Madness And Suicide In Hamlet Research Paper

Brown 1
Morgan Brown
Coach Simmons
Pre-AP British Literature
May 9, 2012

Shakespeare’s Hamlet Research into Madness, and Suicide

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet is said to be “mad.” Because his father, King Hamlet, was killed be Claudius, he spiraled down into a state of heartbreak and grief, which caused him to become mad. Many people debate over whether Hamlet faked his madness, or it was real.
“Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.”/ Laertes
5.2.252. This quote is saying that Hamlet’s madness is his downfall and struggle in life. “How strange or odd soe 'er I bear myself, as I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on.”/Hamlet (1.5.58).
This quote is the quote that makes people wonder is he really is mad. If he says he was going to put a clownish disposition, then that would mean he was pretending he was insane.
Whether Hamlet is faking his madness or not, he becomes so obsessed with revenge, that in a way he really does become insane with the obsession of seeking revenge on King Claudius .This obsession, or insanity makes him become emotionally unstable. He becomes unpredictable in his actions, and words. “He knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this.”/Polonius (2.2.8). In this quote, Polonius is saying how Hamlet did not even recognize him at first, and he thought that
Polonius was someone else.
Some people think that Hamlet imagined the Ghost of his farther, King Hamlet. This would support the idea that Hamlet is insane. Although a couple other characters reported seeing the
Hamlet thought it was King Claudius who was spying on them, and he attacked the man, and stabbed him to death. After her father dies, Ophelia falls prey to insanity, and becomes mentally unstable. When she speaks she does not make sense. In one scene she hallucinates and thinks that she is in a field of flowers. She is actually inside the castle as she pretends to pick flowers from the meadow. "There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that 's for thoughts. There 's fennel for you, and columbines: there 's rue for you; and here 's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o ' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There 's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died: they say he made a good end.”/Ophelia Act 4 Scene 5. The grief became too much for poor Ophelia to bear. She committed suicide by drowning herself in a pond. Because committing suicide was considered a sin, Ophelia did not receive a proper burial. She was buried at night out of eyes and ears of the public. The play, Hamlet, is the most popular play and story write of all time, and arguably the