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... e gets mad. She has betrayed him, and although he comes off as being harsh, he reveals to Laertes after her death that he loved her a great deal. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betray Hamlet by accepting money from the King in return for spying.
Coming to him under the guise of visiting old friends, they try to get Hamlet to relate to them the reason for his depression. He quickly catches on to their plot, and gives away nothing. He is hurt that they would choose money over their friendship, and he claims that they are like sponges. He claims that they soak up the Kings favor and disregard their friendship with Hamlet. He is so hurt by this that he does not care when they are put to death.
Hamlet also comments that he feels no guilt for friends that betrayed him, and that men who betray others deserve their fruits in life, in this case, death. (McGee, 127) This may seem harsh for the normal person, but all those he cares about have betrayed Hamlet, and he is no longer in the place to be understanding and accepting of the faults of others. All these occurrences have lead Hamlet to behave the way he does. His behavior is unpredictable and his words are sharp and biting. He has no real relationships with any of his previous friends and family, and he feels alone constantly. This is apparent when you look at his constantly changing moods. He was prone to these mood swings around certain characters in particular, including Ophelia, Polonious, and Gertrude.
When Ophelia told Hamlet that he had betrayed her more than she had betrayed him, he cried, Get thee to a nunnery! (Shakespeare, 122) He basically called her a whore, and if he loved her as much as he claimed to later on, this behavior is certainly wild. The idea of Hamlets antic disposition being anything but a reality is without merit. Hamlet simply felt his sanity slipping away, and cleverly found an outlet for his mad behavior. He had no choice but to tell himself that he was feigning his behavior, because it helped him to avoid regarding his wild and whirling emotions as authentic. (Wilson, 88) Hamlet came to realize his teetering sanity after he spoke with his fathers ghost.
As his emotions began to get the better of him, his mind started formulating a plan to cover for his manic behavior. By acting insane, he was able to lash out at those he had held grudges against and never said anything, particularly his mother. He is very cruel to his mother, saying things he would never dream of saying under normal circumstances. His deranged behavior stretches far beyond that of someone whos just trying to play a convincing role.
This is obvious during the bedroom scene with his mother. Once he realizes that someone is behind the curtain, he never pauses to consider the consequences. He simply stabs his sword through and murders Polonious. If this were a total accident, he would immediately change his attitude and feel guilty for what he has done. Instead, he tells his mother he is going to hide the body, and simply places it into the foyer where everyone will find it. When it becomes apparent who murdered Polonious, Hamlet never displays any remorse for it.
He doesnt stop to think how Ophelia or Laertes may feel when they find out. Ophelia takes her fathers death particularly hard, and completely loses her mind. She begins talking about flowers, and singing to herself constantly. She avoids reality and basically retreats into her own little world. Ophelias madness creates an interesting parallel between her and Hamlet. There is a question of what being insane really is.
Since it is agreeable that Ophelia was crazy, it is possible to use her as a guide to make Hamlet seem sane. He is not nearly as far-gone as Ophelia, who is basically demented. Hamlet and Ophelia both share the trait of having calculated thoughts, with Ophelias singing and Hamlets verbal attacks. They also share calmness before their deaths. The two characters can be compared to each other to show that Hamlet is insane, or they can contrast to show that Hamlet is actually pretending. Hamlet seems to be dragged back into sanity when he hears about Ophelias death.
His fight with Laertes about who loved her more makes him seem very human. His way of dealing with her death is much healthier than his fathers, but it may have something to do with the burden of guilt he feels. The murder of Polonious was indefinitely the reason for Ophelias death, and Laertes knows this. Hamlet never thinks to apologize, though, until he is on his deathbed. In Hamlets To Be or not to Be speech, he ponders the value of his own life and the value of Claudius life in retrospect to his own. (Marchette, 176) He begins to wonder if one murder justifies another, and if it is really fair for him to take another life out of revenge. Hamlets reluctance to obey his fathers orders is a key factor in his feelings about himself.
Although he desperately wants to avenge his fathers death, he still delays his actions for a long time. This is because Hamlet is not a violent person by nature, and he cant bring himself to kill Claudius. He claims this, but then he murders Polonious in cold blood, and he didnt even do anything serious. Hamlets thinking is so inconsistent and erratic that he is like more than one person.
He can be sane at times, and carry on normal conversations. Throughout the entire final scene sword fight, Hamlet seems to be back to his original self. He laughs with his mother and seems to be enjoying himself. There are other times, though, that he does not make any sense at all. When Polonious confronts him in the hallway and asks him if he recognizes him, Hamlet quickly responds by saying that he is a fishmonger. This could be pretend or a reality, but it is such a different type of insanity than the show of rage Hamlet displays during his fight with Ophelia or during the bedroom scene with his mother.
The ultimate reason for Hamlets insanity is something that none of the characters touch upon during the play. Hamlet is burdened with an incredible amount of guilt, and it seems that everything he does adds weight to his shoulders. He is constantly thinking about his promise to his father, and how he can execute the actual plan. The longer he waits the more he feels that he is a coward and can not avenge his own fathers death.
When he lets his anger get the best of him, he ends up hurting Ophelia, which makes him feel bad because he loves her. During the bedroom scene with his mother, Hamlet breaks his promise to his father about not hurting his mother. This makes him feel bad for not being true to his father, and also makes him feel bad because he loves his mother. He hates her and despises women in general, but a part of him still loves her and wants her to change. When he sees someone behind the curtain, he immediately assumes its the king and gets caught up in the moment. Once he discovers its Polonious, he now has to deal with the guilt of murder, and how Laertes and Ophelia are going to take it.
When Ophelia finds out, she ends up drowning herself and now the intent to murder Claudius has turned into two more unnecessary deaths that are on Hamlets shoulders. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are also dead because of Hamlet, and although he claims not to have any sympathy for them, he must feel a bit of liability for that. All this blame is so much that Hamlet simply cannot take it anymore. Thus, he contemplates suicide many times, but never carries it out. Perhaps he is afraid that another death will not solve any problems, just magnify them. Shakespeare's Hamlet is a very intricate play, and every character seems to have two sides.
Hamlets character is so elaborate that one cannot dream of knowing enough about him to be completely sure of his sanity or lack thereof. From the play and from various sources, one can make a solid argument in either direction, but once a closer examination is executed, it becomes obvious that Hamlets antic disposition could never be feigned, and must be a reality. Bibliography Weller, Philip Shakespeare Navigator: Hamlets Madness URL: web 2000 Anonymous Hamlet Online URL: http: //www / sign . nb. ca/Lets connect/Hamlet online / hamlet . htm May 25, 1997 Lehmann, Chris Hamlets Madness URL: web April 23, 2000 Paint, Katherine Hamlets Madness [Hamlet] URL: web September 17, 1997 Vile's, Samantha Hamlets Madness URL: web September 17, 1997 McGee, Arthur The Elizabethan Hamlet Yale University Press, 1987 Pennington, Michael Hamlet, A Users Guide Poscenium Publishing, 1996 Hoy, Cirrus Hamlet: An Authourative Text, Intellectual Background, Extracts from the Sources, Essays in Criticism WW Norton & Co. 1992 Kerrigan, William Hamlets Perfection Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 Parrot, Thomas Marc William Shakespeare, A Handbook Charles Scribner's Songs, 1955 Wilson, Dover What Happened in Hamlet Cambridge University Press, 1935 Chute, Marchette An Introduction to Shakespeare EP Dutton & Co. , 1951 Armour, Richard Twisted Tales from Shakespeare McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. , 1957 Shakespeare, William Hamlet Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1998 Shakespeare, William & Lamb, Sydney Hamlet: Cliffs Complete Study Editions Cliffs Notes, 1996
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Research essay sample on Hamlets Antic Disposition Makes Him Feel
