Madness Brycen Adams Mackenzie Chaffee

The theme of madness is a highly prevalent force in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet that not only develops characters, but also drives the plot. Theme

Ophelia’s Madness Ophelia’s madness develops her character and her foil to Hamlet because of the differences between their ideas of sanity or lack thereof.

Singing Ophelia gives flowers to the King and Laertes and continuously sings random children songs. It is because of her fathers death and Hamlet’s absence that has sent her into this disarray, and the songs make her out to be loony. There is no meaning behind them, they are simply songs that come to her mind that she sings.

Flower s When Ophelia hands out the flowers, Laertes figures out that not only is his father’s death affecting her, but that her sanity is gone. This helps him even more to seek revenge against the killer, which shows how Laertes and Hamlet differ. Laertes acting on impulse, Hamlet wanted a clear conscience in the outcome; all of this from Ophelia’s insanity toward the flowers and the King.

Quot e “Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! – O heavens! is’t possible a young maid’s wits Should be as mortal as an old man’s life? Nature is fine in love, and where ’tis fine It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.” -Laertes

Suicide Ophelia’s suicide happened when she drowned slowly because she didn’t have the ability to save herself through her madness. She couldn’t do anything to stop it and she wasn’t in her right mind enough to even acknowledge her certain death. Instead she just sang and sank.

Method With Hamlet, there is a method to his madness. Ophelia has no method and is just fully crazy. The fact that she is crazy emphasizes Hamlet’s character because it shows that the way he portrays his madness is sensible. He doesn’t sing random songs or watch his death come. His sanity is clearer with Ophelia as the contrast.

Hamlet’s Madness Hamlet’s madness, where it originates, how it develops, and is it real? Madness as expressed by Hamlet is often questioned as being real or forged due to his circumstances. Both sides have a strong argument, however madness as an expressed trait both develops and significantly affects the characterization of Hamlet.

Origins Hamlet’s madness develops as a result of discovering his father’s death was due to poisoning by Claudius, and his pursuit of revenge following this realization.

Developme nt As Hamlet’s madness is initially developed, it serves as a disguise to cover up his intents of revenge. As he becomes more embedded in his pursuit of revenge, an argument can be made that this false image of madness does in fact become true madness.

Real or Fake? Hamlet has method to his madness, and characters realize this such as in Polonius’ lines in II.ii Because of this cunningness behind his actions, people have come to believe that Hamlet is merely acting mad, however, as the play progresses, Hamlet steadily becomes less stable.

Quote “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” -Polonius

Real or Fake? (Cont.) Hamlet prior to acting upon this madness, informs Horatio (in lines I.v ), leading into the progression of his guise to becoming real madness, and his realization of his mental instability.

Quote “Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself.” -Hamlet

Plot and Conflict Madness is an important part of not only developing characters, but also developing conflict and progressing the plot.

Conflict development Madness in the storyline of Hamlet contributes to the conflict in regards to his interactions with other characters and, in turn, the way other characters view Hamlet.

Plot Progression Madness is used by Hamlet as a tool to disguise his vengeful intents to kill Claudius. The use of madness progresses the way that other characters interact and think about Hamlet, all leading to the final scene in which not only Hamlet dies, but also Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes.

Developing Characters When the Hamlet convinces others that he is mad, it leads you to see what the others are feeling his madness is coming from. The fact that they all believe it is their fault makes the reader understand the other characters more, and thus makes the plot progress because if they didn’t believe it was their fault, Claudius, for example, wouldn’t have feared Hamlet, leading to the overall demise of the characters.

Conflict and Characters When the conflict pushes the King to react, as well as Laertes, Hamlet forgets his madness and apologizes to Laertes for killing Polonius. This shows that he believed he was insane at the time for his lack of remorse and he gained his sanity back, and understands it was wrong. Even through his attempt to make amends for his past actions, the conflict was too far along to turn back. Without madness, the plot wouldn’t have turned out with so much conflict, and Hamlet might have been swallowed by his own despair and inaction.

Quote “Alas, he’s mad!” -Queen III.iv.105