Hamlet and Madness
Hamlet is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Throughout Hamlet a lot of different things are going on and the main character Hamlet’s overall goal is to take revenge on his uncle, King Claudius. Hamlet finds out that his uncle killed his father and promises to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet becomes resentful of his mother for marrying his uncle only two months after his father’s death. Hamlet is the tragic hero in the play and is one of the most complicated characters. Hamlet acts from one extreme to another and fakes madness so nobody can predict his actions. Hamlet fakes madness to the point where one can no longer tell if he is faking or actually going mad. He has tragic flaws because he is so indecisive with the actions that he wants to take to achieve revenge. Hamlet spends the entire play trying to find out if his uncle is guilty of murdering his father. He questions everything that is going on and wants to find out everything for himself. Hamlet is an interesting, complex and dramatic character whose madness becomes almost real at times. At the beginning of the play a ghost reveals himself to Hamlet. The ghost is King Hamlet who was murdered. The ghost explains to Hamlet everything that happened and asks Hamlet to seek revenge on King Claudius. At this point Hamlet decides that he will fake madness and insanity while he plans his revenge on Claudius. Hamlet’s character change is noticeable to everyone and Claudius wants to find out why he has not been acting the same but, Polonius tells King Claudius that it may just be that he is in love with Ophelia. Hamlet then sets up a play re-enacting his father’s death to see if Claudius shows any guilt. When the murder scene in Hamlet’s play takes place, King Claudius leaves the theatre and, now Hamlet is certain that Claudius is guilty of murdering King Hamlet. Claudius begins to fear Hamlet’s insanity and plans on sending him to England. Hamlet speaks with his mother, Queen