- The main thing that had made him insane was the death of his father
- Then once he talked to the ghost and found out that his father was murdered by his very own brother, that was the main breaking point of all of his madness
- He was contemplating suicide the whole play
- During the play about his fathers death you could see his madness in just what he was saying, and how he was interrupting the entire play
Some examples of his madness
- when he was throwing and pressing Ophelia's face up on the mirror
- Interrupter the play of his fathers death
- Killing Polonius....
I need some help
He killed polinius for ease dropping... thats not normal. other than that i thought he stayed within reason on most of what he did. the king had it coming and i believe he is responsible for more deaths. Was he mad?? he did kill his own brother, steel his wife and kill his step son... see what you can do with that. and i kinda want to test if our teacher reads this... so if you are our teacher and your reading this then hello
ReplyDeleteI would say he is insane. before any of the drama was going down he was already contemplating suicide, that right there you be your number one thang. he was already having you major problems before he confronted the ghost.
ReplyDeletethen when he was acting crazy, didnt really seem like he was acting crazy, it kind of suited him. and when he was throwing Ophelia around the mirrors, that wasnt acting, he was pissed! he has serious problems and that isnt acting.
i mean theres times where he can be alright, but most of the time i think the "acting" his just him being freaked out about the whole situation he was in.
hopefully that helps a little bit.
I really like this essay topic, it is a fundamental theme in the play. We are never sure if Hamlet is ever really crazy. Who knows if he was really crazy because he saw his fathers ghost, or if he is just acting like a crazy man. And maybe from acting crazy he actually drove himself insane. We are never really sure but it is there is evidence for both. I also think you should compare Ophelia's insanity to Hamlet's and analyze each of them!
ReplyDeleteGood Luck!
A good post, Brendan; and like those who have commented above, I'm interested to see what you do with this. Just be sure you don't confuse the play (which is the text you'll be drawing on) with Branaugh's interpretation of it (the face pressed against the mirror appears in the film, not the play--though this scene does seem relevant to the discussion of whether or not Hamlet is really mad--keep in ind his appearance right after seeing the ghost, as reported by Ophelia to her father). Consider, too, those actions of Hamlet's which seem not just sane, but shrewd: his cleverness in devising the 'mousetrap' play-within-a-play, his sharp observations even as he seems to be ranting. Then, too, there's his confession/apology to Laertes just before the fencing commences. Maybe hamlet is only temporarily mad--then again, his persistent dwelling on suicide seems to argue that he's got real mental problems. I don't know. The key (the "help" you seek) is in going back through the play itself and focusing on those passages which speak directly to Hamlet's state of mind.
ReplyDelete