I believe Ophelia didn’t know how to live without her father, so she thought killing herself was best. Hamlet was able to feign his own madness

Macbeth Macbeth, a main character in William Shakespeare’s tragedy, proves to be a dynamic character throughout the play by his transition from noble to evil. He is introduced as a strong and noble figure of the community in the beginning of the play and drastically changes with help of the three witches, his wife, and his wicked conscience. Macbeth was not only a noble public figure but also a loving and supportive husband to Lady Macbeth. He was seen as a superior, someone that people could look up to, and someone that deserved the honor. What Macbeth later did was something that no one could have ever predicted.

William Shakespeare was an English writer who aimed to capture the audiences’ reaction to the human emotion and conflict within the plays. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare conveys the internal conflict of madness, particularly Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s. A reader can compare Hamlet’s madness and Ophelia’s Madness when making the assumptions of the themes of gender, family, and lies and deceit.

Macbeth is very distinct character the thing that makes him different from all the other characters is the amount of ambition he has. The biggest ambition that he has is to give Scotland a new king and he wants to become the one that has all the power over them. The first thing that he does is kill King Duncan  so he can get the throne and then he kills his best friend so he won't tell anyone. Most people wouldn't be willing to do the things he did because it was very dark and evil so they just wouldn't have the heart or dedication to do something so terrible it just shows how much becoming the king and taking over the throne meant to him. The witches brought on the thirst so they basically killed the king. If they would have never told macbeth that it was fate for him  to be king he never would of killed the king, or anyone else that he killed. Once he thought he could become king he couldn't get it out of his head and once his wife pushed him to do it he went through with it. Macbeth gets more evil as the play goes on. He became the villain in the play because he killed the king and he also killed his best friend Banquo, and he reached his highest point of evil when he killed Macduff’s wife and child. He made very bad decisions since he made those decisions he had to fight very hard to keep his position as the king, so he didn't let anything get in his

To find out the truth about the late king, Hamlet feigns his madness to fool the characters. Since his father has just passed away, everyone is thinking that he is going insane due to all the drama that is going on within the family. His mother getting married to his uncle, and on top of all that, his feelings for Ophelia have been rejected. In the beginning Hamlet seems to have crossed the line into madness to trick the kingdom to think he was crazy, when in reality he wanted to investigate the murder of his father, because the ghost of the king keeps appearing to him to reveal the truth. Another character who seems to show signs of madness is Ophelia.

Macbeth was a brave warrior until he was overpowered by his ambition this caused him to change psychologically. His ambition to become the most powerful man in all of Scotland is was caused him to turn into a evil, manipulative and a wicked leader. The hallucinations and visions throughout the play gradually overcame Macbeth. The prophecies that the witchers told Macbeth, sparked the violent actions to come. The

Macbeth is a Shakespearean tragedy where the titular character, who was once a valiant nobleman, becomes greedy for power and kills the king to fulfill his goals. Throughout this we can see the major changes that Macbeth faces from his character roles, to his actions, and as well as his behavior. After having been given the prophecies by the witches, his decision to become powerful lead to his downfall. He started off as a loyal patron to the king, after receiving the prophecies from the witches, he became a conniving and treacherous man. Lastly, he did whatever he could to become king and eventually achieved the throne.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet the family members of Hamlet and Ophelia induce madness through controlling and somewhat incestuous relationships, ultimately leading them to their demise. The madness that their family members bring upon them shows that, both Ophelia and Hamlet become fascinated with death/suicide, an escape from the madness. Ophelia lives a life controlled by her father and brother, she is given virtually no dominance in the play. She is assertive, always being controlled and having her feelings controlled by her brother or father. This over controlling relationship with her father and brother leads to her madness and ultimately death/suicide.

The literary language of madness drawn from Classical drama came to the English stage through Old French and the literature of fools. The body and Mind are two major elements in Madness. Through a series of scenes, the play displays the sorts of distinctions between all the characters actions, natural and supernatural, distraction and feigned madness that were being demanded at other cultural sites. It is my conclusion that Hamlet uses a façade of insanity to hide his attempts to kill Claudius and avenge his father’s death. There are several different kinds of madness in Hamlet, the three main are; female madness, feigned madness, and melancholy. Madness can be seen in two characters specifically. Ophelia which represents female madness, and Hamlet which represents feigned or false madness.