Essay William Shakespeare s Hamlet Madness Essay Example For Students

Essay William Shakespeare s Hamlet Madness Essay Madness is a condition that is difficult to distinguish between true and false. As in the encounter of the ghost of Hamlet s father with Hamlet, Hamlet is asked to avenge his father s death. To accomplish this task in a less apparent manner, Hamlet decides to feign madness. In the long run, Hamlet truly does go insane. Consequently, his behavior thereafter is frequently unfathomable. William Shakespeare, the writer of the tragic play, Hamlet, leaves Hamlet s sanity up to interpretation. Throughout Shakespeare s Hamlet, Hamlet s questionable madness is explored through his real madness, feigned actions, and the reactions of others towards his madness. In some instances, Hamlet s madness can be seen as authentic. When Hamlet hacks through the arras and kills Polonius, How now! A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead! (Shakespeare 3.4. 25) Hamlet knows that the second Polonius opens his mouth to scream for help, it will not be the king behind the arras. He appears to vary in how mad he is, sometimes appearing completely sane, and sometimes more insane. His madness is mostly portrayed through his ramblings at the other characters, or through soliloquies. Originally Hamlet was only feining madness in order to reach his goals and discover if Claudius was really the one who killed father. He decides this after meeting the ghost of his dead father: â€Å"As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on-.†(Hamlet: 1.5. 171-172).The other characters pick up on his â€Å"madness† as the play progresses further. They were all curious as to the cause of Hamlet’s madness. Polonius and Claudius believe it may be caused by the lack of contact with Ophelia that they had caused, whereas Gertr. .some of the key characters in the story, and is shown in many different ways. Hamlet’s madness is more of an act than true madness. Early on in the story Hamlet decides to feign madness in order to get the truth about his father’s death out of his uncle, using the play as a means to do so. Shakespeare made it very debatable as to if Hamlet’s character was truly mad or not, but making audiences question his sanity with speeches like the famous â€Å"to be or not to be† soliloquy. Madness is also displayed in the character Ophelia, however within her character it was more prominent. She was already a weak and fragile character to begin with, and once her father died she descended into madness. Shakespeare showed madness in different ways with his characters in the play. In some cases it is debatable as to if the character was truly mad, but in others, it was clearly shown.