...In the play Hamlet, madness is very prevalent and is a major theme in the play. Madness is defined as mental delusion or eccentric behavior from it; and in this case Hamlet's madness changes his perception and affected his judgment. When people are mad, people start to react to things instead of thinking them through and do not act normally. Through Hamlet's apparent madness, Shakespeare illuminates the danger that Hamlet's flawed decisions made from poor judgment pose to other, especially those closest to him. Hamlet in the play makes flawed decisions because of his mental state. The madness contributes to his poor judgment. In act one scene five, Hamlet says “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on” (1.5.28). This is Hamlet blatantly stating that he is going to pretend to act crazy. But the premise of it is a bit insane itself. He makes this decision from seeing the ghost of King Hamlet. It is strange that nobody except Hamlet has heard the ghost told. And even later in act three, scene four, Hamlet talks to the ghost in front of Gertrude, but Gertrude acts confused as if she never seen the ghost. The fact that Claudius killed his brother and married King Hamlet's wife upsets Hamlet and causes him to make these rash decision. Another example of his decision making is in act two scene two, where he makes fun of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet confronts Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about them spying on him for the king and queen. Although...
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...times. The Tragedy of Hamlet is written as substantial, yet subtle in this dramatic play. Shakespeare creates this drama with twists and turns in each scene, which spikes some readers to sit on the edge of one’s seat. Shakespeare uses soliloquies, dramatic dialogues, and revenge tragedy to unfold a tremendous amount of details of Hamlet, thus causing a dramatic irony approach. Between the Franco Zeffirelli’s version and the Laurence Oliver’s version of this tragedy, characters are distinctively played. While Hamlet’s life is crumbling in front of him, those surrounded, specifically Ophelia, are also being affected. In this play, Ophelia...
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...female characters in William Shakespeare's Hamlet appear to be fragile collateral figures that are mistreated by men, causing great misfortune. However, there is more to these female roles than what meets the eye. Ophelia is one of the characters that had an impact on the action of the story. Even though Shakespeare's intention for Hamlet was not meant to be a woman-based play, the female roles are more significant than what the readers believe. Through closer investigation, the true purpose of these females such as Ophelia unfolds, and it becomes evident that these women were more significant to driving the action of the play, than they were at first glance. In Hamlet, the role of Ophelia is presented as a very submissive, but gentle, loyal, proper and loving young woman. Ophelia is meant to be...
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...never doubt I love” (2.2.119). Hamlet proclaims his feelings for Ophelia, assuring her that he will always love her. Hamlet gives Ophelia the mindstate that she should trust the love she receives. Love heavily impacts and drives Ophelia’s actions throughout the play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. Ophelia’s desires push her to be intimate with Hamlet and eventually drive her to madness resulting in her death. Ophelia’s loving and trusting nature compels her to obey her father. She trusts her father’s judgement, but also wants to trust Hamlet’s love for her. Ophelia has very strong feelings and has put a lot of trust in Hamlet so when her father asks “Do you believe his tenders” (1.3.45-112). Ophelia...
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...Drama Connections Drama Connections After reading the play, Hamlet, I’ve come to a great understanding of the actual character of Hamlet. Hamlet was a prince who felt like he was stuck in a castle full of betrayal. Claudius, the King of Denmark, was his uncle/stepfather. He had murdered the former King, Hamlet Senior, whom was also his brother. Claudius then married young Hamlet’s mother a couple months after the death of the former king. In the beginning of the story, young Hamlet knew of his father’s death, but did not know that it wasn’t an accidental death. The ghost of the former king paid a visit to a couple of guards and Hamlet only to tell Hamlet the story of his death. The ghost let Hamlet know that Claudius was the one at fault for his death because he had murdered him. He also told Hamlet to seek revenge upon Claudius. After the ghost’s visit, Hamlet felt like he had gone mad! He felt crazy and he couldn’t believe that Claudius had killed his father so he could become King of Denmark and marry his mother and take her as Queen. Another possible reason for Hamlet’s madness was his love for Ophelia. Although, in the story, it’s said that his madness comes from the rejection from Ophelia, I did not see it. I thought his madness resulted from the appearance of the ghost of his father. His father’s death left him devastated and the fact that his mother married his uncle right away left him flustered. Combined, the death of his father with the marriage of his mother and...
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...Hamlet is thought to be one of William Shakespeare's most honored works and is a piece of art in its form that has been studied in depth by many scholars since its time. The storyline of Hamlet follows a vein of madness that begins with Claudius' murdering King Hamlet and ending with the tragic killing of almost every main character. Many reasons have been proposed for the ultimate tragedy, which occurs at the conclusion of the play. Indeed Hamlet is mad, but the other characters' madness also helped in contributing to his own. It is or is it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity? Highly doubtful that Hamlet was faking the whole thing. The meaning for insanity on Dictionary.com is “a permanent disorder of the mind.” Hamlet didnt have a permanent disorder of the mind he knew what he was doing and even planned the majority of the events that happened. Most of the time anyway. Having your father die is bad enough, but to have your mother marry your uncle, within a few weeks of your father’s death? Then to see the ghost of your dead father. That would drive anyone a little insane, but maybe not to the extent that everyone thought Hamlet was acting. Hamlet is torn between acting sane and letting everyone else see him as insane. Throughout the story Hamlet pretends to be insane and even dies acting out this front of insanity. At first it seems as though Hamlet is just acting, but then it appears that he does truly indeed go insane. Even after he has gathered evidence against...
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...The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others." The play was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella". Shakespeare based Hamlet on the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. He may also have drawn on or perhaps written an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet. He almost certainly created the title role for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors and actresses from each successive age. Three...
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...and insanity. Both Hamlet and Ophelia display characteristics of madness however Hamlet’s madness is associated with the environment he is in while Ophelia’s madness is linked to her biological makeup of being a woman. On Shakespearean stage, the portrayals of female insanity were often the same. Ophelia would enter the stage in a white dress with flowers in her long and untamed hair while singing and playing a flute. When speaking, her lines were made up of “extravagant metaphors, lyrical free associations and ‘explosive sexual imagery’.” These common portrayals of Ophelia on the Elizabethan stage hold multiple connotations about femininity and sexuality. Ophelia frequently embodies a role of contrast within her self and other characters...
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...is the central topic a text treats. Themes can be divided into two categories: a work's thematic concept is what readers "think the work is about" and its thematic statement being "what the work says about the subject". The most common contemporary understanding of theme is an idea or concept that is central to a story, which can often be summed in a single word (e.g. love, death, betrayal). Typical examples of themes of this type are conflict between the individual and society; coming of age; humans in conflict with technology; nostalgia; and the dangers of unchecked ambition. A theme may be exemplified by the actions, utterances, or thoughts of a character in a novel. An example of this would be the theme loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, wherein many of the characters seem to be lonely. It may differ from the thesis—the text's or author's implied worldview. A story may have several themes. Themes often explore historically common or cross-culturally recognizable ideas, such as ethical questions, and are usually implied rather than stated explicitly. An example of this would be whether one should live a seemingly better life, at the price of giving up parts of ones humanity, which is a theme in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction. Mostly people regards themes as thesis or thesis as themes but there is a clear distinction between them which is given...
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...feminist movements throughout history and in present day; meanwhile, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a great example of women who lived within the “cult...
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...In Shakespear´s "Hamlet", the character of Prince Hamlet pretends to be insane. For a person in his situation, having almost everyone thinking that you are crazy can be an advantage. The king, his father, had died, and just a few weeks after his tragic loss, a ghost appears to Hamlet. This ghost has the appearance of his father. The spirit tells Hamlet that he did not die peacefully, but instead his brother, Claudius, murdered him by pouring venom into his ear. Claudius usurped the throne and also married his brother´s wife, Gertrude. Hamlet swears to his father´s spirit that he is going to avenge his death, and he would commit this by acting insanity. There are actions in the play that would be almost impossible to achieve if Hamlet did not act like a mentally unstable person. The clues that we can find in this tragedy helps proving that Hamlet´s sanity is the motive behind his simulated madness. The first reason Hamlet has to make everyone think he had gone mad is to accomplish the freedom he gains because of this. Societies have taboos and social norms that people must follow to be accepted. However, there are some exceptions, like the mentally unstable or the insane, so Hamlet realizes that being crazy would...
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...the son of Mufasa, the king of the lions, which makes Simba a prince. Hamlet, from Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is the son of the tragically murdered King Hamlet, which makes him a prince too. Most people know that, in The Lion King, Simba has an evil uncle named Scar. Scar is jealous of his brother, Mufasa, because he wants to be the king instead. Of course, Scar kills his brother to get what he wants. In Hamlet, Hamlet has an uncle named Claudius. When the reader enters the story, Claudius has already become king—by killing his brother, who was the king. In The Lion King, Simba develops close friendships with the ever-entertaining Timone and Pumbaa. They are there for him during a time in his life where he has no one, and they teach him how to enjoy...
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...Horatio, to watch with them. When he sees the ghost, he decides they should tell Hamlet, the dead King's son. Hamlet is also the nephew of the present King, Claudius, who not only assumed his dead brother's crown but also married his widow, Gertrude. Claudius seems an able King, easily handling the threat of the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras. But Hamlet is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the ghost's command to seek revenge. Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction. Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which Hamlet flies into a rage against women and marriage. Claudius concludes Hamlet neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Seeing Hamlet as a threat, he decides to send him away. At the play that night, Claudius runs...
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...found in Hamlet Honesty and integrity can both be described as good qualities, but they are interpreted in different ways, honesty is quality of truthfulness and sincerity. While integrity can be described as the possession of a strong moral principles, and the righteous acts committed by a character. William Shakespeare uses multiple forms of deception and immoral acts in almost every scene in the play Hamlet. Proving that there is neither honesty, nor integrity in the play. Different forms of deception are present in the play Hamlet. Including dishonesty, and manipulating the truth. The first major point to contradict honesty, and prove deception in the play is Hamlet’s antic disposition, and all the lies that were made following it. “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, to put an antic disposition on” (I, v, 172-173). After he was informed that Claudius was the killer his father, Hamlet decides to put on an antic disposition (a cloak of madness). Hamlet is therefore deceiving everyone into believing in an act that he had created in order to learn more about his father’s death. A second example to oppose honesty in the play Hamlet is Ophelia’s deception towards Hamlet. “Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father...At home, my lord” (III, i, 130-131). Hamlet asks Ophelia where her father is in the previous quote, but she replies with a lie when she said at home. In reality, Polonius was hiding with Claudius behind a door. Therefore, she agreed to deceive Hamlet so Claudius...
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...Unwilling Descent into Madness William Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains many instances when a problem of interpretation allows for different stances, but perhaps one of the most prominent questions is Hamlet’s descent into madness and to what degree he controls this madness or if it consumes him. This question is of great importance because it allows the reader to either justify or condemn Hamlet’s actions. In the 1990 Kevin Kline version of Hamlet, Hamlet’s interactions with others and his numerous soliloquies show that his madness is not an act; rather, he cracked under the extreme circumstances of his surroundings. Losing his father and seeing his mother marry his uncle within a few short months took an uncontrollable toll on Hamlet. His heightening emotions and increasing violence show that the film takes the stance that Hamlet cannot control his actions as he succumbs to insanity rather than someone in control of their action. Different versions of Hamlet take many stances on this issue from depicting Hamlet as a plotting mastermind to a man spiraling hopelessly out of control. This film is sympathetic to Hamlet’s plight as it shows his steady and unwilling descent into madness. The numerous violent incidences with his family and his dark soliloquies depict Hamlet as a man lost to his madness. By focusing on his relationships with others, the viewer can see that the interpretive stance does not place the blame on Hamlet but rather his circumstances. For example, Hamlet’s emotions...
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