Hamlets Madness
After Hamlet has discovered the truth about his father, he goes through a very traumatic period, which is interpreted as madness by readers and characters. With the death of his father and the hasty, incestuous remarriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet is thrown into a suicidal frame of mind in which "the uses of this world"seem to him "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." No man in his right state contemplates suicide and would take his life due to human frailty. Ophelia tells us that before the events of the play Hamlet was a model courtier, soldier and scholar, "The glass of fashion and the mould of form,/ The observed of all observers." A modern boy scout to say the least, but as ...
Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers
|
the fight with Laertes in Ophelia's grave, but he tells her that he never loved her, when she returns his letters and gifts, while she was still alive. Hamlet subtly hints his awareness of his dissolving sanity as he tells Laertes that he killed Polonius in a fit of madness [Act V, scene II, lines 236-250] Once Ophelia meets Hamlet and speaks with him her love abandons him. Hamlet realizes that his mother and step father are aware of this love and might use this to end his threat. Hamlet must end their thoughts of using Ophelia to rid him of his condition. To do this he must destroy all the current feelings Ophelia has for him and he does so very well, perhaps too well. Either his love for Ophelia was never as strong as he said, which I doubt, or he has really gone insane by assuming every situation is going to happen and he sacrifices her love for revenge. An honest man would not have done so. Hamlet has violent outbursts towards his mother. His outburst seems to be out of ...
Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.
Already a member? Login
|
wild and whirling words: "Why, right; you are I' the right; And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands and part…" [Act I, scene V, lines 127-134]. After Hamlet kills Polonius he will not tell anyone where the body is. Instead he assumes his ironic matter, "Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. / A certain convocation of political worms a e'en at him." [Act IV, scene III, lines 20-21] In the two months after his meeting with the ghost, he puzzles the court with his assumed madness but does nothing concrete to effect or further his revenge. His inability to either accept the goodness of all life or act to destroy its evils now begins to trouble ...
Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library.
Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports,
and research papers in 2 minutes or less.
|
CITE THIS PAGE:
Hamlets Madness. (2008, March 29). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Madness/81258
"Hamlets Madness." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 29 Mar. 2008. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Madness/81258>
"Hamlets Madness." Essayworld.com. March 29, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Madness/81258.
"Hamlets Madness." Essayworld.com. March 29, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlets-Madness/81258.
|
Save
Report