How I Got Here

Madness and Death

The play Hamlet was written in the 1600's. It is a very renowned play and is still read by millions each year. William Shakespeare is a famous writer and a lot of his work is still around today. I believe that Hamlet is his best piece. It is written in Old English, which is hard to understand because it is very different from how we speak and write today. The Old English style of writing makes it more authentic in the sense that you can take the words from the play and relate it to the current time period to have a better understanding. Although I read Hamlet in my English class my senior of high school, it really did not interest me as much as it did this time around. When I read the play for the second time, I had a much better understanding of it which made me like it more since I actually knew what was going on in the play. As soon as I finished Act I, I was hooked. I could visualize the play in my head as if I were watching a TV series on Netflix. Every chance I got, I would read, so when I finished the book it felt amazing. Although the majority of the story was important, there were two themes that I found to be prominent: death and madness. Hamlet is a prince of Denmark, and his father is the king. When Hamlet goes away to school, he receives news that his father has passed away. When he returns, his uncle, Claudius, is the new king, but his mother is still the queen. Hamlet sees a ghost who ends up being his father and he tells hamlet that his uncle was the one who killed him. Hamlet's father tells him that he needs to devote himself to pursuing revenge on his death. That is exactly what hamlet does. Hamlet is not the type of person who will just act on death he thinks about it and makes sure he is doing the right thing. Hamlet does so, but his friend Claudius notices he is acting strange and mad. Claudius then goes to a couple of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildensters, and tells them that they need to spy on Hamlet and see what his madness is all about. As the story goes on, a group of actors come into town and Hamlet has an idea to make is uncle feel bad about what he did. He gets with the actors and tells them that he wants them to play a scene. The scene is supposed to depict the same thing that happened to his father, killing another person in order to take control of the thrown to become King. During the play King Claudius runs out. Hamlet goes after him and finds him on his knees praying. He had plans to kill the King, but Hamlet thought if he were to kill him while he is praying than Claudius will end up in heaven, and that’s not what he wanted. Instead of killing them right then, he decided to wait for the right time to get his revenge. After this, Claudius becomes afraid of Hamlet and demands that he go back to school in England. He then goes to find his mother to plead his case so that he doesn’t have to go back to school. Hamlet try's finding her and thinks that Claudius is hiding behind a sheet in her room. He then takes out his sword and stabs what he thinks is Claudius but it ends up being Polonius, Claudius's right-hand man. Laertes, Polonius's son, finds out that his sister committed suicide because of what happened to their father. Laertes travels back to Denmark from France to seek revenge on hamlet. Hamlet has left to England, but his ship is surprisingly attacked by pirates. Laertes and Claudius talk and Claudius convinces Laertes that his father’s death was caused by Hamlet. They come up with a plan to kill Hamlet together: a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. It is not a normal fencing match, but a rigged one. Claudius poison’s Laertes sword so that if he cuts open hamlet he will die. Claudius being the little snake that he is he has a back-up plan and poisons the goblet which is a drink that you take if you score a point. The plan goes terribly wrong because Hamlet scores the first hit. He is offered a sip of the Kings goblet, but he declines. Instead, his mother takes a sip. She dies instantly, than Laertes strikes hamlet with his sword that is poisoned. Hamlet is injured but does not die instantly. Laertes cuts himself with his own sword and tells Hamlet the plan. He then makes Claudius drink from his own goblet. They all die within minutes. Madness – both real and feigned – is at the heart of the play. Hamlet's "antic disposition" has famously sparked a scholarly debate: Does Hamlet truly go "mad" or is it all an act? An impossible mystery, it's one of many unanswered questions raised by the play. Nevertheless, the complexity and sheer ambiguity of Hamlet's mental state and erratic behavior is compelling and seems to speak to the play's overall atmosphere of uncertainty and doubt. Ophelia's clear descent into madness (and subsequent drowning) is somewhat of a different issue. Critics tend to agree that Ophelia seemingly cracks under the strain of Hamlet's abuse and the weight of patriarchal forces, which has important implications for the play's portrayal of "Gender" and "Sex." This play is one that is filled with a lot of madness and death. The madness that goes on is unbelievable with Hamlet, from trying to kill his uncle and his uncle trying to kill him. They battle it out and end up bringing everyone that they care and love down with them because of greed. Madness is something that someone brings upon themselves. Trying to hold something in may create madness and I believe that this is exactly what happened with hamlet. He tried to get revenge instead of letting karma deal with it, but in the end it was worse for himself. Death is something that is very dark and no one likes to go through it. It can bring out the worse in people. Death is something that shouldn’t be wished upon any one and no one should have to watch it happen. With Hamlet wishing that his uncle would die and Laertes wishing hamlet would die, it created a huge mess which ended in blood. The blood was spilt for all the wrong reasons. It all boils down to madness and death the two major themes in this story.

Work cited

Genre:. "Tragedies." Hudson Shakespeare Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. .
"Hamlet Themes." Shmoop: Homework Help, Teacher Resources, Test Prep. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. .

Shakespeare, William. The complete works of William Shakespeare. Vol. 20. Harper& brothers, 1908.

Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Ed. Jack Randall Crawford. Platt, 1968.