Analysis of Hamlets Madness - Essay Example

Madness In Hamlet, madness gets portrayed as both real and feigned through the characters of Ophelia and Hamlet. In the play, Ophelia descends into real madness and subsequently ends up drowning. Ophelia rapidly descends into insanity and her ultimate suicide is not in question in the play. On the other hand, the question of Hamlet’s insanity lies in ambiguity. The audience fails to tell whether Hamlet feigns or is truly mad. The theme of madness evidenced by the two characters contributes to the play’s overall themes of uncertainty, doubt, and revenge. Hamlet’s madness leads him to commit revenge for the death of the King who was his father. Hamlet’s crafts a scheme to force his uncle to accept that he murdered the King. In Act I scene V of the play, Hamlet’s father’s ghost encourages him to murder the current King who is his uncle as revenge for poisoning his father (Shakespeare 35). As part of his aim to make his uncle confess to the crime, he feigns madness. His first characteristics of madness appear when he encounters Ophelia, a woman who he had made countless presentations of his affection. He acts insane towards her before the opening of the tale. He acts mad by grabbing her hands, caressing her face, and by staring at her closely as he exits the room. Ophelia’s father Polonius attributes Hamlet’s madness as a result of his love for her. Through his madness, Hamlet alienates Ophelia by making it known that he never loved her at all. Hamlet further confuses her when he decides to sit next to her during the play within a play in Act III. Ophelia is unsure of his melancholy to ecstatic attitude change. Hamlet almost avenges his father’s death when he finds the king kneeling down in prayer. He contemplates upon this by questioning the morality of killing him when he is in prayer. In Act III scene IV, his father’s ghost visits him again to remind him that he has not avenged his murder (Shakespeare 95). In Act V scene II, he ultimately kills the king before he dies too. Hamlet’s feigned madness leads to him becoming obsessed with revenge for his father. In the play, Ophelia is daughter to Polonius, and Hamlet’s love interest. She gets trapped between Polonius and Hamlet’s world as she gets confused as to whether to become obedient towards his father or fall in love with Hamlet. This confusion results to her tragic end. Ophelia as demanded by society at the time is obedient towards his father. He lives by his father’s rules and gets used by him as a catch to spy on Hamlet. Ophelia’s obedience towards men also leaves her at the mercies of Hamlet’s constant abuse of her. Hamlet accuses Ophelia of being a breeder of sinners and if she were to marry she would turn her husband into a monster as she would cheat on him. The constant barrage of criticism directed towards her by Hamlet crushes her. She gets crashed when Hamlet declares that he never loved her (Shakespeare 30). As a young woman, Ophelia is under too much pressure from both her father and Hamlet. She eventually cracks and goes mad. She sings of a girl who gets tricked into losing her virginity for a false promise on marriage. Her madness leads her to commit suicide by drowning. Her mental breakdown is real and as a result of the patriarchal pressure and abuse he receives from his father and Hamlet. Ophelia’s madness gets contributed by the overall state of confusion existent in the entire play. She gets confused as to whether to surrender to Hamlet or her father. She gets caught in both worlds. It is this confusion that leads her to breakdown mentally. Ophelia’s madness can also get attributed to the misogynistic and gender themes existent in the play. As demanded by society at the time, women were to be obedient to every move by their male counterparts in society. Ophelia gets forced to obey the men in her lives. It is this submission to both her father and Hamlet that contribute to her state of confusion and apparent mental breakdown. She complies with his father’s rules to spy on Hamlet. He also gets forced to agree when his father asks him to refute Hamlet’s advances (Shakespeare 45). Her submission to Hamlet’s constant abuse of her also shows the place women got ranked in society then. Her submission to both men shows the gender roles at the time, and it ultimately leads to her madness and demise. Hamlet’s antic disposition or feigned insanity also contributes to the overall theme of confusion and reality within the whole play. There is considerable evidence within the play that show Hamlet feigned insanity to confuse the king and his service men. He foretold of his intention to act oddly strange and put on an antic disposition in Act I scene V (Shakespeare 39). In the closet scene, he affirms his feigned madness to her mother when he disputes the thought held by the court that he is mad. He tells her that he is not mad, but rather his madness is out of his crafting. However, Hamlet’s madness can also get debated. It is this debate on his madness whether real or feigned that makes up for further confusion to the audience. Madness is not something that can get toyed about. One cannot control insanity. Madness gets hidden in the mind, developing slowly over time and it is quite difficult to prove it. Hamlet’s feigned madness is initially engineered towards uncovering his father’s death. However, over time he slowly starts to sink into unknown territories that make his mind to run out of control. His initial feigned insanity ultimately ends up as a tragedy and reality for all the characters within the play. It can also get argued that the events at the start of the play could possibly drive anyone including Hamlet mad. Upon his arrival in Denmark, which is his home, he learns of his father’s passing on. He also realizes that his mother has married, Claudius who is his uncle (Shakespeare 15). The castle guards also reveal to Hamlet of seeing his father’s ghost. Upon his stand on guard one night, he meets the ghost. Hamlet comes to term of the King’s murder of his father. This leads him to plot and avenge his father’s death by feigning madness. These events could have easily taken a toll on Hamlet making him mad without his realization. His feigned madness brings utter confusion and devastation to those he loves ultimately without him realizing. He fails to control his feigned madness, which takes control of him and results to his death and tragedy. The state of madness viewed in Ophelia and Hamlet contribute to other themes within the play. Hamlet’s feigned madness contributes to the themes of confusion and revenge witnessed within the play. Ophelia’s madness also contributes to the themes of gender equality and confusion witnessed within the play. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. London: Echo Library, 2006. Read More