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Topic: Chief Characteristics of Shakespearean Tragedy   

Submitted by : Syed Mujtaba Shah

Submitted to : Sir Dr. Zia
Subject: Shakespearean Studies
Class: M.phil English
Roll No: 16
Date: 08-05-2020
Chief Characteristics of Shakespearean Tragedy   
According to Aristotle, a tragedy is the imitation in dramatic form of a serious action, expressed
in language "enhanced by distinct and varying beauties" with incidents which arouse pity and
fear, affecting a catharsis of such emotions. The characters are noble personages, and the plot
involves a change in the fortunes of the protagonist as he falls from contentment to misery. 

There are some basic characteristics of tragedy which we will discuss here in these four plays
Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Hamlet.

Macbeth: Fate and Chance    

Fate is something that is bound to happen. Everyone and everything is destined to do something
or become something. In Shakespeare's play "Macbeth," the issue of predestination vs. free will
arises. Who actually controls our actions, fate or man itself? This point can be argued either way,
however in Shakespeare's play "Macbeth," an emphasis on free will is displayed throughout the
play. Macbeth controlled his own actions and because of that, he held great consequences as
well.
             Macbeth had his own choices and decisions to make. Everything started off when
Macbeth and his best friend Banquo encountered the three witches. The witches predict
Macbeth's fate that he would become the king and the Thane of Cawdor, and Banquo's son,
Fleance was also bound to become the king. The witches' prophecy had gave Macbeth a head
start, "The truths are told, as happy prologues to the swelling act of the imperial theme, "I am
Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my
hair"" (Shakespeare 22). The only thing the witches told Macbeth was that he was going to
become the Thane of Cawdor and the king, but they didn't tell him how. Their prophecies
influence Macbeth to act. Macbeth makes up his own way to become king since he had already
gained the position of the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth believes the only way to become king is by
murdering King Duncan. No one controlled Macbeth's fate, not even the witches, the witches
only gave Macbeth ideas and Macbeth reacted to them according to his own plans and mind.
Later on when Macbeth becomes king after killing King Duncan, he still believes that someone
is in his way of remaining the king. "We have scorched the snake, not killed it. She'll close and
be herself whilst our poor malice remains in danger of her former tooth "(Shakespeare 96),
Macbeth is telling his wife, Lady Macbeth, that they have only hurt the snake, not killed it
completely, and if it heals up they'll be attacked again.

Character is Destiny
Judging the character of Macbeth in this light, we find that Macbeth is a tragedy of character of
ambition and his own character is his fate and destiny.
Macbeth is a general of the state of Scotland and his endowed with  great human qualities. He
has will, courage, valour and determination. he is proud and commanding. He shows great
personal courage in putting down a rebellion and repelling the invasion of a foreign army, and
rises to great power and glory.
But he has a valient passion - a vaulting ambition in him. He is ambitious of power and crown.
His passion for power is so strong that he thinks only of the ways that can make the attainment of
power, passion for him. He is so much possessed by his ambition, by his will to attain power and
crown that he does not visualize the dark side and consequences of it.
As A.C. Bradley observes:
"ambition the love of power extinct of self assertion are much too potent in Macbeth to permit
him to resign even in spirit."
Clearly, the Macbeth's vaulting ambition is a tragic trait  on factual flaw in his character. One
may, however say that the witches misguide him, or lady Macbeth provokes him the crime of
murder but it does not appeal to the reason to hold the witches responsible for Macbeth's crime.
For Macbeth is a brave soldier, and has a freedom of will and action. He is free to accept or
reject the prediction of the witches or the provocation of Lady Macbeth.
He accepts them because he has already in him a predisposition towards power and royal
authority. He has already had a vague ambition of power and kingship from before.  The witches
only articulate what is vague and in articulates in his mind. Thus, Macbeth's vaulting ambition
leads in him in to a situation in which he commits murder of Duncan and realises him ambition.
He achieves power, authority and kingship. Now to keep himself safe and secure in his power
and authority he plans and executes and series of murders - the murder of Banquo, of lady
Macduff and her children. He ceases in his acts of murder only when the forces against him.
Combine overpower and kill him.
Clearly, Macbeth's miseries and death are wholly caused by his passion, deeds and character.
Since Macbeth's character is the spring of his deeds and actions. His characters become his fate
or destiny and is responsible for his tragic miseries and death.

Hamartia
Macbeth’s hamartia, or fatal character flaw, is his arrogant, prideful attitude and his greed. Throughout
act one, Macbeth is a very successful nobleman and he lives a great life. Largely because of his wife,
Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s arrogant attitude shows more and more. He states, “If chance will have me
king, why, chance may crown me without my stir” (1.4.157-159). This shows that deep down inside
Macbeth, he feels that he is deserving of the crown. No humble man would say that, and often times
arrogance and pride can haunt someone forever. His arrogant thoughts of him deserving of being king are
what ultimately lead to him killing King Duncan. Macbeth’s greed is also a hamartia. Macbeth is a very
successful thane, and he lived in a nice castle, but his already luxurious life wasn’t enough to satisfy him.
He wanted more power than he already had, and he would do anything in order to gain power. He ends up
killing his best friend Banquo, and the King of Scotland, who was a great king, so he himself could take
the throne.

Poetic Justice:
I think it would be easy to look at the conclusion of this play and agree with this question.
"Poetic justice" is an idiom that we use in the English language to refer to a fitting retribution for
bad deeds committed, and so we could look at Macbeth's final death at the hands of Macduff,
who, after all, has a particular desire to revenge his wife and children, as being a great example
of justice done and evil being punished.

However, what I think is interesting about this statement is that, whilst Macbeth certainly dies
and his rule of tyranny in Scotland is shown to be ended, at the same time in Act V he is given
such powerful speeches and philosophical meditations that bestow him with a dignity and respect
that belies his earlier acts. Consider, for example, one of his most famous speeches from this
Act:

She should have died hereafter.

There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

This speech, coming after he finds out about the death of his wife, moves him from the position
of a mere tyrannous and villainous individual to the status of a deep-thinking philosopher, who
somehow captures the truth of the universal human condition in his words. The way in which he
meets his end in full dignity and without fear likewise makes him a character that we end up
having a begrudging respect for. Therefore, Shakespeare seems to let Macbeth face justice but at
the same time he does not allow us to write him off simply as an evil man. Is this poetic justice?

Tragic Waste in Macbeth:

Throughout the play Macbeth, characters change and so do their relationships with other
characters. Life is taken for granted, and tossed away as if it’s merely an old toy. Honour and
potential of great men tarnished due to their greed and power hunger. The plot develops the idea
that A.C Bradley proposes: The central feeling of a tragedy is one of waste. Macbeth is portrayed
as a tragic hero, someone who has it all at first but decides to give it all up. Throughout the story
the waste of potential, the waste of life and finally the waste of innocence are just some of the
types of wastes that can be found, but they are enough to prove the theory. According to critic
A.C. Bradley, the central feeling of a tragedy is one of waste.

It can be argued that Macbeth’s waste of his own innocence was not intentional, but forced upon
by his wife, yet he ends up going through with the deed of killing Duncan. His waste of
innocence was directly connected to his probable lack of morals and self esteem. He was
persuaded to kill Duncan out of his wife’s question of his manliness. “I dare do all that may
become a man; who dares do more, is none.” (Macbeth, Act I, scene vii) The evidence shows
that his innocence has allowed his wife to make him question his manliness and therefore his
morals. But not only has Macbeth been persuaded to kill Duncan, but his innocence gets mocked
as Lady Macbeth states “A little water clears us of this deed” (Lady Macbeth, Act II, scene ii).
She portrays murder as merely a deed that can be simply washed away from the hands with
water and therefore the mind as well. The waste of Macbeth’s innocence although unintentional
to him, is what begins the waste concept.

Madness, Hallucination and supernatural elements

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a story of greed, treason, and guilt. In the story, we see our
protagonist, Macbeth, sink into a state of madness after killing the former king, Duncan. Madness
and hallucinations are what drive the story for they become the antagonists of the story and bring
about the end of Macbeth. The concept of madness and hallucinations is used very heavily in most
of William Shakespeare's plays, but it is Macbeth that uses this concept to the fullest. Not only
does Shakespeare use the idea of going insane to his advantage, he uses them in a way that is based
on actual beliefs. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the belief in madness and hallucinations
was very biased. Back in those days, it was the church that was in charge; so what they say goes.
H. C. Erik Midelfort says "Christian faith so completely dominated that all mentally ill people were
regarded as demonically possessed or that the mentally ill were frequently persecuted as witches" (.
This is how insane people were viewed as until the 1800s. Hallucinations were also treated in a
similar fashion. They believed that hallucinations by were caused demonic possessions and
witchcraft. Seeing how Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in the early 1600s, it seems to be clear where
he found his sources for depicting madness.

Fate and Chance In Othello

Fate, chance, and coincidence all play significant roles in William Shakespeare’s play Othello.
Perhaps the most obvious example of the importance of fate in the play concerns Othello’s race.
If Othello were not black (an identity he obviously did not choose), Brabantio probably would
have had absolutely no objection to Othello’s marriage to Desdemona. Indeed, there is every
reason to expect that if Othello had been white, Brabantio would have been quite proud of have
him as a son-in-law. It is primarily because it was Othello’s fate to be born black that Brabantio
objects to the relationship between his daughter and Othello.
An important example of the role of chance in the play involves the unpredictable destruction of
the Turkish fleet in the storm. If the Turkish fleet had not been destroyed by unforeseeably
ferocious weather, Othello might have had to spend much of his time either battling the Turkish
fleet at sea or hurriedly organizing and leading the defenses of Cyprus on land. He would have
had far less time to devote to worries about Cassio’s possible relationship with his wife, and
indeed Iago would have had far fewer opportunities to plant seeds of doubt into Othello’s mind.

Character is Destiny

In Aristotle's Poetics, hamartia is identified as the fatal flaw that brings about the downfall of a
tragic hero, turning a protagonist blessed with good fortune into a victim of tragic destiny.
Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Othello meets the definition of a tragedy because within Othello's
character is a fatal flaw that leads to a chain of events that culminates in his demise. In this way,
Othello's character becomes his destiny.

Othello's fatal flaw is his self-doubt, which leads him eventually to embrace a perception of
himself that is undeserving of the love of Desdemona. Though Othello is a decorated war hero,
and an upstanding leader and citizen, he is black and he is older than Desdemona; both of these
qualities render him insecure in his position.

Hamartia

Othello, the protagonist of the tragedy, is a tragic figure because he is a man of great character
and some virtues but brings about his own doom due to a tragic flaw. He is great as a military
leader, as a man of stern morality, and he even has the gentleness of behavior and the powers of
speech and understanding. But, as a typical tragic character, Othello has the terrible fault
(hamartia) in that he is disturbingly gullible, madly jealous, and irrationally quick in his wrong
judgments and actions.
As a tragic character, Othello's 'error of judgment' lies in his faulty understanding of innocent
people like his wife as guilty, and his pigheaded trust of villains like lago. He is a complex
character. His sexual jealousy, which rouses in us terrible hatred, would be something ordinary
and tolerable if it was reasonable. But his jealousy is based on his disgustingly gullible nature.
Othello is noble, but turns out to be a disgusting rogue, killing his innocent wife and trying to
justify his horrible crime at the end. As he transforms, his weaknesses flourish and the nobility of
a great soldier vanishes. In short, his fall is tragic and even shocking. The only thing that
prevents him from being regarded a bad and hateful man is that he does understand and regret his
mistake at the end. His suicide also atones for his sin and arouses in us some sympathy.

Poetic Justice
The term 'poetic justice' refers to the just division of reward and punishment to the characters.
Any serious art is traditionally expected to make the audience feel that there is justice, at least in
the world created by art. In the tragic play Othello, the issue of poetic justice is not fully
satisfactory. This is because we feel that some characters are punished for no justifiable reason,
though there is justifiability in the tragic end of the hero due to his own error of judgment or
tragic flaw.
Othello's tragic end is justified because he has made a terrible error by doing injustice to the
good people around him and trusting the bad ones. His fault is also that of being too gullible,
doubtful towards people who are not at all likely to be immoral, hateful towards his most loving
wife, and jealous towards a loyal friend. That stupidity is punished for, and we feel that his
suffering is justified.

Tragic Waste

, An "impression of waste” comes into view in Shakespeare's tragedies. At the closing stages of
“Othello”, we encounter that Othello, who had been an enormous figure in society, is doomed;
dragging along the dreadful fate of the virtuous ones - Emilia, Desdemona, Roderigo; and Cassio
unnecessarily. But one experiences mercy for Iago, whose sharp evil skill and substantial
intellectual grasp of human nature were wiped out in such a trivial endeavour. The good and
virtuous ones are trampled upon, as we see Desdemona’s torment is more appalling than she
deserves. In poetic justice “prosperity and adversity are distributed in proportion to the merits of
the agents” (Bradley). At the time of death, Desdemona, takes upon herself all the blame of her
“guiltless death” saying “Nobody; I myself. Farewell” (5.2.125).Thus no poetic, but partial
justice is done, because it involves the waste of much that is good, as virtue is not rewarded but
evil is constantly destroyed.

Hallucination, Madness and Supernatural Elements

Shakespearean tragedies incorporate "abnormal conditions of mind" like madness, hallucination,

sleepwalking. In “Othello” one notices that Iago's deluded vision of Desdemona lying with
Cassio, unquestionably seems to have made Othello insane, insecure. Shakespeare illustrates
Othello's state of mind in Act IV, Scene I, wherein the Moor falls into a trance, as Iago expresses
to Cassio,“My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy,/ This is his second fit. He had one
yesterday.”(4.1.50-51) He even warned him that Othello could break out to “savage madness."
The supernatural element is manifest in his tragedies, seen chiefly in “Macbeth” or “Hamlet”, but
noticeable in “Othello” too. In Act I, Scene III, Brabantio blames Othello of using magic spells
to enchant Desdemona.

She is abus’d, stol'n from me and corrupted,

By spells and medicines, bought of mountebanks,

For nature so preposterously to err,

Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,

Sans witchcraft could not. (1.3.60-64)

Fate and Chance in King Lear

Throughout King Lear, fate plays various roles.  Some characters believe in a predetermined life
and blame fate for their misfortune, while others laugh at the idea of fate.  Also, while some
elements of the plot seem destined, others seem to be caused by the characters’ free will. Many
characters use the term “fortune” to describe coincidence, luck, or fate.   King Lear describes the
bad fortune of his family splitting apart and considers for a time if it is an act of fate or merely a
coincidence. Interestingly, fate and free will work hand in hand to decide the outcome of King
Lear.  Although there seems to be more instances of free will than fate, fate does play a
significant role in the end.  Most characters, like Gloucester, believe that a higher power controls
their lives.  This belief in fate plays an important role in the characters’ lives, which, in turn,
makes the reader question if fate really does play as important of a role as the characters believe,
or if it is only each character’s free will that decides the outcome.

Character is Destiny

  "Character is destiny" is a dominant theme that often appears in Shakespearean tragedy. In the
play, King Lear this concept is portrayed through the characters of King Lear, Gloucester, and
Edmund. The characteristics and the roles that each of the characters have within the society of
the play determine the treatment that they receive from other characters as well as their destiny.
             In the play, Lear demonstrates various characteristics that can be classified as his tragic
flaws. In the opening scene, Lear's irrational basis for distributing the kingdom between his
daughters reveals that he is accustomed to hypocrisy, that he is quick tempered, that he is
impatient, and that he is unaware of human limitation.   "Character is destiny" is a dominant
theme that often appears in Shakespearean tragedy. In the play, King Lear this concept is
portrayed through the characters of King Lear, Gloucester, and Edmund. The characteristics and
the roles that each of the characters have within the society of the play determine the treatment
that they receive from other characters as well as their destiny.
             In the play, Lear demonstrates various characteristics that can be classified as his tragic
flaws. In the opening scene, Lear's irrational basis for distributing the kingdom between his
daughters reveals that he is accustomed to hypocrisy, that he is quick tempered, that he is
impatient, and that he is unaware of human limitation.

Hamartia

Tragic flaws and hamartias operate in King Lear. Lear has several of each. Among his flaws are
excessive egoism, rashness, rigidity, authoritarianism, excessive pride, and a penchant for
tyranny. Foremost among his hamartias is the stubborn belief that he can maintain his honors and
trappings, the symbols of power, without possessing the power itself. Other instances of hamartia
are Lear’s mistaking Cordelia’s honesty for pride; and in the case of her sisters, assigning
honesty to flattery; and with Kent, mistaking his honesty for disloyalty. With Cordelia, Lear
mistakes honesty for pride—ironic in that the king himself is obsessively proud. This missing of
the mark, his misperception, inflames his egoism. He cannot tolerate the appearance of
disrespect, and so, rashly, banishes Cordelia and, a bit later, Kent.

Poetic Justice
The question of poetic justice in King Lear is evoked by Edgar, who, in the play’s final scene
and while in disguise, claims that “The gods are just.” Therefore, he argues, Gloucester’s
blinding was a just punishment for the conception of his bastard son Edmund – even though this
reasoning is not taken up anywhere else in the play. This paper seeks to link up Edgar’s various
disguises and their respective purposes with the utterances that he makes while in disguise, in
particular his moralizing statements. In the Shakespearean canon, disguise is often ambivalent;
in King Lear, this ambivalence pertains especially to Edgar, whoseself-indulgent and histrionic
acting as Poor Tom, for instance, is striking, but who may also have the salvation of his father’s
soul in mind when resorting to play-acting in the first place. Moralizing statements are spoken as
asides to the audience, the context of which raises the question of how much authority and
sincerity we want to attest to them. The ambiguity that arises from Edgar’s speech, based on the
ambivalence of disguise, challenges Edgar’s assertion that “The gods are just” and does not lead
to clear-cut poetic justice.

Tragic Waste

As with anything else, the issue of tragic flaw is debatable. I think this is the case because the
notion of tragic flaw in King Lear is so disturbing. I believe that Lear’s tragic flaw is quite
simply that he loves. All of his tragedy derives from his desire to love and to be loved. Notice
how, from Act 2 on, after Lear is driven from his home, he never expresses desire or concern for
his kingdom. He only dwells upon the loveless actions of his daughters. It is a very disturbing
theme when love becomes the source of tragedy. That which brings life—that which resists death
—becomes that which drives the characters to their destruction.

Hallucination, Madness and Supernatural Elements

Gloucester, Kent, Lear, and the Fool take shelter in a small building (perhaps a shed or
farmhouse) on Gloucester’s property. Gloucester leaves to find provisions for the king. Lear,
whose mind is wandering ever more widely, holds a mock trial of his wicked daughters, with
Edgar, Kent, and the Fool presiding. Both Edgar and the Fool speak like madmen, and the trial is
an exercise in hallucination and eccentricity.

Gloucester hurries back in to tell Kent that he has overheard a plot to kill Lear. Gloucester begs
Kent to quickly transport Lear toward Dover, in the south of England, where allies will be
waiting for him. Gloucester, Kent, and the Fool leave. Edgar remains behind for a moment and
speaks in his own, undisguised voice about how much less important his own suffering feels now
that he has seen Lear’s far worse suffering.

The storm in King Lear is a powerful natural force. There are no witches, gods, magic or real
demons in the play. Edgar’s pretense of being assailed by devils is a ruse and was expected to be
understood as one. To my mind, one of the reasons Lear disturbs the audience more
than Macbeth or even Hamlet is that it is entirely human; it illustrates the horrors people inflict
on each other without the agency of evil spirits.
Fate and Chance in Hamlet

Hamlet Struggles with Fate Man has, and always will, continually struggle with drawing the line
between Fate and chance – the fork in the road down which one believes there is order and purpose
that leads all beings to a final destination in the universe, and the other believes there is only
chance and coincidence that result from each individual’s next action. As Charles K. Cannon
indicates, “The play that continually looks inward to observe itself as a play – suggests a pattern of
diminishing concentric circles moving from what seems to be real to what seems to be illusion”
(Cannon, 208). The scholarly critic points to the cycle and predestined path that the characters of
Hamlet follow, as the royal characters of Denmark’s kingdom each take their own path into a
tailspin of death and doom. Shakespeare’s play follows Hamlet’s revenge with the preconceived
fact that every character introduced is already en route to their personal deaths. But on the other
side of this coin, A.C. Bradley supports the idea that Hamlet and the surrounding characters are
merely subject to the random wheel of fortune’s next spin. For example, when Hamlet encounters
the pirate ship when searching for a way of transportation back to Denmark, he considers the
occurrence to be divine providence; however, A.C. Bradley continues to believe that it is simply
luck and good fortune that allows Hamlet to find the favorable pirates willing to grant him passage.
Thus, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the characters – especially Hamlet – wrestle between the two
forces of Fate and chance, with Fate ultimately prevailing over the mere mortal playing pieces of
the story.

Character is Destiny
Shakespearean tragedy presents the tragedy of a hero in terms of tragic flaw in the character of
the hero. Shakespeare himself lays emphasis on this fact: "the fault, dear Brutus, lies in ourselves
and not in our stars," Hamlet is a man of remarkable qualities. He is a noble-hearted scholar, an
eminent soldier, 'the observed of all observers.' In spite of all these noble qualities he suffers
from the fatal defect of indecision. He is reflective by nature and speculates over his actions. If
he acts quickly, he does so on impulse. But it is not only his tragic flaw which accounts for his
downfall; the external circumstances or the Supreme Power of Fate also plays an important role
in the tragedy of the hero. Fate has an important role in the downfall of the character of Hamlet.
The very appearance of the Ghost strikes the note of some ominous power of Fate. It is Hamlet's
fate that his father has been murdered by his uncle and his father's Ghost reveals the secret and
lays the task of taking revenge upon Hamlet-a task which Hamlet feels inadequate to accomplish.
The Ghost appears for the second time only to emphasize Hamlet’s delay in carrying out his task.
However, it is really the ominous atmosphere built up by Shakespeare rather than the Ghost
itself, which gives us a sense of supernatural power in the universe.

Hamartia

Prince Hamlet’s tragic flaw, in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, determines his tragic downfall.

Hamlet’s hamartia is his indecisiveness. He cannot make up his mind about the dilemmas he
confronts. He reveals his state of mind in the following lines from Act 3, Scene 1 of the play:

“To be, or not to be — that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep…”

Hamlet wants to kill his father’s murderer, Claudius, but instead ruins his life by delaying action,
as he looks for proof to justify the act. In the process, he spoils his relationship with his mother,
and sends Ophelia into such a state of depression that she commits suicide. This indecision got
almost everyone killed at the end of the play. He killed Claudius by assuming fake madness
because of his indecisiveness in action so that he will not be asked for any justification.

Poetic Justice
Yes, poetic justice there is.  They all die as a result of their own conniving and scheming to
take Hamlet down.  The plan was only for Hamlet to die, not for anyone else
to.  Claudius and Laertes were the ones to come up with the plan; they were the ones to put
poison on the blade and in the drinks.  It was they alone that set up the circumstances that, in the
end, lead to their own deaths.  That is poetic justice right there.

HAMLET: There’s letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
They bear the mandate. They must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,
For ’tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard. And ’t shall go hard,
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon. Oh, ’tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
Many of William Shakespeare plays contain poetic justice examples. In this excerpt, Hamlet
imagines that “the engineer” of Hamlet’s father’s death will be “hoist with his own petard.”
Hamlet thinks of vengeance for his father as a type of poetic justice. However, in this scene he
himself has just killed Polonius, and is dealt the poetic justice of his own death at the end of the
play.

Hallucination, Madness and Supernatural Elements

Old Hamlet- an hallucination? When Old Hamlet appears in the bedroom scene, Cordelia cannot
see him. Yet she was as much a part of the dead king's life as Hamlet. At the play's start, the Old
King Walking was a topic amongst the watch. Could it be they were just telling ghost tales to pas
the time? Hamlet himself is very emotionally needy, very vulnerable to suggestion. The soldiers
could later have been telling him what they knew he wanted to hear. Shakespeare knows all
about hallucinations, particularly seen when drunk and under stress (Banquo's ghost in Macbeth.)
Is it possible, just possible, that Old Hamlet was an hallucination in the broken mind of a
distressed and bereaved young prince.
In the play Hamlet, the prince Hamlet pretends to be mad so as to find out the truth regarding his
father's death and the involvement of the new King Claudius. Polonius falsely considers Hamlet's
madness stems from Hamlet's love of Ophelia and his failure to get her in his life. But in the
course of the play, Hamlet's behavior becomes more unpredictable and ambiguous. His acting
madness seems to cause Hamlet to lose his grip on reality. He cannot control his erratic behavior
in the palace. The circumstances he has to manage emotionally are difficult for him. His pretense
of maddening costs him a lot. The physical violence under extreme stress shows that Hamlet has
deeper-set issues than merely acting mad.

…………………………….……..Thank You Sir………………………………………….