By god you're mad!

The madness in Shakespeare's work Hamlet is very apparent considering Hamlet says he is going mad, atleast feigning it. His madness may seem incredibly real in the first 4 acts, but when he returns from England, it seems that he has chilled out. It was as if he finally realized that he needs to kill Claudius instead of just going crazy thinking about it. His "antic disposition" is portrayed very well due to Hamlet actually going mad over the whole ordeal. Like I said, he comes back and seems to have gotten over it and is determined to finish his goals. Ophelia's madness, on the other hand, is legitimate. Because Hamlet goes mad and gets sent away from his lover, she goes insane too. Constantly, she is freaking out and acting weird towards everyone, clearly portraying that she is actually mad. Her taking of her life is the strongest evidence reinforcing her madness. This also provides evidence towards Hamlet's fake madness because he did not feel at all like Ophelia. He had no desire to take his life. Through good acting, Hamlet was able to convince the people around him that he was mad, and Ophelia actually was mad and killed herself. The End.

Hamlet stuff

The novel Hamlet by William Shakespear family relationships play a vital roll. Each character seems to have a foil that is represented by someone from another family. Hamlet to Laertes, Hamlet to Fortinbras, Polarius to Claudius. By having a foil, Shakespear created someone that each character could be compared to. Each character, son, wife, husband and so on are blurred together maybe to show certain issues that each character has. Hamlet seems to over think just about every dission he makes. He almost slays Claudius but dicides not to because he's praying and he wouldn't go to hell if he died in prayer. He then doesn't think and stabs Polonius because he thought he was someone else. On the other hand, Fortinbras is a man of action. He takes over Poland and then starts to take over Demark. He uses action instead of thinking over the situation. Laertes is a man of action as well. After Ophelia drowns, he rushes into the castle and threatens Claudius with a sword! However, he then listens to Claudius and realizes it wasn't his fault. Hamlet wouldn't even pick up a sword and rush to avenge his father's death. Hamlet's relation with his father is not explained well in the novel. He is depressed for months after his fathers death and thinks about it constantly, unlike Laertes.

DEATH

At the beginning of this play I didn't really know what to think. When we were told that everyone ends up dieing wondered if there was someone who killed everyone. Or if there was a disease that wiped everyone out. I really had no idea. I really liked how we watched the movie along with reading the book because Shakespeare's plays are written in a way that is very hard to read. The movie made it much more clear to understand. The movie was fun to watch. One scene that really stuck out to me was the one about Hamlet's ghost. Not only because it was like Hamlet and his ghost were in a different world. Hamlet's ghost was so creepy and crazy. That was one of the "death" scenes that I remember really well. Also when Hamlet stabbed his father wrapped up in a curtain. I thought that this was very weird. Not only did he not know who was in the curtain but to just randomly stab someone. I would never be able to do that. I think that Hamlet was insane in the membrane. For Shakespeare to write about such crazy people and about people dieing he must think about death and have a lot of thoughts going through his head.I think that death is definitely is one of the main focuses of this play.

Hamlet Post...

In this novel, Hamlet by William Shakespear, the madness experienced by Hamlet is completely faulty compared to the actual madness that Ophelia goes through because of the death of her father. Where Hamlet's madness is faked to create a disposition that can be unread by those who he plans on attacking, Ophelia's madness is actually experienced through the death of a family member. Hamlet goes "crazy" because it is neccessary for him to act differentlly so he gets the traitorous king and everyone else off his back. Ophelia on the other hand goes through a period of actually madness because of the loss of her father. Ophelia doesn't know how to express her emotions so she secludes herself from everyone, Hamlet on the other hand knows exactly what he needs to do to control his emotions in a way that misleads thoughs who might suspect him for trickery. It is ironic that the two lovers, Hamlet and Ophelia, both under go a situation of madness in this novel and then are connected through this madness in the end because of their deaths. Madness is viewed in Shakespear's eyes as two completely different things throughout this novel. It was neccessary for him to display this madness in both situations to emphasize the pain that both Hamlet and Ophelia experience on a different level. The comparing and contrasting between these two different examples of madness, display Shakespear's development of both of these unique characters.

Madness i tell you!

Hamlet is a little nuts to begin with... His dad dieing really didnt help. However, when he did see the ghost of his father, i do not think that it either drove him mad or that he just started to pretend to be mad. Honestly, if you or i saw the ghost of our father, how much longer do you think that we would appear normal to anyone else? He has SO much stuff going through his head, his thoughts are racing in such multitude that indeed, he appears insane. Coupled with grief, and a burning desire for revenge, his wits may have left him. In any case, you must draw the line of when you consider someone to be truly MAD; not just sad, mad, or in grieving. Or is there even a line to be drawn? Surely fair ophelia was not mad before her father died, and even afterwards i think that she was in deep depression, but not mentally ill. Her stunt with the invisible flowers was probably a concious one. Not some figment of her imagination. So, honestly i think neither of them were nuts.

Madness in Hamlet

Madness is a grand theme in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. After he sees his fathers ghost, Hamlet decides to feign madness so he can disguise his motive for avenging his father's death. He starts to fake his madness shortly after his run in with his father's ghost, this is very apparent in his talks with Pollonius. Hamlet continues to fake madness for a good amount of time, until the rage he feels actually starts to make him crazy, as is shown when he blindly kills polonius on accident thinking it is the king. The further the play goes on, the more real madness becomes apparent in hamlet's character as well as central theme in the play. Ophelia is another character who becomes crazy as the play goes on, she is driven crazy by the madness of hamlet, which is made far worse by the death of her father, as she eventually ends up killing herself. Ophelia's madness is far more genuine than Hamlet's overall, but the madness in both of them, provoked by tragedy, causes them both to act extremely irrationally and makes the play take a huge twist in plot.

Ophelia

Ophelia, in my opinion is one of the most interesting and deep characters in the play, that REALLY got screwed over. As the play progresses, you come to find that Ophelia loves Hamlet, (and towards the end it is confirmed that Hamlet loved her back) but her father and the King convince her to fool Hamlet into becoming mad. Between trying to please her father and Hamlet at once, she is forced in between a rock and a hard place. After her father and the king convince her Hamlet is mad, Hamlet murders her father. From here, she spirals into a madness, that is unreversable, and ends up killing her. Ophelia really loved Hamlet, but drove him, and herself crazy by obeying to her fathers orders, of spying and sneaking.

The scene of her brother Laertes returning to the castle after the murder of his father. was hard to understand in the reading, but once it was thrown into the context of the movie, it was a really moving scene. Laertes sees for the first time that his sister is mad, and this, along with the death of his father causes him to become outraged, and in the end, a little mad. But right before his death, he apologizes to Hamlet.

One of the most significant scenes is the grave digger scene, where Hamlet and Horactio meet the King Queen and Laertes burying Ophelia's body in the woods. Here is where Hamlet's madness is evidently not hiden or pretend, but his true love for Ophelia, expressed in madness is exposed.