As we progress through his soliloquys in the play we see changes in Hamlet’s emotions and feelings towards what he eventually wants to do. By the third soliloquy we have found out about Hamlet’s fathers ghost and that Claudius was the one who killed him. Hamlet is angered by this and assures that he will only think of getting revenge on Claudius. Later he realizes that he should stop procrastinating and hurry up and avenge his father, but he doesn’t have the courage to do it. Hamlet also expresses the possibilities that the ghost could have been the devil.
He then comes up with a plan to have the actors put on a play that is similar to the Murder of King Hamlet. Hamlet assumes that if Claudius has a reaction towards the play, he is guilty. This soliloquy is important because it reveals that Hamlet believes that he is dull spirited, it also points out that Hamlet is frustrated at himself for not having killed Claudius yet. All Hamlet is thinking about for the duration of this soliloquy is Claudius, and how he killed King Hamlet. Toward the end, Hamlet comes up with an idea to know if Claudius is guilty.
Madness is a vital plot element in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Both young Hamlet and his love Ophelia appear mad throughout the play’s duration, but only Ophelia has a genuine affliction of insanity. Although stricken with grief by his father’s death and the clamorous events that follow, Hamlet does not become truly mad because he is still able to distinguish right form wrong and maneuver logically in his plan to avenge his murdered father. Shakespeare surreptitiously places revelations of Hamlet’s sanity throughout the play. Though his planned maneuver to murder his uncle Claudius, the contrast between his feigned madness and Ophelia’s true madness, and his ability change behavior around different characters that possess his trust, Hamlet’s true, rational condition emerges from beneath his veil of insanity.
Hamlet starts to act as a madman to avenge the death of his father by his uncle. Ophelia on the other hand, goes mad after the death of her father. Shakespeare uses both these characters to affect the main plot in the play and their relationships with other characters. Many people debate whether Hamlet’s madness is real or fake. Shakespeare incorporated the theme of madness to serve a motive for Hamlet in order to deceive others.
The death of one’s father and a ghostly visitation thereafter are events that would challenge the sanity of anyone. The circumstances of King Hamlet’s death render it especially traumatic. The late King seemed to be an idol to his son; Hamlet looked up to him and aspired to have the same qualities. Hamlet doesn't like King Claudius and sees him as a swindling usurper who has stolen not only the dead King’s throne, but Hamlet’s as well(2.4). Hamlet shows Gertrude that she has lowered her standards by marrying Claudius, When he refers to old Hamlet as, “A combination and a form indeed / Where every god did seem to set his seal” (3.4.55-61).
He continues, “it us befitted/To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom/To be contracted in one brow of woe” (I.2.2-4), which prompts the city to grieve for the late king. Claudius never mentions his own feelings about the king’s death, but expects everyone else to mourn. He then goes on to talk about his marriage to Gertrude, as if his self-interested act of taking the dead king’s wife for his queen somehow compensates for his death. Claudius’ strange behavior is a hint that something is not the way it appears. It suggests that he is putting on a disguise, which is later confirmed when it is revealed that he is the one who murdered the king.
In the soliloquy, Hamlet is at first upset with himself about finding ways to avoid avenging his Father’s murder, like his spirit in ghost form told him to. This complaining turns into self hatred and then Hamlet is insulting himself outright. The main reason for this is he has agreed to get revenge on Claudius so his father’s spirit can be at peace, but he hasn’t done it yet. The fact that the Player seems to be more able to get into the mindset of revenge than he can further discourages him. This on top of the fact that Hamlet’s dad is dead and his mother married that man he hates most in the world makes for a pretty melancholy fellow.
I don’t value my life as highly as a pin”. From this point on in the play, Hamlet’s state of mind has completely changed, now only focused on nothing but avenging the death of his father. When Hamlet is at the wedding of his mother Gertrude and King Claudius, he is dressed in dark and gloomy colors. These colors reflect his mood immensely at this moment in the play as he is extremely depressed and sad over the loss of his father and also over his mother’s inability to stay ‘loyal’ to his father. He firmly believes that
Ophelia drowned in the river, which causes Laertes to flee the room, overcome with grief. With the deaths of his only beloved family members, Laertes is in a rage and is overcome with grief and tragedy. Now that he knows Hamlet killed his father, he also blames Hamlet for driving Ophelia insane, which leads her to her death. So, he is probably on a bloody rampage, wanting to kill Hamlet in an instant. Everyone pities Laertes as his father and sister die; however Claudius uses this as an advantage to have Laertes kill Hamlet.
This method of obtaining knowledge about someone else’s plans defies morality and weakens any bond of trust formed within Hamlet’s home. Secrets are supposed to be kept, but when eavesdropping is present, it becomes virtually impossible. Hamlet’s family and piers have considered him insane within his house. He is suffering from internal struggles about his father’s death, and the task he has been given. Hamlet has been instructed by the ghost of his late father to avenge his death by killing King Claudius.