As I said before in the beginning of the book Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is gloomy and feeling hopeless about love because Rosaline (the women he “loves”) is not going to get married. He says: “She is too fair, too wise, wisely to far, To merit bliss by making
Much Ado about Nothing was written by William Shakespeare as a comedy, but it could have very well been turned into a tragedy comparable to Othello. In Othello, Desdemona becomes a leading part of Iago’s plot to take down Othello for not giving Iago the job that he wanted. At first Iago insinuates and makes innuendos to Othello that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio, and Othello doesn’t believe Iago. Othello says “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof; or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, thou hadst been better have been born a dog than answer my wak’d wrath”(3.3.360-364). Desdemona accidentally drops a handkerchief that Othello had given her.
In this particular instance however, this soliloquy also lends to the idea that Hamlet is insane due to the passing of his father. Insanity plays as both an internal and external conflict
She is first perceived as a weak character who Iago says keeps many thoughts to herself: "She puts her tongue a little in her heart," meaning that many of her most critical thoughts remain unsaid. Even Desdemona has to encourage her to speak. This silence throughout much of the play may be one cause of her drastically changing at the end. Initially Emilia sets out to please Iago without question, as this was her role as an Elizabethan wife, however at the end she speaks against him when she realizes his true intentions. Her change at the end of the play could show that she’s isn’t an outsider, as she now has her own opinion and her own voice like many of the other characters within the play.
Although there is a lot of reference to violent and aggressive behaviour it does not make her hesitant, one could even say she was blinded by her love for him. To his coy mistress is a metaphorical poem, where the speaker addresses a woman who has been slow to respond to his sexual requests. In the first stanza he discusses how he would love constantly for an unlimited amount, if only time was not running out. If he could he would give her everything and anything till death. He quickly begins to mention how short life is even referencing her ‘preserved virginity’ being taken when she’s dead as ‘worms shall try.’ He finishes by focusing on the present and telling her to make the most of the time that they have now, which hints at the use of sexual innuendo.
There is a duality to the character of Hamlet, as his madness changes from a performance to true insanity throughout the play. Initially, in Act 1 Scene 5, Hamlet is coerced by the ghost and decides that he will “put an antic disposition on”. This is the main use of dramatic irony in the play, as the audience knows Hamlet’s madness is performed. However as the play develops and changes, so too does Hamlet’s madness. Act 3 Scene 4 is the main turning point for Hamlet’s madness.
Madness in Hamlet and King Lear The subject of madness is a major theme in two of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies, “Hamlet” and “King Lear”. In both of these plays, a character feigns insanity to carry out a motive - Hamlet and Edgar respectively. However, while it is made quite clear to the audience that Edgar is only pretending to be a mad beggar (“Whiles I may escape I will preserve myself, and am bethought to take the basest and most poorest shape that ever penury, in contempt of man brought near to beast”), it is somewhat less clear whether Hamlet has crossed the line and lost control of his “antic disposition”. Shakespeare gives evidence which suggests that Hamlet is sane by having three other men also witness the manifestation of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. If Hamlet were to have seen his father’s ghost by himself, there would be a greater argument for him being insane from the outset of the play.
Shakespeare’s characterisation of Ophelia as a tragic heroine takes shape from Act III Scene I. In her speech “O woe is me/T’ have seen what I have seen, see what I see” she is, in fact, blind to Hamlet’s antics and cannot see that it is all a ruse. Unlike most Shakespearean heroines Ophelia’s inability to see past the reality of Hamlet’s deception is the cause of her suicide. The themes developed in this scene are the themes of the play of questions, madness and mortality. An allusion to Hamlet’s madness is referred in the first speech by King
However, this is not the only type of type of play or drama in which the main character acts crazy or mad in order to enact revenge upon someone to avenge someone or just to purely gain revenge for some personal purpose. Yet, scholars interpret Hamlet’s madness in different ways, such as saying that he truly did go mad. In addition, when Hamlet is alone with Horatio and Gertrude away from the public and the king his speech and actions are different, and they do not include all the riddles and ‘madness’ or gestures that he talks with or uses throughout the rest of the play with everyone else. Hamlet’s flaw in all of this is that he likes everything to be perfect and due to that he procrastinates everything. Therefore, to perform his grand scheme, he must change the way he acts in order to prefect the chance to avenge his father’s death, and he must act in such a way to discover and learn everything he needs to do so.
Although it was Hamlet who wooed her, and with whom she was intimate it is Hamlet himself who later chastises her for her impious actions. “Get thee to a/nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs/marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough/what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,/and quickly too.” (III.i.131), he commands her, leaving her without a response. By saying these words to her he is crassly calling her a harlot, and making to appear that he never really loved her.