I will be writing about the theme of madness and how grief creates this madness. I will be comparing Hamlet's madness to Ophelia's madness. We don't really know if Hamlet is faking his madness or if it is real. Or he might have been faking in the beginning and that led him to be mad for real. He said that being mad might be to his advantage in killing Claudius. He is also looked at to be mad because he has the thought of suicide throughout the book. This is looked to be mad because it is a sin to commit suicide during these times. But his suicidal thoughts could be real and caused by his father's murder. Ophelia's madness is real. Her madness is linked to her father's death. She actually ended up committing suicide, so her and Hamlet are related in many ways. Hamlet's "madness" is also linked to his father's death. Grief and madness are linked throughout this play.
Hamlet is mad because of his father's murder and he wants to get Claudius back
Ophelia goes mad because of her father's death which is linked to Hamlet's madness too
Hamlet killed Ophelia's father because of Claudius killing Hamlet Sr.
This theme of madness is circular. And this circularity is caused by grief.
Madness is caused by grief.
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI LIKE this approach in that you seemed to have discovered a reasonable link between Hamlet and Ophelia's madness that has the potential to reveal whate Shakespeare feels must be a fundamental human emotion. I think two of the key scenes you might want to revisit are Claudius' early speech to Hamlet urging him to set aside his grief for a time, and then the rival demonstrations of grief by Laertes and Hamlet in the graveyard (I think that the first player' speech--along with Hamlet's reaction to it--might also prove useful).
I'm anxious to see where you go with this!