No character is spared from this deception, and therefore, it stands as a key theme in the play, “Hamlet”. Behind everything else in this play, there is a constant awareness of the murderous nature of the king. He breached his brotherly trust by killing his brother, and deceived his country by lying about the “rank” deed. “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown”. The murder was driven by lust for the queen and also a desire for power, two factors which remain with the king until the final moments in the play.
In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare reveals the characters that make up the plot of the play. The main protagonist, Hamlet is shown to be motionally unstable. After discovering the death of his father, Hamlet is seeking revenge on the person responsible. He has a strong feeling that Claudius was responsible for the murder of his father after his mother marries Claudius and Hamlet decides to put on an act that would re-enact the murder. Hamlet hopes that by visually showing the murder, he
Is Hamlet Insane? The topic of whether Hamlet is insane or not insane has become a very controversial dispute. Some say he Hamlet actually started to progressively become insane as the play went on (thoughts of suicide, etc.) and some say that he just put on an act to gain an opportunity to avenge his father’s death., who was murdered my Claudius, his brother. I believe that Hamlet was completely aware of the words he spoke and the actions he made and acted in a way that could be considered “insane” for vengeance.
Hamlet was trying to be clever with Polonius as he kept asking him questions that he already knew the answers to such as “…have you a daughter” pretending that he does not know that Ophelia is his daughter. Hamlet was trying to confuse Polonius, making him think he was mad and trying to make Polonius look like a fool in front of the audience. Polonius then asks “…what do you read my lord?” and Hamlets response was “words, words, words.” Then he completes later on saying “Slanders sir, for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging think amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit…for yourself sir should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward”, here we see Hamlets cleverness in insulting Polonius as he calls him old and he has a lack of understanding. Hamlet seems to be scaring the Polonius as Polonius starts stepping back as Hamlets steps near him. Then at the end, Hamlets says “These tedious old fools” which is calling Polonius directly an old fool without trying to hide it as he did before.
Hamlet yells, “How now? A rat? dead for a ducat, dead!” (Act 3 scene iv, line 23) as he stabs whoever could be behind the curtains. Just because Hamlet killed Polonius “in a fit of madness,” (Act V, Scene ii, lines 236-250), does not mean that Hamlet is insane. Hamlet may have killed Polonius in a fit of rage, knowing that somebody, anybody, was spying on his private conversation.
A Sane Insanity OPENING SENTENCE. Whether it’s a result of all action no thought or all thought with barely any action, either extreme can drive you to the point of insanity. In Titus we see him insane in one scene and then sane in the next. With Hamlet we see him plan that he’s going to act crazy, oblivious and unintelligent which evidentially will cause him to go insane. Seeing Titus flirt around both sanity and insanity was common.
Who is responsible for Macbeth’s downfall? In everyday life, people tend to pressure others into making wrong decisions. In Macbeth, Shakespeare successfully portrays Macbeth, whose life is full of sorrow and crime from the foolish decisions he makes. However, most of his mistakes are made under the influence of other evil forces. His series of crimes begins with the witches planting the idea of murder the king in his head.
He hires a few cutthroats and tells them "Both of you/ Know Banquo was your enemy" ( III. i. 129-130). He lies in order to trick the murders into thinking that Banquo is their enemy. Therefore, the murderers kill Banquo while the Macbeth does nothing.
Hamlet who is focused on getting revenge on Claudius ends up stabbing Polonius who is behind the curtains as Polonius drops to the floor, Gertrude calls Hamlet's deed “most rash and bloody”(3.4.27). The ghost suddenly enters, visible only to Hamlet. He addresses it, prompting Gertrude (who sees nothing) to think he has now positively lost his mind. The most prominent confession of sanity then comes after as Hamlet says to Queen Gertrude, “I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft” ( 3.5.188). He is trying to reveal to his mother that he is not truly insane but is instead acting.
Alexander mention in his article that the only characters in the play who regard Hamlet as mad is the king and his henchman, even those were full of doubts and we can see this through the king speech when he ordered his henchman to go and talk with Hamlet and know from him why he puts on this confusion, this implies that the king understand Hamlet's strange behavior as feign and not real madness. Even Polonius; though he is the first person to declare that Hamlet is mad and has lost his mind, and the purpose of his madness is due to his love with Ophelia, yet he declares that Hamlet is clever by saying: "Thought he is mad, but there is method in it" (II.ii.203-4). This implies that Hamlet has purpose or plan for his madness; he assures that he is pretending. He ends his article by illustrating his point of view: There need no doubt, then that Hamlet's madness was really feigned.. . .