Hamlet’s feigned madness The greatest debate about Shakespeare’s Hamlet is whether Hamlet was faking his madness or not. A person who is insane does acts of extreme foolishness or irrationality while being unaware that he or she is performing such out of the box acts. Hamlet could not have possibly been insane as there is evidence throughout the play that he can control his actions and choose the moments when his ‘madness’ appears. Hamlet uses this “antic disposition” (Hamlet I.v.172) to throw off the other character such as Polonius and Claudius and gain the upper hand in the grand scheme of things. If it weren’t for Hamlet’s supposed insanity then the King would have seen that Hamlet knew the truth about the old King’s murder and would have had him dealt with immediately.
It is her report to Claudius that seals his decision to have Hamlet executed. In scene I we learn a lot about Claudius’ character. He is a selfish king who is more concerned with his self preservation than achieving justice. His response to Polonius’ death is to get rid of Hamlet – not to punish Hamlet for his crime but rather to remove the threat Hamlet poses to his
In the play Hamlet acts mad. He is not crazy however but is merely pretending to be. Before he begins this act he tells Horatio and Marcellus what he is about to do. Polonius notices that there is too much sense in Hamlets charade for him to be truly crazy. Hamlet makes sure his uncle is guilty of murder before enacting his revenge.
They are corrupt because they have social status but then they abused this power. Furthermore, the villains in both The Duchess of Malfi and Measure for Measure have the characteristics of Machiavellian villains. Per contra, Angelo is not like the villains in The Duchess of Malfi because he does not have an assistant to help him and does not have a personal vendetta against another in the play. He just wants to eliminate crime but, eventually, contradicts his own laws he is enforcing by asking Isabella to give her body to him sexually to save her brother: ‘You must lay down the treasures of your body To this supposed, or else to let him suffer: What would you do?’ (Act 2 Scene iv) This quotation tells us that; females of that day and age would have done exactly what they were told to do, on command if told to. We can see this by looking at the language of this quotation.
It is the acquisition and maintenance of this power that shows just how Machiavellian Claudius’ character is in the play. Machiavelli believes that lands are best acquired through ones own arms and virtue rather than through fortune. “Since fortune is variable... I am of the opinion that it is better to be rash than over-cautious, because fortune is a woman and, if you wish to keep her down, you must beat her and pound her.” (Machiavelli p.188) Claudius does not let fortune dictate his destiny but rather takes it into his own hands by killing Hamlets father, who is also his brother. As he states, “O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, A brother’s murder.” (III, iii, 37-39) He continues to emphasize these virtues by marrying the kings wife, Gertrude.
Hamlet Act 4 Questions 1. When Gertrude tells the King that Hamlet is “Mad as the sea and the wind when both contend which is the mightier.” I think she is believes that she because, Gertrude explains how Hamlet was in such a wrath that he was carless enough to kill a person that was hiding behind the curtain one of which he didn’t know the true identity of the man. 2. Claudius’s immediate reaction to the news of Polonius’s death reveals about his character that he is selfish and truly only cares about his own life and not about Polonius’s life. But he is also frightened of Hamlet and he isn’t as righteous a man as he wants people to believe that he is, he as well doesn’t want his public image will be ruined by this.
He greatly fears that “the people// [will] choose Caesar for their king” (I.ii.78-79). However, within Brutus’s wrong decisions lie his honorable thoughts and purposes. He presumes to “make// [their] purpose necessary and not envious” (II.i.177-178). Brutus implies that only murderers act out of jealousy, but honorable ones act out of honesty and justice. Influenced by the belief of Brutus disliking Caesar, some may think that the idea of assassinating Caesar is for selfish reasons, or that Brutus has a personal enmity against Caesar.
Moaraj will be proving that his superstition was the cause of Macbeth’s lust for power, and I will be proving that his greed was the main cause for the terrible deeds that had transpired. Women were not considered the same level in society (Elizabethan order) as men and were objects of the men would not have had much of an influence on men. Macbeth used Lady Macbeth for her innocence and he kept her out of his plans to murder Banquo and to murder Macduff’s family. This shows that Macbeth acted out
This is a dramatic irony as it is Laertes’s actions and confession that “the king is to blame,” that catalyzes Hamlet actions, thus enabling the completion of the impending tragedy. Yet even in his death, Hamlet wants nothing to do with revenge as agreed upon by critic Millicent Bell who states “Hamlet’s concern with revenge is nowhere to be seen when he is dying, noting that, rather thancrying out for revenge, Hamlet asks only to be
In the book Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, the entire plot of the play stems from multiple tricks that characters play on each other. Shakespeare is suggesting that tricking people is not right or wrong, for the outcome of the tricks can be beneficial or destructive, or just plain harmless. One example of how deception might be bad is when Don John, bitter about being the “backup Prince,” used trickery to get revenge. When he learned about Claudio’s feelings for Hero and their plan to marry, he was provided with great opportunity to strike everybody at once. Don John decided to spoil Claudio’s love for Hero and sabotage their marriage.