William Shakespeare's Hamlet Essay

Throughout the play of Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy's the main character, Hamlet is faced with the responsibility of getting vengeance for his father's murder. He decides to pretend madness as part of his plan to get the opportunity to kill Claudius who was the suspected murderer. As the play goes on, his portrayal of a madman becomes believable, and the characters around him respond quite vividly. Through his inner thoughts and the obvious reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor faking insanity in order to complete the duty his father assigned him.

Hamlet is arguably the greatest dramatic character ever created. From the moment we meet the crestfallen Prince we are enraptured by his elegant intensity. Shrouded in his inky cloak, Hamlet is a man of radical contradictions -- he is reckless yet cautious, courteous yet uncivil, tender yet ferocious. He meets his father's death with consuming outrage and righteous indignation, yet shows no compunction when he himself is responsible for the deaths of the meddling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the pontificating lord chamberlain, Polonius. He uses the fragile and innocent Ophelia as an outlet for his disgust towards the Queen, and cannot comprehend that his own vicious words have caused her insanity. Hamlet is full of faults. But

quick to spot areas which can help him and to exploit them. He is a

Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.

In order to fully understand Hamlet’s insanity, one must first understand insanity itself. Insanity is a legal definition, primarily defined as “[one’s] ability to determine right from wrong” (Howes). In this sense, someone is insane when they can not determine when their actions are wrong to do. Expanding upon this definition, insanity is a “mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality… or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior” (Howes). Being unable to separate fantasy from reality as well as uncontrollable impulsive behavior are both things that Hamlet experiences throughout various parts of the play.

Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William

He refers to the belief held by some that he is mad and assures her that he is acting insane on purpose. "I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft." (III. iv. 187-8.) quote shows how he is telling her that is not crazy. He tells his mother that Claudius is nothing like his father and how can she live with a murderer. Furthermore, he asks her to leave Claudius and help him to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet pretends to be insane around the king in order to confuse him. This will make the king think that Hamlet is not going to do anything to him. Hamlet delays taking revenge on the king when he finds his uncle praying and asking God for forgiveness. He refuses because if he kills Claudius while he is praying, then Claudius will go to Heaven. These two points show that Hamlet is sane and knows what he is

Throughout the Shakespearian play, Hamlet, the main character is given the overwhelming responsibility of avenging his father’s "foul and most unnatural murder" (I.iv.36). Such a burden can slowly drive a man off the deep end psychologically. Because of this, Hamlet’s disposition is extremely inconsistent and erratic throughout the play. At times he shows signs of uncontrollable insanity. Whenever he interacts with the characters he is wild, crazy, and plays a fool. At other times, he exemplifies intelligence and method in his madness. In instances when he is alone or with Horatio, he is civilized and sane. Hamlet goes through different stages of insanity throughout the story, but his neurotic and skeptical personality amplifies his

The insanity of a person can be contributed through the trauma that is caused by a few events in a person’s life, but in the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare wrote the main character prince Hamlet experiences a few dramatic events from the play which his attitude changes throughout. In order to figure out whether hamlet is insane is by figuring out what the characteristics of his insanity. Characters see Hamlet in different shades of gray, each side more or less sane than others. His sanity can be his truth or his lie.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a complex text that details the failing mental status of a young prince. Hamlet’s antic disposition is all part of a diluted plot to exact revenge of Claudius and shifts in severity based on the characters Hamlet is surrounded by. The clinical definition of insanity explains that the person suffering cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. Given the fact Hamlet manipulated his illness he cannot be ruled insane as he was mentally aware of his reality and used his insanity to get ahead.Therefore Hamlet was not insane but instead faking his illness to warp others views of himself.

Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, must seek revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to murder Claudius. Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes more and more believable in his act, even convincing his mother that he is crazy. However, through his thoughts, and actions, the reader can see that he is in fact putting up an act, he is simply simulating insanity to help fulfil his fathers duty of revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet shows that he understands real from fake, right from wrong and his enemies from his friends. Even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full

This is an excellent reason for Hamlet to pretend that he is mad. He is too much of a coward to simply go and kill Claudius and by acting crazy he will gain valuable information. While he acts mad, he is hiding his intensions of his plan to murder Claudius. Claudius see’s Hamlet as no threat because he has gone mad. Hamlet in fact is also presented as very clever to come with the plan to act mad. By acting insane Hamlet will confuse his enemies and at the same time hide his intensions which is very ingenious but at the same time much more time consuming then simply going and murdering Claudius without having the need to put on an act on madness.

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, focuses on the life of Prince Hamlet and his quarrels with: death, despair, deceit with the demented definitions of our dimension. Shakespeare, rather than reduce his Hamlet to simply a ‘melancholy prince’ enables him to slide along the spectrum of melancholy and joy, celebrating the différence of that binary, moreover bringing the character to a death he both craves and fears. Hamlet lives in the extreme of death notwithstanding deceit: with his uncle/Claudius, killing his father/Old Hamlet, his love/Ophelia, being lost and ultimately dying, him killing Ophelia’s father/Polonius, killing Polonius’ son/Laertes, killing Claudius and Claudius killing Gertrude/Hamlet’s Mother, ultimately Hamlet dying, then after it all we find out that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern died. Above all the black bile of his own creation, Hamlet thoroughly enjoys himself, going as far as to joke while he is being strangled.

This essay will discuss several literary criticisms of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After skimming through several articles, I ended up with four peer-reviewed journal articles, each a different critical perspectives of the play: feminist, psychoanalytical/freudian, moral, and new historicism. My previous studies of Hamlet, as well as my rereading of the play this semester, has collectively given me a general knowledge of the text. My familiarity of the play made it easier for me to decipher the academic journals and see the connections each critic made with the play.

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, although Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, he has little control over the situation of his mother country. His father is dead and his mother marries his uncle, Claudius, who succeeds his father. When Hamlet is still in grief, the ghost of his father comes to tell him that he was killed by Claudius. Young Hamlet, being called to take vengeance, is confined to the land of Denmark and fails to act. Throughout the play, Hamlet feels increasingly trapped by the confinement set by King Claudius, by his father's command to take revenge, and by his own thoughts; only when Hamlet is able to free from his own mind, is he able to take action and escape from these confines.