Madness in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
SPECIALIZAREA: ENGLEZA-SPANIOLĂ
LUCRARE DE LICENȚӐ
COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
LECTOR UNIV. DR. COȘOVEANU MIHAI
ABSOLVENTĂ:
PANACHE ROXANA-CONSTANTINA
CRAIOVA
IULIE 2021
1
UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
SPECIALIZAREA: ENGLEZA-SPANIOLĂ
MADNESS
IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S
“HAMLET”
(NEBUNIA IN „HAMLET” DE WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE)
COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
LECTOR UNIV. DR. COȘOVEANU MIHAI
ABSOLVENTĂ:
PANACHE ROXANA-CONSTANTINA
CRAIOVA
IULIE 2021
2
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1. “HAMLET” – A TRAGEDY MARKED BY REVENGE, DOUBT AND
MADNESS .....................................................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2. PRINCE HAMLET AND HIS FAKING MADNESS ...........................................24
CHAPTER 3. OPHELIA AND THE SCARCITY OF HER CHOICES ......................................37
CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................................42
BIBLIOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................................43
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INTRODUCTION
The famous English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, often called today the
national poet of England, had a very extensive and complex work. Today, we enjoy 38-39 plays1,
2 long narrative poems and 154 sonnets, but also many other poems2.
Shakespeare became so famous because in his special, timeless style plays, people of all
times can find themselves. There are some of his plays which became worldwide known because
they are considered the most brilliant works ever written in literature. Shakespeare had an
outstanding talent: he was able to overcome the narrative and to describe the most intimate and
profound aspects of human nature. He had an eye for those aspects and a talent in illustrating them
through intrigues, themes, characters, or simply by playing with the words.
Before being a perfect playwright, Shakespeare was a perfect poet. The pre-romantic
Thomas Gray stated that "every word of Shakespeare is a painting", referring, of course, to the
plasticity of language not once hieroglyphic, but which translates everything into images.
The musical passages in Shakespeare's plays are also known, because he used them a lot. The
"songs" in tragedies are associated with abnormal moods (such as Ophelia's song, a tragic
culmination).
It is not excluded that Shakespeare himself had practical musical knowledge (he was,
however, a man of the Renaissance). “It is certain that Shakespeare knew a great deal about music,
and it is only logical to assume that he knew how to play at least one instrument”, said F. E.
Halliday.
He must have been a highly adaptable person, because he was able to move from poems
to plays and back and he was able to write various types of plays: historical plays, comedies and
tragedies. Certainly, the collaborations he had with other authors in writing some of his works,
trained his adaptability and guided him in creating and developing his own particular writing style.
Most of his known works were written between 1589 and 1613.
1 An exact number is not known. He wrote, quite a lot, in collaboration

2 Is not exactly known the number of poems; some of them have been considered to be his, but in reality there’s
no certainty about them
4
“Hamlet” is one of the most famous plays written by William Shakespeare. It has been
published for the first time in 1603, although the first performance has been 3 years before, around
1600, at the Globe Theater.
It is a very popular tragedy, which intrigued lots of writers and lots of literary critics, from
all over the world, who have analyzed it from different perspectives.
"Hamlet" (like many others Shakespearean plays and poems) has been translated in most
of Earth’s languages and it has been staged by lots of theater and film directors from all over the
world, each one according to their own vision of the play.
Shakespeare had three children, of whom the boy, Hamnet, died at a very young age, at
11, leaving a great void and great suffering in his father's soul. “Hamlet” is thought to be written
under the influence of this tragic event. Due to the similarity of the names, some suspect that his
death was the impetus for the creation of Shakespeare's play “Hamlet, The Tragic Story of Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark”.
Each of Shakespeare's tragedies has a central character who is subjected to a torturous
experience, being overthrown by his greatness and having a tragic ending. The most eloquent
example is the character of Hamlet in the play of the same name, which is among the most
influential tragedies in English literature, as well as the most played play of Shakespeare.
The protagonist of the tragedy, always a noble character, has a "tragic defect" of character,
which contributes to his self-destruction. This defect is characteristic of its greatness, but it
generates its degradation, causing it to make mistakes and inappropriate judgments. Thus, the hero
begins to alienate himself and his supporters and isolates himself. He begins to decline from his
high level and suffers a failure, despite the fact that he is trying to regain his superior status.
Eventually he realizes his mistakes, but too late.
An important aspect is the suffering to which he is subjected, suffering with which the
spectators identify, experiencing fear, terror and pity.
In the end, the peace that existed before the events takes place is restored, as, for example,
in King Lear, after the death of the main character who gives the name of the play, the throne is
taken by Edgar, and peace is restored. Here we find the process that Aristotle calls "katharsis",
meaning a feeling of relief and reconciliation.
Another prominent aspect of the tragedies is the death of the protagonist. This element
appears in all Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, Othello and Anthony and
Cleopatra. For the archaic man and even for many religious people, death brings the final
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disappointment on any significant hope, being a metonymy of defeat. In the tragedies brought into
question, death does not represent the extreme expression of human suffering, but has a symbolic
role, emphasizing disappointment and defeat. The words proclaimed by Hamlet in his last
moments, "The rest is silence" do not bring to the fore the idea of suffering, but are an echo of
defeat, an echo that is meant to make the public resonate on the same note.
So, tragedy deals with one of the great paradoxes of life. It does not propose a solution to
this paradox. It does not convey to us the idea that life retains its meaning in spite of defeat, nor
does it show the futility of human hopes, but confirms this paradox, intriguing and arousing the
deepest thoughts.
Shakespearean tragedies, although written for the public at the time, focus on themes such
as betrayal, war between nations, political intrigue, conspiracies, and human flaws, which are still
relevant today. The modern audience resonates with the complex characters whose tragedy
transcends their temporal space, the dilemmas, defects and vices finding an equivalent in the states
that people in the 21st century face. It can be argued that Shakespeare, as it is known today, was
also "created" by popular culture, and although most do not know much about his life or work,
they are familiar with the idea of tragic love in Romeo and Juliet. or with the question “To be or
not to be?”
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CHAPTER 1
“HAMLET” – A TRAGEDY MARKED BY REVENGE, DOUBT AND

MADNESS
Tragedy is a kind of dramatic genre, in prose or verse, representing strong characters,

engaged in the fight against adversity, the existing order of the world or their own feelings, this
conflict being resolved with the death of the hero.
Tragedy is a form of drama characterized by seriousness and dignity, which usually involves a
conflict between a character and a higher power, such as law, gods, fate or society. So, we might
have expect just a unique, central point, just a central theme, a single conflict.
Shakespeare’s tragedies, however, are marked by a plurality of intertwining themes, each one
being obvious and each of them being very important for the construction of the story, as a whole.
This peculiarity is what makes Shakespeare's tragedies so complex. And it is precisely this
complexity that makes them well understood and assimilated by the public: everyday life is
complex, so a complex play mimics exactly everyday life.
“Hamlet” is no exception. It is a tragedy marked by a multitude of feelings, attitudes,
thoughts, analyzes, plans and actions.
There are a lot of themes present in “Hamlet”: lack of scruples, greed, ambition, conflict,
family, revenge, suffering, corruption, arrogance, doubt, transformation, friendship, loyalty,
conspiracy, convenience, religion, politics, appearance and reality, love, hatred, insecurity,
women, deception, death.
The whole picture found in Hamlet, with all the intrigues, with all the actions, feelings,
themes, is something natural for the times when the story takes place. Nowadays, all these themes
from Hamlet are found in everyday life, only in a different form and in a different social and
political context.
Hamlet is the protagonist of the tragedy and the prince of Denmark, the son of Queen
Gertrude and the late King Hamlet and nephew of the current King Claudius, his uncle. Hamlet is
a melancholic character, undecided, cynical and very hindered by the intrigues of his uncle and
his mother to seize power. He is an enigmatic and ambiguous character, torn by internal conflicts
between fears, indecision, life and death.
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He finds himself in deep suffering, from the pain of losing both parents.
His father, King Hamlet, was killed by his uncle, Claudius, the brother of the late king. His mother
is as good as lost, because she marries her brother-in-law, shortly after King Hamlet's death, and
now adheres to his views and holds his side in front of Hamlet, trying to make him adhere to the
new king's views.
The king's death, leaves Hamlet, on the one hand, grieved by the premature and unexpected
loss of his father, and on the other hand grieved because he is deprived of the throne by his uncle
taking over the status of king. On top of that, he is crushed by doubt, because he suspects that his
uncle is his father's killer, but he has no certainty of this at first. That is why he analyzes the
situation and makes plans to discover the truth, which he succeeds finally.
Hamlet is not happy with his stepfather's decision not to let him continue his studies,
urging him to stay home and he’s even less happy because his mother shares his stepfather’s
attitude.
Another heavy strike comes very quickly from the death of his father, because his mother
marries his uncle, and Hamlet feels this strongly, through the prism of a whole range of feelings.
He mourns for his father and expects his mother to do the same. Because of her mother’s hasty
remarriage to her brother-in-law, Hamlet perceives this as a mother's betrayal of their family and
feels hurt. He also feels disappointed because he expected his mother to have loved his father, but
her quick marriage to the new king makes Hamlet see in his mother the lack of love for her late
husband.
The appearance of his father's ghost, turns Hamlet's world upside down once again. It
shows him that his father, who has been said to be killed by the bite o a venomous snake, was
definitely killed by his own brother (the Ghost told Hamlet “...You should know, my noble son,
the real snake that stung your father is now wearing his crown. ...”3 ) and that he demands to be
revenged (he tells to Hamlet: “You must be ready for revenge, too, when you hear me out. ”4).
Hamlet, in the clutches of a thousand doubts, initially tries to discover the truth by
pretending to be insane (“I may find it appropriate to act a little crazy in the near future”5 says
Hamlet to Horatio ), but Hamlet's crazy attitudes alarm both his uncle and his mother.
Chamberlain Polonius is also alarmed. Hamlet have been courting his daughter Ophelia, who has
been advised by him and by her brother to reject him, because most likely he cannot marry her
3 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 5

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because of his princely obligations, which will lead him to a marriage of convenience. Ophelia
submits and does as she has been advised, and quite immediately after this she reveals to her father
that Hamlet visited her and his behavior has been very odd, leaving her quite scared. Polonius
believes that after the recent painful events in Hamlet’s life, the recent rejection served by Ophelia
has been the icing of the cake which brought him in the brink of madness.
Polonius also has some opportunities to see for himself Hamlet’s odd attitudes, because he
reveals his suspicions to The King and The Queen and proposes to follow Hamlet in order to see
if he is really mad.
At this point, Hamlet’s got them all! All of the court, including his lover Ophelia, believes
that he is mad. Hamlet throws the bait of madness and they all fall into the trap.
Although he loves Ophelia, Hamlet had no hesitation in lying to her, behaving in such a
manner as to look as authentic as possible when he plays the madman. He acts very strange, he
speaks quite meaningless to Ophelia and he sends her to the monastery, suggesting that he does
not love her. The only ones knowing the truth are his friend Horatio and the watchman Marcellus.
Hamlet‘s eager for revenge, and once the field in prepared (with the pretended madness) he’s
ready to act.
He finds the opportunity to test the realty of the theory that the Ghost threw. As The King
wanted to distract Hamlet from his dark thoughts, he invited two of his friends, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, who brought with them a troupe of actors, invited to the palace in order to stage a
play. Hamlet first offers the actors an exceptional hosting and then he asks them to stage the play
with the modifications proposed by Hamlet himself. Hamlet wanted them to show in their play
the scene of the murder of his father. They agree and so is staged the story of the late King’s
murder.
Claudius’s reaction confirms to Hamlet that the Ghost’s theory is real, so in Hamlet’s heart
has established a real wish of revenge. Having the confirmation that Claudius is the murderer of
his father, Hamlet is confronting his mother. While speaking to his mother about his father’s
murder, he sees the curtain moving. Not checking who’s really there and supposing that behind it
there’s Claudius, he stabs the figure behind the curtain and only after this discovers that he actually
killed Polonius,
The theme of revenge is not only related with young Hamlet, but is also related to
Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway, whose father was killed by Hamlet's father, who wants to attack
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Denmark to avenge his father's death, but who’s actions are prevented by the politics adopted by
Claudius.
The same theme of revenge is present associated with Laertes and Ophelia, Polonius’s
children. Their desire for revenge is directed against Hamlet, who accidentally killed their father,
only because he thought that he’s killing Claudius and then hid the corpse for a while, being
crushed by remorse. Certainly that
Hamlet could have checked the identity of the figure behind the curtain, before stabbing wildly,
but his great mistake was that he didn’t. He let himself lead by his strong feelings, emotions and
suppositions, leaving aside the rational behavior. This mistake was going to cost him the life of
the woman he loved, his friendship with Laertes, and finally his and Laertes death.
The hatred and the desire for revenge are manifesting themselves in different ways at
Ophelia and at Laertes.
Ophelia is torn between the death of her father, the love for Hamlet, the disappointment
caused by his behavior and the fact that Hamlet himself is guilty for the death of her father. She
goes mad, she appears at some point in the play singing and suggesting that her brother will
revenge the death of their father. Then, overwhelmed by suffering and madness, she ends up
drowning.
Her brother is manifesting the hatred and desire of revenge very loudly. At first, thinking
that Claudius is guilty for his father’s death, he returns from France, where he was studying,
determined to kill him. Once arrived, Claudius reveals to Laertes the real murderer and he rapidly
reorients his emotions against Hamlet, becoming the ally of Claudius, now that they are joined by
a shared purpose: killing Hamlet. Laertes’s anger increases proportionally once he finds out about
his sister’s death, which is entirely Hamlet’s guilt. That’s why he agrees the plan Claudius put
together – to have duel with Hamlet, using a poisoned sword.
The hatred and revenge are also present in Claudius. In fact, he is a quite complex
character, the most complex in this play, besides Hamlet, we could say. Besides those two themes,
at Claudius we can notice lack of scruples, greed, ambition, corruption, arrogance, convenience,
lack of respect for the family, conflict, dissimulation.
Claudius is a classic example of princes of those times. We understand that he is the
younger brother of the King, because the first born had the right to the throne, and the second and
others, following, were just the spare, in case the first born died or could not have the throne for
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other reasons. In Act 1, Scene 2, it’s also specified that Claudius is the younger brother. Claudius
himself says “Although I still have fresh memories of my brother the elder Hamlet’s death ”6.
He was, anyway, feeling so unimportant, he started in life with a disability, given by his position
as a spare.
Being an ambitious and greedy person he was obviously disturbed by the situation.
Viewing the things like this, there no wonder why he acted as he did – plotting the murder of his
brother in order to take his position and wife. He was not the first, nor the last “spare” prince who
was in this situation and who attempted and/or succeeded to kill his bigger brother, king, in order
to take his place.
Claudius is corrupted by the idea of power, so we can see that he had no scruples in
removing his brother from the throne, in order to become King. His actions went even further,
when he disrespected the position of widow of his sister-in-law and he married her. In fact, the
apparent purpose of this clever movement was to strengthen his position.
Although this play describes timeless feeling, we must judge the given situations through
the prism of social rules which were valid back then, without considering our modern social rules.
Of course, in the times of the story, in the royal houses, the marriage between the widow and the
brother of her late husband was not so unusual, but there were some conditions (of a religious and
moral nature) that had to be respected for such a marriage. For example, the marriage with the late
husband should have been incomplete, not being consumed. Here it wasn’t the case (they also had
their child Hamlet), because the conditions were not met. So, from this point of view, this marriage
was a bit atypical even back then.
It is not excluded that they have had a relationship even before the King's death, nor that
they planned together to kill him, because their marriage was made very fast after the King’s death
– not even two month. As Hamlet said ironically and with so much bitterness: “It was all about
saving a few bucks, Horatio. The leftovers from the funeral dinner made a convenient wedding
banquet.”7
Gertrude lost her position as a Queen through the death of her husband and regained it
through the new marriage. Hamlet was a young man, studying at a

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university in England, and not being interested by the throne while his father was alive. If Hamlet
took the throne, Gertrude would have lost her position, and she would have remained just the
King’s mother.
Claudius was counting on the fact that Hamlet would not want to remove his mother from
her position as a Queen, and therefore he, Claudius, would have remained King, just because he
was married with Gertrude.
Claudius is very hypocrite and very self-centered. He says, in front of everyone, referring
at his late brother “though it was proper to mourn him throughout our kingdom, life still goes on—
I think it’s wise to mourn him while also thinking about my own well being. Therefore, I’ve married
my former sister-in-law, the queen, with mixed feelings of happiness and sadness. I know that in
marrying Gertrude I’m only doing what all of you have wisely advised all along—for which I
thank you.”8
And then, rapidly, took his role of King: “ Now, down to business. You all know what’s
happening. Young Fortinbras, underestimating my strength or imagining that the death of the king
has thrown my country into turmoil, dreams of getting the better of me, and never stops pestering
me with demands that I surrender the territory his father lost to the elder Hamlet, my dead brother-
in-law. So much for Fortinbras. ”9.
Regarding Hamlet, Claudius shows the same hypocrisy. After resolving his to-do-list (he
commissioned Cornelius and Voltemand to deliver in Norway a letter containing a peace proposal
for Fortinbras’s uncle and he fulfilled Laertes’s wish to allow his return in France) he turned to
Hamlet, naming him “my nephew and my son ”. 10
Of course, Hamlet feels that Claudius is faking the attention, affection and concern and
he’s disgusted - he grumbles “Too many family ties there for me.”11
The new King continues the masquerade with a mix of hypocrisy and arrogance, supported
by Gertrude, who believes that Claudius has the best intentions towards Hamlet. He’s asking
Hamlet: “Why are you still so gloomy, with a cloud hanging over you? ”12, like there was no
reason at all for Hamlet to be like this, so the young prince, even more disgusted, answers him
with irony: “It’s not true, sir. Your son is out in the sun. ”13

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Here is a battle for power, between the young son of the late King, who feels that he
remained the “man of the house” and the intruder Claudius, who rapidly married the Queen, in
order to take for himself this role of “man of the house”.
Claudius really tramples under feet his nephew’s grief, with a complete lack of
consideration for his feelings, imposing his point of view. He finds no reason in mourning a dead
loved person, because the death is normal. “Hamlet, you are so sweet and such a good son to
mourn your father like this. But you have to remember, that your father lost his father, who lost
his father before him, and every time, each son has had to mourn his father for a certain period.
But overdoing it is just stubborn. It’s not manly. It’s not what God wants, and it betrays a
vulnerable heart and an ignorant and weak mind. Since we know that everyone must die sooner
or later, why should we take it to heart? You’re committing a crime against heaven, against the
dead, and against nature. And it’s irration-al, since the truth is that all fathers must die. Please
give up this useless mourning of yours and start thinking of me as your new father. ”14
Little did he know that Hamlet knows the truth and suffers the most because the death of his father
wasn’t natural, but a murder.
Claudius is eager to force Hamlet to acknowledge him as father, and goes on and on with
the hypocrisy (“I love you just as much as any father loves his son” and “I’m asking you now to
stay here in my company as the number-one member of my court, my nephew and now my son
too. ”15) and raises the stakes by reassuring him that the throne is reserved for him (“Because
everyone knows that you are the man closest to this throne ”16). In the same time he reveals his
arrogance: “And your plans for going back to Wittenberg are not what I want. ”17. Supported in
his ideas by Gertrude, to whom Hamlet doesn’t want to refuse the asked favour, for the moment,
Claudius shows his happiness (believing that he managed to submit Hamlet): “That’s the right
answer - it shows your love. Stay in Denmark like us. - My dear wife, come. Hamlet’s agreeing to
stay makes me happy, and every merry toast I’ll drink today will be heard as far as the clouds
overhead. My drinking will be echoed in the heavens. Let’s go. ”18
Later, when Hamlet starts to act like mad, Claudius begins to fear him. He thinks that
Hamlet isn’t fool and might be suspicious about his father’s death and

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that he will want to take his rightful throne. So, he invites two of Hamlet’s school colleagues in
order to “distract him” from his madness. After a series of mad-like acts of Hamlet, he and
Gertrude decide that is better to send Hamlet away from the court, in England, with his two
colleagues. Secretly, Claudius gives them a closed letter for the king of England. That letter was
meant to be the death sentence of Hamlet, because Claudius gives an order to the King of England
to murder Hamlet, and he’s sure that the order will be accomplished, because England was
submitted to Denmark. But the plot is not going as he planned, so Hamlet escapes and returns.
Then, Claudius reveals to Laertes that Hamlet is the murderer of his father and they plan
together a duel between Laertes and Hamlet, the first one using a poisoned sword. In addition,
Claudius prepares a glass of poisoned wine for Hamlet, but Gertrude was the one who drank from
that glass and died. Instead, Laertes’s poisoned sword has done the job and killed Hamlet, after he
managed to kill both Claudius and Laertes and left the country in Fortinbras’s hands.
The theme of love is present all over the play. We meet, therefore, the love between the
Queen and his late husband, the possible love between Gertrude and his new husband, the love of
Gertrude for Hamlet, the love of Hamlet for his parents and the love of Laertes and Ophelia for
their father, the love between Hamlet and Ophelia, the brotherly love of Laertes for Ophelia and
vice versa, the love of Polonius for his children.
The love between the Queen and the late King is shown to us through the Ghost’s words
(“She went from me, who loved her with the dignity and devotion that suits a legitimate
marriage ”19) and Hamlet’s memories (“She would hang on to him, and the more she was with
him the more she wanted to be with him; she couldn’t get enough of him. ”20, (referring to her
behavior at the funeral) “crying
like crazy ”21).
The love between the Queen and her new husband is not clear. Even though they are
suspected to have had an affair even before the King’s death, we don’t know if it was for love. It’s
possible the existence of love between them, but it’s also very possible for them to have
constructed a convenience bond.
Gertrude, as she is, definitely loves her son, in her own way. Before the crazy-like behavior
of Hamlet, when Claudius tells Hamlet to remain home, to not leave again for studies, she supports
the King’s opinion but not to please him but because se would really like to have her son at home.

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Today we would say that a mother really loves her kids if she’s not cutting their wings by refusing
them the possibility to study abroad, just for the mother’s comfort of having the kid near her and
under her surveillance. But then, in the times of the story, the school wasn’t such a big deal as it
is today. After all, Hamlet was a prince, he had his well-being insured, he had his social position
very certain, so the school, even if it was useful for him, it was not crucial. So his mother is able
to allow herself to be a little selfish and ask him to remain home (“Please answer my prayers,
Hamlet, and stay with us. Don’t go back to Wittenberg.”22)
Hamlet loved his parents. That’s why he is so devastated by the death of his father.
Claudius and Gertrude try to convince him lo leave the mourning, even if passed so short time
from the tragic event. Gertrude says to him, completing Claudius’s advice: “My dear Hamlet, stop
wearing these black clothes, and be friendly to the king. You can’t spend your whole life with your
eyes to the ground remembering your noble father. It happens all the time, what lives must die
eventually, passing to eternity.” and “why does it seem so particular to you?”.
Hamlet replies: “ “Seem,” mother? No, it is. I don’t know what you mean by “seem.”
Neither my black clothes, my dear mother, nor my heavy sighs, nor my weeping, nor my downcast
eyes, nor any other display of grief can show what I really feel. It’s true that all these things
“seem” like grief, since a person could use them to fake grief if he wanted to. But I’ve got more
real grief inside me that you could ever see on the surface. These clothes are just a hint of it”.
He should have also loved his mother, especially because he has nice memories of her
behavior with his father. Now he’s disgusted with her and he feels betrayed by her.
Gertrude deeply loves her son, but she is still a weak woman. It is unclear whether she was
involved in the plot against Hamlet's father or was overwhelmed by events, or is just a opportunist
woman which puts no price on moral but all the price for social position, power and fortune.
The love between Hamlet and Ophelia is the love of two young people. He courts her, she
accepts his courting and his gifts. She is young and naive and she is hoping to be Hamlet’s wife,
despite his position and the obligations that might come with it. She is easy fulled by Hamlet’s
pretended madness and she is really concerned about him and that’s why she tells his father about
this. Being very young and inexperienced and living in those times (the old times when the action
takes place), she takes very serious his brother’s advice and then she submits her father’s will to
not accept Hamlet’s courting any more, even if her love is not gone. She just knows that her
brother and father love her and they wish for her all the best. Of course, the element which

15
convinced her the most to submit her father’s wish was Hamlet’s mad-like behavior, which scared
her. Even if she is inexperienced as woman, as lover, she instinctively tends to not rely on a man
that shows madness. So her decision to obey her father decision, in the given circumstances, was
totally mature and smart.
Hamlet loves Ophelia but does so with a ruthless lucidity, he is aware of her mediocrity.
He suffers when, by chance, he watches from the shadows the understanding between her and the
King, the Queen and her father, Polonius in which she undertakes to report all the facts and the
words of Hamlet to them. He loves her and hates her at the same time, as a cheated and therefore
wounded lover, who knows that even after the betrayal has been definitively consumed, he will
continue to love her.
Hamlet sees in Ofelia the woman who decays (allusion to his mother?), but she never
thinks that his behavior is the main cause of her moving away from him. In reality, Ophelia loves
him so much that she might have been able to cross her father’s wish if, and only if Hamlet would
have given her the certainty of a normal man, on whom she can rely anytime. But Hamlet put his
revenge mission above his love relationship. He found a way to accomplish it and used it without
even thinking that his mission could ruin his relationship. In fact, the love for Ophelia, even if it’s
big, it’s not mature (Hamlet being a very young and inexperienced man himself). In order to not
endanger their relationship, he should have trusted Ophelia to reveal his secret plans. But he didn’t,
because, being disappointed by the weakness of his mother, he considered that all the women are
weak, including Ophelia. He perceives in the use of the little tricks of female seduction, a sign
that the one he loves so much is in fact a common creature and not an exceptional one. We see
him behaving with Ofelia as he does with his own mother. Sharp, cruel words, verbal brutality are
meant to cleanse, purify and awaken.
Hamlet wants to turn Ophelia into the woman he decided to love, in comparison with, for
example, Romeo, who loves Juliet as she is because he sees her as he wants her to be.
The brotherly love between Laertes and Ophelia is very well illustrated in Act 1, Scene 3,
and at the end of the play, when Laertes goes extremely furious when he finds out that his sister
died (mostly because Hamlet’s actions). He was already furious and devastated by his father’s
death, and now, the death of his sister almost brings him on the verge of madness.
In the third scene of the fist act we see Laertes and Ophelia talking, just before Laertes’s
embarking for France. The discussion is full of affection and concern one for another, just as it
should be a very beautiful brotherly relation.
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They agree to keep in touch through letters while he’s in France (“my dear sister, as long
as the winds are blowing and ships are sailing, let me hear from you—write. ” and she answers
“Do you doubt I’ll write? ”). As a man, he understands better Hamlet’s courting behavior, so he
counsels his young sister: “As for Hamlet and his attentions to you, just consider it a big flirtation,
the temporary phase of a hot-blooded youth. It won’t last. It’s sweet, but his affection will fade
after a minute. Not a second more. ”.
He wants to warn her, because he wants the best for his sister (“He may love you now, and
may have only the best intentions, but you have to be on your guard. ”, “So if he says he loves you,
you should be wise enough to see that his words only mean as much as the state of Denmark
allows them to mean. ”).
He wants her to avoid suffering and he also wants her to keep her reputation intact. He
knows that, the most probably, Hamlet will not marry her. Not because the lack of love but because
he’s a prince and he might need to marry for convenience:
“Remember that he belongs to the royal family, and his intentions don’t matter that much—he’s a
slave to his family obligations. He can’t simply make personal choices for himself the way common
people can, since the whole country depends on what he does. His choice has to agree with what
the nation wants. ”
Ophelia, due to the customs of the times, also has to keep her reputation intact, because
she will have to marry some young man if Hamlet will not be able to marry her (“Then think about
how shameful it would be for you to give in to his seductive talk and surrender your treasure chest
to his greedy hands.Just keep your love under control, and don’t let yourself become a target of
his lust. Simply exposing your beauty to the moon at night is risky enough—you don’t have to
expose yourself to him. Even good girls sometimes get a bad reputation. Worms ruin flowers before
they blossom. Baby blooms are most susceptible to disease. So be careful. Fear will keep you safe.
Young people often lose their self-control even without any help from others. ”)
We see that he very wise counsels her with such consideration and love. He speaks like a mother
to her. He explains to her the possible consequences of loosing control.
The same consideration and love, combined with respect, we find at Ophelia: “I’ll keep
your words of wisdom close to my heart. ” She really intends to listen his advice. She also wants
to be sure that her brother will be well, so is her turn to give him a piece of advice: “But, my dear
brother, don’t be like a bad priest who fails to practice what he preaches, showing me the steep
and narrow way to heaven while you frolic on the primrose path of sin. ”.
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In the same Act 1, Scene 3, we can observe that Polonius, the father of Laertes and Ophelia,
deeply loves both his children and they both love and respect him. For sure he’s a good father. He
speaks to them kindly and wisely and both his children answer to him with kindness and respect.
He was not happy to see Laertes gone in France but he shows modern parenting skills, having in
view his son’s benefits of leaving for France, more than seeing his own desire to have his son at
home, so he agrees with him leaving and he blesses his choice.
Just as Laertes finished talking with Ophelia, Polonius comes and Laertes is very happy to
see his father once more before hitting the road: “What good luck, to have him bless my leaving
not once but twice. ”.
As per expectations of the son, Polonius gives him the second blessing: “Here, I give you
my blessing again. And just try to remember a few rules of life….I hope my blessing will help you
absorb what I’ve said. ”.
His pieces of advise are not only wise, but also timeless (this showing Shakespeare’s
wisdom) – any parent from any time can offer them to his children and they are were, are and will
be valid and useful anytime for anyone:
“Don’t say what you’re thinking, and don’t be too quick to act on what you think. Be friendly to
people but don’t overdo it. Once you’ve tested out your friends and found them trustworthy, hold
onto them. But don’t waste your time shaking hands with every new guy you meet. Don’t be quick
to pick a fight, but once you’re in one, hold your own. Listen to many people, but talk to few. Hear
everyone’s opinion, but reserve your judgment. Spend all you can afford on clothes, but make sure
they’re quality, not flashy, since clothes make the man—which is doubly true in France. Don’t
borrow money and don’t lend it, since when you lend to a friend, you often lose the friendship as
well as the money, and borrowing turns a person into a spendthrift. And, above all, be true to
yourself. Then you won’t be false to anybody else.”
As his son leaves, he will also send a trustful servant to surveillance Laertes.
Remaining with Ophelia, Polonius talks with her about Hamlet, knowing that he’s courting
her, but wanting to check how honest is she: “I’ve heard Hamlet’s been spending a lot of time
alone with you recently, and you’ve made yourself quite available to him. … you’re not conducting
yourself with the self-restraint a daughter of mine should show. ”. She reveals that he’s courting
her: “He’s offered me a lot of affection lately. ” and she strengthens: “And he’s made the holiest
vows to me, to back up what he says ”. Polonius gives her the same pieces of advice that she
received from her brother, but with other words and shorter: “Offer yourself more respect, or—
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not to beat this word to death—you’ll offer me the chance to be a laughing-stock. ”….. “These
vows are just traps for stupid birds. “ … “Make yourself a precious commodity. ”.
As he is a mature man, he understands lots about men behavior, so Polonius teaches his
daughter about this: “I know when a man is on fire, he’ll swear anything. But when a heart’s on
fire, it gives out more light than heat, and the fire will be out even before he’s done making his
promises. Don’t mistake that for true love. ” … “Remember that Hamlet is young and has a lot
more freedom to fool around than you do. ”
The pair appearance - reality is present at Claudius and Hamlet. Claudius, as we have seen,
plays the role of a grieving brother and a loving uncle, opened to kind of “adopt” his late brother’s
son and to do all that it takes for his nephew well-being. He also poses in a kind of savior of the
country – he suggests that he took the throne and sacrificed himself by marrying his brother’s
widow, just for insuring a good King for Denmark. He wisely tries to avoid the conflicts started
by Norway. In reality, as we have seen, he killed his brother and took his place, just for fulfilling
his ambition and desire for power. Full of fear of loosing his position he also tries to get rid of
Hamlet, in the mean time pretending to be a good uncle. Hamlet is really grieving and knows
about his uncle’s plots, for which he wants revenge. He is smart and find ways to dissimulate: he
seems submitted and naive, but in the same time makes an exquisite plan to fake madness in order
to fulfill his plans. He fakes so well that nobody realizes the truth. He only revealed his secret to
Horatio and the two guards who saw the Ghost – Marcello and Bernardo. And even they have
their doubts – they believe that Hamlet might be at least a little mad.
Hamlet also shows us the transformation: he was just a young prince who was studying
and who loved a girl, but all fallen apart for him when his father died. He suddenly became a man,
his carefree life has gone and he chose to sacrifice his love just for fulfilling his revenge plans.
The loyalty is presented through Horatio, Reynaldo, Marcellus and Bernardo. The two guards are
loyal to their country and the were loyal to their late king. Now their loyalty transferred to Hamlet.
They saw the armed Ghost and told about it to Horatio, being concerned that this cannot be a good
sign. Horatio, loyal to Hamlet tell him about the Ghost and so he finds out the truth about his
father’s death. All three of them were the only ones knowing about the Ghost and about Hamlet’s
pla to fake madness and they do not betray him.
Reynaldo is Polonius’s loyal and trustful servant, who went to France sent by his master,
in order to spy and surveillance Laertes. The theme of the conflict overwhelms every aspect of the
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play. It is present in two ways: on one hand there is the external type of conflict and on the other
hand there is the internal conflict.
The external conflict is present everywhere. It is present between countries, between
persons and between persons and society.
One aspect of the external conflict is the conflict between the two countries, Denmark and
Norway, led by the two rulers: Claudius, the King of Denmark and Fortinbras, the prince of
Norway. This conflict began because Hamlet’s father killed Fortinbras’s father and now Fortinbras
is seeking revenge. Claudius is a very good strategist and acts in order to avoid a war. He sends a
letter to Fortinbras’s uncle, letting him know which his nephew’s plans are and asking him to stop
the young prince from carrying them out.
Another aspect of the external conflict is the conflict between people and the society. This
type of conflict is illustrated in “Hamlet” in his relationship with the royal Court. After the King
Hamlet’s death, the Court acted against the young prince, sustaining Claudius for the throne and
advising him to marry the widow. The Court’s judgment was neither wrong nor malicious, but
based on the context and on the idea of maintaining state’s security.
The King was young, strong and smart enough so he was able to lead his country well. He
didn’t involved Hamlet in the leading process because it was no need of such an action. He was
very young. He was studying at the university and he had neither leading experience nor maturity.
That’s why the Court sustained the late King’s brother, Claudius, in his position as a king, although
in the normal line of succession Hamlet was the one following his father. Claudius is a mature
man, so the Court is convinced that he would be able to lead better than the young and
inexperienced Hamlet.
In a slightly forced approach, the Court also advised the new King to marry the widow,
because this kind of marriages were not blameworthy in those times, but rather widely agreed in
the royal houses. Of course, because the usual conditions for such a marriage were not
accomplished, but the Court considered that it would be the best arrangement for the country: the
Queen knew the state’s business and the new King needed a kind of guidance.
The court represents the society, which adapts its principles to its needs. Thus, it is no
longer important the exact following of the principles and rules if the actual needs and interests
dictate the adjustment of the principles and rules. Hamlet is devastated by the Court’s decisions
because, on one hand, he lost the throne, at least for a while, and on the other hand because the
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Court encouraged the Queen to betray her family by marring Claudius, so he feels like an orphan
(besides loosing his father, he felt that he also lost his mother).
Another type of conflict present in “Hamlet” is the one between people. This type of
conflict is very widely represented by the whole series of conflicts. Hamlet’s reactions to the
situation he’s in, generate a series of conflicts that have Hamlet right in their midst.
The men-men series of conflicts starts with the conflict between King Hamlet and his
brother Claudius. Although this conflict is not described in the play, it’s revealed only when is
confirmed that Claudius killed his brother. This conflict was generated by Claudius, because of
his greed of power and social position. This conflict, although the least visible, is the trigger for
the entire action in the play.
In the foreground there is the power conflict between Claudius and Hamlet. The power is
represented not only by the throne (leading position) itself, but also by the role in the family.
Hamlet assumed that since his father died, he would take over as head of the household. Instead,
Claudius appeared (cunningly - in Hamlet's opinion) and stole Hamlet's due role.
The power conflict is complemented by the conflict born of Hamlet's suspicions that the
"venomous snake" that bit his father was Claudius himself. This conflict deepens with the
transformation of Hamlet's suspicions into certainties and causes Hamlet's desire for revenge to
explode.
The third conflict between the two characters bursts when Claudius marries the Queen,
this episode triggering in Hamlet another range of feelings. For the seek of appearances, at first,
Claudius adopts a protective and fatherly attitude (in order to dissimulate his murder). But seeing
the hatred smoldering in Hamlet and then seeing is nephew’s madness, he realizes the he could be
a real threat to the throne and to his new marriage. As a consequence, Claudius repeatedly tries to
get rid of Hamlet: first by sending him away in England and using Hamlet’s friends for being the
couriers carrying Hamlet’s killing order and then (seeing that the first plan failed) by plotting with
Laertes for Hamlet’s death.
Another conflict between people is developed by Hamlet against his mother, for her
audacity to betray the family by marrying her brother-in-law. He speaks to her with apparent
obedience and apparent respect, but very coldly and loathingly, his attitude allowing to be
observed that he is pretending the respect and submission.
Shortly after receiving the confirmation of the fact that Claudius is the murderer of his father,
Hamlet goes straight at his mother to reproach her for everything he has to reproach.
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A hidden conflict between people is the one between Ophelia’s family (father and brother)
with Hamlet. Well, this is not really a conflict, because Polonius and Laertes, in reality, have
nothing personal with Hamlet himself, but they are interested in well being of Ophelia and in
keeping her (and therefore, the family’s) reputation. Hamlet’s status of prince (and, of course, the
obligations towards the country that come with this status) endangers Ophelia’s happiness because
Hamlet is likely to arrive in the position to not be able to marry her. Furthermore, if their
relationship ended because of Hamlet’s royal obligations, Ophelia’s reputation would be ruined
and she would be very likely to remain unmarried. Thus, considering the situation, Ophelia's
family intervenes next to her to convince her to give up Hamlet (her brother comes to advise her
and her father comes with interdictions).
The last conflict Hamlet goes into is the one with Laertes. Laertes’s hatred towards Hamlet
is justified: Hamlet killed his father (unintentionally, but if he weren’t so carefree he could have
avoided this murder) and brought Ophelia in the situation to commit suicide. They fight right over
Ophelia’s opened grave.
Finally, the third aspect of the conflict in the interior one, which affects Hamlet, in the
foreground, but also Gertrude and Ophelia, in the background. Hamlet is affected by an interior
conflict even from the start of the story. He’s hurt by the sudden death of his father and he suspects
Claudius to be his murderer without having the certainty of this yet, but he also thinks that he’s
his uncle, the brother of his father and a is quite unlikely for a brother to kill another. His torn by
his mixed feelings, by his dilemma.
A student at the University of Wittenberg, completely lost in science and thought, keeping
away from court life, Hamlet suddenly reveals such aspects of life that he had never dreamed of.
A veil seems to fall from his eyes. Even before he is convinced of the vicious murder of his father,
the horror of his mother's inconstancy, who remarried, "even before she had broken in the shoes",
which she wore when she buried her first husband, reveals the horror of the incredible falsehood
and depravity of the whole Danish court. In the light of his mother's moral weakness, Ophelia's
moral impotence becomes clear to him, who, with all her spiritual purity and love for Hamlet, is
unable to understand and help him, because she believes in everything and obeys her pathetic and
intriguing father. In fact, there is his second interior conflict: between the love for Ophelia and the
disgust he feels for women now that he have seen the weakness of his mother. Then, still related
with love, is born another interior conflict, between his love for Ophelia and the need for the
faking the madness which was meant to help him in his revenge. Hamlet had to put in risk his
22
relationship with Ophelia just because he has not seen her trustworthy enough to find out about
his plans (just because of his new opinion about women, formed after seeing the behavior of his
mother).
All this situation in which Hamlet suddenly woke up, made him think of things like life
and death, time, eternity, insignificance, impotence of personality, self-hatred.
Gertrude’s interior conflicts are not explained, but only supposed. Once her husband died,
her situation changed. She was no longer the Queen, but only the mother of the future king. We
don’t know if she had a prior relationship with Claudius and she married him out of love, or if she
hadn’t a prior relationship with him and she married him out of interest for keeping her position
of Queen.
Either way, she’s not feeling well seeing her son’s attitude towards her, because she deeply
loves her son. Ophelia loves Hamlet, but she also has to obey her family when she’s told to reject
her lover. O course she’s not happy with this situation and for sure she oscillates between
submitting to her family’s wish and her love. Her oscillation comes to an end and she chooses to
listen to her family, seeing Hamlet’s “madness” which scares her. Nevertheless, she is still in love
with him and she’s heart broken because the man she loves proves to be insane.
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CHAPTER 2
PRINCE HAMLET AND HIS FAKING MADNESS
The madness appears in “Hamlet” as a dominant theme. There are two characters
representing this theme: Hamlet and Ophelia.
Hamlet appears in the position of carefree young prince, occupied with studying at the
university and totally uninvolved in the Court’s life and business.
He is still a carefree and maybe, quite spoiled child (as he is a prince and unique heir),
having both his parents. Suddenly, he finds himself in a rough situation, once his father died. And
shortly after, he feels that he has also lost his mother (through her fresh marriage). He’s, most
certainly, confused. He has been thrown out of his comfort zone. More than that, now are coming
to overwhelm him the strangest thoughts (strangest for him), like philosophical dilemmas, like
revenge desire.
Of course that this situation is able to destabilize such a young man like him. There is a
question whether he really went mad or not. Even Horatio wonders if he really gone mad or he’s
just faking. Among the public of this play there is also the question if the behavior in the faking
madness did or didn’t made him mad. Or was he already crazy when he started to act like one?
We think that he wasn’t so destabilized by his situation and his suffering, for really going
mad. He’s only very smart and he discovered, in the mad-like behavior, just a way to find out the
truth and to be able to get revenge. He is a very good actor, not necessarily because he is talented
but because he has a very strong motivation: finding the truth and revenge.
He tells Horatio that he’s thinking of behaving mad-like. Horatio and the two guards are
the only men Hamlet trusts. All the rest of the Court has no idea what Hamlet’s thinking and
planning and they are caught in his acting and genuinely believe in his madness.
Polonius thinks that his madness comes from love for his daughter, because she rejected
him (as she was taught by his father and brother) and he shares this thought with the King and the
Queen, offering his services for surveying him. We believe that despite the harsh and destabilizing
situation Hamlet is going through, he is perfectly sane, before and after starting to act strange. So
he’s just faking madness with a very well defined purpose: by attracting everyone’s attention upon
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his madness he wants to distract everyone’s attention from his real actions, from his suppositions
and from his plans. He sort of hides in plain view.
His goal is to look into the situation for finding out the truth about his father death and to
plan and accomplish his revenge.
His questionable sanity appears to the public when Claudius and Gertrude show a lot of
concern about Hamlet’s grieving, about still wearing black clothes and about him being
melancholic, although there were already passed about two month. He says to Hamlet: “Why are
you still so gloomy, with a cloud hanging over you?”23 and Gertrude intervenes: “...stop wearing
these black clothes, and be friendly to the king. You can’t spend your whole life with your eyes to
the ground remembering your noble father ”24 and then she asks “It happens all the time, what
lives must die eventually, passing to eternity. ...So why does it seem so particular to you? ”25
But, in fact, they are both blinded by their own lives, their new marriage, the Denmark’s throne
and problems (the war threat came from Norway) and by their position towards the late King, and
totally unable to see Hamlet’s point of view.
In reality, there’s nothing strange about Hamlet’s behavior. Even if we cannot judge those
times’ habits in the society through the prism of the habits nowadays, there’s still a very close
family relationship between Hamlet and his father. A son is always a son, no matter the times and
the love between parents and their children is timeless. We have to consider that Hamlet was what
we call nowadays a loved and cared for child, who was raised with no trauma, inside of his loving
family, there having a very calm, warm and loving climate. We see that Hamlet recalls his parents
very in love and happy :
“She would hang on to him, and the more she was with him the more she wanted to be with him;
she couldn’t get enough of him.”26 (that fact being confirmed by the Ghost, who’s also recalling
his wife as being full of love for him) and also recalls his mother crying like crazy at his father
funeral (as any loving wife would do). Hamlet was sent to the university, where only the noble
kids were allowed (in those times the universities were not like they are today, opened to
everyone), although he had no need to study something because, as a prince, his whole life was
insured to be smooth and easy. That means that his parents were very preoccupied by his spiritual
development. So, we can say that they had very modern parenting skills.

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All these details make us conclude that as Hamlet has been brought up in this manner, he
couldn’t have been able to be a cold, insensitive and unloving person.
As his parents loved him so much and showed him this, for sure he loved them back very much
(as any normal child would in this circumstances). So, as he loved his parents, his grief now is so
very normal.
Of course now he’s hurt and he’s even more hurt than it can be seen, as he admits to his
mother : ““Seem,” mother? No, it is. I don’t know what you mean by “seem.” Neither my black
clothes, my dear mother, nor my heavy sighs, nor my weeping, nor my downcast eyes, nor any
other display of grief can show what I really feel. It’s true that all these things “seem” like grief,
since a person could use them to fake grief if he wanted to. But I’ve got more real grief inside me
that you could ever see on the surface. These clothes are just a hint of it.”27
And, after all, there weren’t even two month past from the tragic event. The grief of a son
for loosing his father is something he carries in his soul for a lifetime.
Let’s just think that usually, nowadays, the mourn period is about one year. In
Shakespeare’s times, in the royal families the mourn period for the widows was 4 years, so the
fact that Hamlet “still“ mourns his father at (not even) 2 month after his death is perfectly normal.
There’s nothing odd here. For Claudius and Gertrude seems odd because they decided to go on
with their lives and they have so many new concerns (the throne, Denmark’s troubles, their
marriage). More than that, the love of a brother and the love o a wife (who’s not even blood
relative with the late King) are not even close to a son’s love for his father. So their grief cannot
be so strong as the grief of the son is.
In fact, their attitude is rather strange (in those times and also nowadays). The two month
period for leaving the mourning is so very short for a brother and for a (apparently) loving wife
also, from our point of view.
Concluding, the fact that Hamlet still mourns, two months after his father’s death, shows
how perfectly sane he is. In reality, besides the facts just discussed above, Hamlet repeatedly
proves that he is, in fact, sane, not mad, in different moments.
When he was told that his father died after being bitten by a venomous snake, he started
developing doubts about this scenario. Hamlet based his suspicions on logical deductions. Hamlet
was supposed to come to the throne after his father’s death. But instead, Claudius took over the
throne, so Hamlet suspects that he must have had something to do with the King’s death. When

26
he marries the Queen, shortly after the funeral, the suspicion deepens. If one is able to follow the
logical thread of the events, then he can’t be insane, because insanity implies an inability of
following the logic in the events.
He might, again, pass as insane because of his monologue in Act 1, Scene 2, when he raises
existential questions and he allows suicidal thoughts to come to him, but only if we are reading
through lines, at the first view. All sane people, seeing the word “suicide” automatically jump to
the conclusion that the one who thinks about suicide is not really sane and the rest of his speech
is pointless to them (just at the first sight).
He says: “Ah, I wish my dirty flesh could melt away into a vapor, or that God had not made
a law against suicide.” . If we just look a little closer to this phrase we can see even from here
that he isn’t really mad. He mentions God’s law against suicide. So, he’s definitely sane. A
madman does not care about God, and much less his laws.
Those words do not represent a real suicidal thought. Hamlet is just overwhelmed by the
whole situation and it’s absolutely normal for one who’s feeling like this (no matter the times –
then or nowadays) to have some moments of mental falls, followed by moments of awareness of
one's own situation and finally - moments of rebirth from one's own ashes.
This exact route is taken by Hamlet’s feelings: at first he’s broken down in pieces, but then
he remembers God and he’s no way near breaking God’s law against suicide. This is the start of
his awareness phase, which continues with the identification of his feelings and acknowledgment
of the causes of his break down: “How tired, stale, and pointless life is to me.” and then with
admitting that living the life in this conditions is not right and he doesn’t like the situation: “Damn
it!”; afterwards he organizes on his mind the reasons for which he got this awful state of mind :
“It’s like a garden that no one’s taking care of, and that’s growing wild. Only nasty weeds grow in
it now.”
What he means to say with this metaphor is that the latest events which interfered with his
life are so many and so chaotic that they make his life look just as a wild garden that nobody takes
care of. Simply by acknowledging all these feelings and events, by recognizing and categorizing
them and by organizing them in his mind, so that he can “digest them, Hamlet shows us a very
clear mind that is never present at a madman, but only at a perfectly sane man (and smart and
emotionally intelligent, also).
Concluding, this monologue which threw the real madness’ suspicion over Hamlet, is not
other than the profound proof of his mental sanity.
27
Then, in the same Act 1 ,Scene 2, there is the discussion that Hamlet had with Horatio and
which might also make us believe that Hamlet might be (at least) a little mad. He says: “My
father—I think I see my father. ”. “Where, sir? ” - askes Horatio (who has already seen the Ghost
and who thinks that Hamlet has also seen it), to which he replies : “In my imagination, Horatio.”
But again, in fact, this is not a prove of mental illness, but just a prove of the fact that Hamlet
recalls moments from his father’s life (which is very normal for someone who lost a beloved
person).
Then, when he was told about the Ghost appearing, his first thought was the doubt – shown
by this dialog with Horatio, started with a little talk about the late King:
“(Horatio) - Sir, I think I saw him last night.
(Hamlet) - Saw who?
(Horatio) - Your father, sir. The dead king.
(Hamlet) - The king my father?! ”
Hamlet asks “saw who?” even if right prior this piece of dialog they were talking right
about the late King, so of course Hamlet realized that Horatio says that he have seen the King, but
he can’t believe it – so here’s the doubt! After Horatio confirmed that he saw the dead King, the
doubt makes Hamlet ask again: “The king my father?”
Horatio and Marcellus tell him how they have seen the Ghost, what happened – anyway,
all the details, and Hamlet replies: “That’s very strange. ” - so there’s the doubt again.
Afterwards, Hamlet makes a series of questions in order to clear his doubts, and we can easily see
that those questions are very short and precise, so we can understand that he is very clear minded:
“It was armed, you say? … From head to toe? … So you couldn’t see his face, then? … Was he
frowning? … Was he pale or flushed and red-faced? … Did he stare at you? … Did it stay a long
time? … His beard was gray, right? … ”
After all those questions were answered, as a final proof of his doubt (and, of course, of
his curiosity also), Hamlet declares: “I’ll stand guard with you tonight. Maybe it’ll come again.”
Of course that there is another doubt among the readers of the written play and viewers of
the played version: The Ghost is real and really speaks or he’s only in Hamlet’s insane
imagination?
Well, the Ghost has first appeared not to Hamlet but to the two guards, Marcellus and
Barnardo. And not only once, but twice, two nights in a row. They related to Horatio about this
28
matter and he came to see it for himself. So there we have three people who have seen it before
Hamlet, and they came to the prince for telling him about the strange encounter.
If it would have appeared only to Hamlet, the question would have been justified, but
because it has been also seen by other people, we see that the Ghost really appeared.
The fact that the Ghost only spoke to Hamlet is one of the reasons for continuing having
the question of whether the Ghost was real or just in Hamlet’s imagination (at least regarding the
message that the Ghost brought). We see that the guards and Horatio asked the Ghost to talk to
them, with no success, but we also notice the moment when the Ghost was clearly trying to say
something to the guards but the rooster crowed in that very moment, so the Ghost left before
saying any word.
In the Scene 4 of the first Act, which describes Hamlet’s encounter with the Ghost, we see
that the Ghost appears and it’s waving to Hamlet, calling him aside. Horatio advises him to not go
because he’s afraid that the Ghost might hurt him in some way.
The fact that the Ghost haven’t spoken to the guards and Horatio but, instead, he waved at
Hamlet and called him aside, can only mean that it really is the ghost of his father and, of course,
his son is the only one to whom the Ghost can entrust the secret of his murder.
Hamlet insists in going aside with the Ghost although he still has some doubts regarding the origin
of the Ghost.
He’s not sure if the Ghost comes from hell or from heaven (“Whether you’re a good spirit
or a cursed demon, whether you bring heavenly breezes or blasts of hell fire, whether your
intentions are good or evil, you look so strange I want to talk to you.”). But, anyhow he recognizes
the image of his father in the Ghost (“I’ll call you “Hamlet Senior,” “King,” “Father,” “royal
Dane.” Answer me! ”) so he’s very determined to talk to him.
More than that, Horatio says to the guards (before meeting Hamlet): “And the ghost
frowned just like the king did once when he attacked the Poles, traveling on the ice in sleds. It’s
weird.”. Then, when they come to Hamlet, one of his questions was if the Ghost was frowning.
So, it seems that the late King was usually frowning or, anyhow, he was doing this repeatedly in
a particular type of situations. The fact that Horatio observed that the Ghost frowned, is another
proof that it is the ghost of the late king.
Concluding, the Ghost proves to be real and it’s message seems very real, so we don’t
think that the Ghost is only in Hamlet’s mind.
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Horatio himself doubts, several times (as we see in the play) that Hamlet is sane. He repeats
a few times that he acts/talks like crazy. This, however, is not a real reason for us to believe that
Hamlet is really mad. We have to consider that Horatio knew Hamlet as a carefree and happy
young man and student. Now, when he comes to assist at the late King’s funeral, he finds a
different Hamlet: he’s sad, he’s serious, he’s burdened by his tragic loss, he has suspicions and
revenge thoughts. Though, Hamlet’s attitude, in the given situation, is so very normal. In these
moments he can no longer be the carefree, happy young man that he once was, because all of the
new events occurred in his life were so very mind-blowing, and as it wouldn’t have been enough,
they all came at a dash. Now he’s a man, now he’s an orphan, now he’s eager to get revenge.
Hamlet reveals, as we have seen, to Horatio his plan of faking madness. Horatio and the
two guards (whom he made swear that they won’t reveal the existence of the Ghost and Hamlet’s
encounter with it) are the only persons knowing that Hamlet intends to fake madness:
“ No matter how strangely I act (since I may find it appropriate to act a little crazy in the near
future), you must never, ever let on—with a gesture of your hands or a certain expression on your
face—that you know anything about what happened to me here tonight. You must never say
anything like, “Ah, yes, just as we suspected,” or “We could tell you a thing or two about him,”
or anything like that. Swear you won’t. ”28
Hamlet is so determined to reach his goals, that he decides to keep his plans secret, even
from his lover, Ophelia. More than that he also plays the mad-man role very well. So well, that
everyone believes in his madness. The mask of madness becomes now central to this plan. He
loves and despise Ophelia in the same time. Although he loves her, he can’t help to regard her as
he would regard any other woman. He’s so disappointed in women because his mother. He loved
her so much, he adored her, he have seen her as a goddess (as every child sees his
mother) and she disappointed him so badly by marrying his uncle! And as she (his “goddess”) has
failed so bad, all the other women (already inferior to his “goddess”) couldn’t be better than her
(thinks Hamlet).
During the meetings with Ophelia, Hamlet either rejects the young woman with a hedonic
aggression, or addresses her in a double language, which contains licentious expressions. In the
3rd Act, the 1st scene, he says to Ophelia a bunch of things:

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“...since beauty’s power can more easily change a good girl into a whore than the power
of goodness can change a beautiful girl into a virgin. This used to be a great puzzle, but now I’ve
solved it. I used to love you. ”
“You shouldn’t have believed me, since we’re all rotten at the core, no matter how hard
we try to be virtuous. I didn’t love you. ”
“Get yourself to a convent at once. Why would you want to give birth to more sinners?
I’m fairly good myself, but even so I could accuse myself of such horrible crimes that it would’ve
been better if my mother had never given birth to me...Every one of us is a criminal. Don’t believe
any of us. Hurry to a convent. ”
“Where’s your father?...Lock him in, so he can play the fool in his own home only.”
“If you marry, I’ll give you this curse as your wedding present—be as clean as ice, as pure
as the driven snow, and you’ll still get a bad reputation. Get yourself to a convent, at once. ... Or
if you have to get married, marry a fool, since wise men know far too well that you’ll cheat on
them. ”
“I’ve heard all about you women and your cosmetics too. God gives you one face, but you
paint another on top of it. You dance and prance and lisp; you call God’s creations by pet names,
and you excuse your sexpot ploys by pleading ignorance. Come on, I won’t stand for it anymore.
It’s driven me crazy. I hereby declare we will have no more marriage. Whoever is already married
(except one person I know) will stay married—all but one person. Everyone else will have to stay
single. Get yourself to a convent, fast. ”
And before the play Mousetrap, from the Court, he says to her: “Yes. I could even supply
the dialogue between you and your lover if you did your little puppet show of love for me. ”
Ophelia definitely believes him crazy, as she prays for him, after their weird discussion.
She prays God to make him normal again.
The mask of madness is, in the spirit of Hamlet, a weapon of attack, but also of defense.
This technique is manifested by his favorite answer: the programmatic abolition of real identity
in favor of a possible identity. Or, rather, in favor of more
identities. In other words, Hamlet always changes his identity in an attempt to confuse those
around him, and to distract them, but he is the first victim of his own mystification. And this
revelation takes place when he is confronted with another mask, that of the actor. It is the moment
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when Hamlet realizes that he fell alone into the trap he set for the others and the mask he assumed
was only an obstacle in the way of what he set out to do - the action.
It thus becomes obvious that the mask of Hamlet is not just a simple refuge, or the means
by which it provides the necessary protection for the preparation of revenge. It is, in fact, his way
of questioning his own identity. The road to revenge is the road to self, and death means its
discovery. At the time of his death, Hamlet rediscovers his identity and wants to be understood by
all. Madness was just a mask and not his true state. That's why he wants to throw the mask of
madness as far as possible, so that people don't remember him like that. And the one to whom
he entrusts such a mission, as a storyteller, is Horatio.
Hamlet proves his sanity all along the play. We remember that he plans, with the leader of
the actors brought at the Court by his two friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to stage the
murder of his father. But before asking this favor, he generously offered to the actors a great
hospitality. More than that, he also informs Horatio about the deal he made with the actors and
asks him to be very attentive at the King’s reactions at the play. He tells Horatio that he will also
watch the King and afterwards they will both meet and discuss what each of them observed.
So we can notice that Hamlet develops a very detailed plan in order to see the truth. We notice
that he’s very attentive: he believes the Ghost when it told him about the murder that Claudius
committed, but he keeps his reserve – that’s why he wants to double-check before taking any
measures (that’s why he plans the play for seeing the King’s reactions).
Later, when Hamlet is discussing with his mother in her room, where Polonius was hidden
behind the curtains, we don’t see any more the same attentive Hamlet. Now he perceives that there
someone behind the curtain, he thought that there is Claudius and he stabbed to kill, so he killed
Polonius. He could have checked who’s behind the curtains, before stabbing, but he didn’t.
Having, then, the last confirmation about the fact that Claudius killed his father, he was full of
anger and dominated by emotions, he became careless. But the careless behavior is not a sign of
madness, but a common thing when one is under the domination of the strong emotions.
After killing Polonius, Hamlet is sent in England by the King, with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, under the pretext of collecting some money that England owed Denmak. He hoped,
as he revealed to Polonius, that Hamlet might commit suicide, as he’s very sad and going on the
sea would offer him chances to kill himself (by drowning). But, because his hope was not also a
certainty he also entrusted to Hamlet’s two friends a closed letter for the king of England. In this
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letter he ordered to the king of England (he was able to “order” just because England being
submitted to Denmak) to kill Hamlet as soon as he arrives.
Somehow, Hamlet finds out about his uncle diabolic plan and he shows a great amount of
mental health when he searches and gets his way out from this situation and rewrites the letter for
the king of England, so that he kills Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. We think that if Hamlet had
been mad, he wouldn’t have been able to catch the idea that he’s in danger and he wouldn’t have
been able to plan his escape.
The Danish prince's rush to avenge his father by the force of the sword conflicts with his
really fragile personality structure. This judicial mission also appears as an initiation process,
meant to transform Hamlet into a hero full of masculine courage, as was, for example, Odysseus.
However, the feminine side of the Shakespearean prince decisively prevents such a
metamorphosis, leading to endless hesitations in the realization of his vindictive intentions and an
almost accidental "victory".
Under the protective shield of madness, which absolves him of any responsibility for his
words and deeds, the Danish prince mixes in his speech contradictory statements and overlaps of
difficult-to-understand perspectives. The sparkles in the hero's words prove a very inventive and
logical mind, which is also intuited by Polonius, who finds the young man's delusional flow as
full of meaning.
Along with the strategy of madness, meant to attract the underestimation of Hamlet's
thinking and abilities, the freedom offered by the show also gives the hero the opportunity to free
himself from the inner tensions, reaching, at the same time, to better understand himself.
Moreover, with the help of this assumed dementia, the protagonist acquires a certain power
over the others, otherwise impossible through the exclusive use of reason and argument. The mask
taken creates a diversion, giving the other characters a false impression. Hamlet appears as a
victim of "melancholy," a harmless man who causes others to lower their guard, revealing their
intentions more easily. With this tactic, Hamlet is no longer a mere pawn in Claudius' hands, as
he originally was, but becomes a master of the game himself. This reversal of roles is revealed to
us with "Mousetrap"
There is a game of chess between the king and the prince, where Hamlet, perhaps out of
playful pleasure, exposes himself, but is convinced that what is destined to happen will really take
place. Hence the so-called strategic "escapes" of the prince in the game of "mouse and cat" with
Claudius.
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Edgar Papu comments on these mistakes, but finally remarks that they are perfectly in line
with the baroque structure of Hamlet, permanently defensive. These tactical inaccuracies can also
work in the direction of ambiguity. "Immersed in his own bizarreness, man often remains
impenetrable, like a captive in his hermetic inner closure. He presents an enigma for others, and
sometimes even for himself, in his doubled analytical hypostasis. "29
Hamlet remains impenetrable until the end of the play, both to the other characters and to
the reader, who can be misled precisely by displaying "clumsiness".
Another facet of Hamlet's ambivalence is revealed to us if we look at it from the angle of
sincerity: "to be or not to be" honest. The prince practices a selective sincerity towards the other
figures in his world. For example, he is devoted body and soul to the specter of the king killed and
thirsty for revenge and is sincere to Horatio, but to a point: Hamlet does not confess his mission
until the end, when he urges his friend to take the story further.
To his former colleagues at Wittenberg, who had been summoned by the new king to find
out about any warps set up by the young prince, Hamlet exposed and rebuked them frankly, but
did not reveal anything about himself. In his relationship with Rosencrantz and Gildenstern,
Hamlet displays the image of a young man talking continuously ambiguously with these spies.
The rhetorical and manipulative talents of the hero, undoubtedly cultivated during his studies at
Wittenberg (we can deduce), are revealed here. To the naive and innocent Ophelia, Hamlet appears
at first as deeply in love, only to later deny his love, sarcastically rejecting this last victim of his
tragic world. Of course, as we have already shown, the obvious aversion to Polonius' daughter
also appears to us as a technique to protect her from a common tragic destiny, under the influence
of an infernal specter. Despite all these diversions, Hamlet's true love for Ophelia emerges clearly
enough from the scene of her lightning descent into the young woman's grave for one last hug.
The complexity of Hamlet's personality lies in the constant oscillation between fear and
courage, respectively between distrust and conviction. In this regard, we see the hero disturbed by
the significance and nature of the appearance of the spectrum in the first act: Is this the tormented
soul of the slain father, demanding the administration of justice? Or a demonic being who has
come to draw the prince to the flames of Hell? Although he is desolate because of the "overgrown
garden of weeds" of the kingdom of Denmark, the prince still cannot mobilize to punish Claudius.
Unable to act, immersed in uncertainty and sadness, Hamlet contemplates the solution of suicide.
In fact, this "solution" is a way to escape from the anguished reality, a temptation completely
29Edgar Papu. Barocul Ca Tip De Existenţă. Bucureşti: Ed. Minerva, 1977, vol. II, p.27.
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unsuitable for a strong character. In closing the famous "To be or not to be", the young man adopts
the thorny path of patience for two main reasons: first, the premonition of soul damnation as a
result of the sin of "self-deprecation" and, second, the hope of discovering the truth and , perhaps,
even of saving the kingdom by fulfilling the assumed judicial mission.
In parallel with the path from uncertainty to conviction and from fear to courage, we can
find a dualism in Hamlet's personality, manifested between the attitude of philosophical
contemplation of life and the pragmatic planning of actions.
Using the expressions of John Milton, Hamlet starts as a pensive man thinking (typically,
with a skull in his hand) about the ephemerality of man ("the quintessence of dust") so that, later,
he tends to an allegro, who can manipulate opponents and actually fight to achieve their goals.
The first proof of this transformation is the very staging by the hero (both literally and figuratively)
of the Mousetrap, the play meant to expose his father's killer. If, initially, Hamlet cannot trust his
own strength, hesitating to kill Claudius, during the course of the play, Hamlet reaches the
completely opposite attitude. As a result, he falsifies Claudius' letter, condemning him to death,
changing roles with Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, dueling with Laertes and stabbing Claudius in
the end, committing his planned vendetta, but after a long delay caused by systematic hesitations
of the hero.
The ambivalence that characterizes the Danish prince also affects his speech, the language
used being often endowed with a double meaning. For example, Hamlet uses homonymy to
verbally illustrate his double intention, sometimes amplifying the sarcasm with which he
characterizes his mother and kingdom.
The language used in Hamlet's speech, through the words with "double edge", subtly
attacks Claudius' authority, as is the case of the reply in which he says that he has been in the sun
for too long: "I have too much in the sun. ”. In this case, the homophony “sun” - “son” is exploited,
the prince suggesting to the new king that he is not his son, the rapprochement between the two
being false and rejected by Hamlet, but in a delicate manner. The irony based on polysemantism
and ambiguity appears in another dialogue, between the same characters, following the accidental
murder of Polonius.
The antagonism of the soul found in Hamlet, between the judicial drive of revenge and the
intellectual reflection appears in a perpetual transformation. The initial philosophical pessimism
and the vindictive instinct instilled by the spectrum of the hero end up intertwined. So the intellect
becomes a tool in exposing the murderous king (with the help of the Mousetrap) and in falsifying
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the letter by which Hamlet sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in his place, to certain death.
Hamlet's reason becomes the means meant to satisfy the inner imperative of revenge which
emerges both as a cause and as an end in itself.
The status of the titular hero, as it appears on the surface and as it is in reality, is also under
the sign of dualism. Consequently, we are dealing here with the motive of the deceited deceiver,
Hamlet being initially deceived about the mysterious death of his father, in order to later suspect
his former Wittenberg colleagues of espionage and expose them, even sending He is diabolical in
front of the executioner. Hamlet acquires the status of director, of manipulator, a fact obvious from
the moment of modifying the play and using the shield of dementia to probe the reactions and
intentions of the other characters.
Hamlet's madness, like the allegorical character in Erasmus of Rotterdam's Praise of
Madness, is also ambivalent: from an ocean of absurdity poured into discourse, waves of
intelligent formulations emerge. Another causal point common to the two forms of madness
(although they are distant from each other, both as a narrative role and as a nature) is the rebellion
against a perverted, "rotten", impatient society, from where the problematic man feels the need. to
escape into the second universe of the absurd. Hence the desire for "self-revenge."
Here, then, is the rational goal of restoring eternal landmarks and values in society, a goal
covered by the veil of madness - a game of overlapping absurdity and logic, of inadequacy and
verbal ambiguity. This madness presents itself as a deliberate play, consciously assumed by
Shakespeare's character
Hamlet's own madness is twofold, therefore, for the artificial disorder of the faculties will
mask the onset of the natural one, which (predestined or not) will envelop Hamlet in an aura of
equivocation, almost impossible to probe, leading to his plans. to fulfillment naturally.
Ophelia also represents a type of madness but this is shortly described in the play. Her
madness brings her right to the death, very fast. She’s nothing but a tragic case of collateral victim,
because she gets mad because of the tragedies that she’s been put through by the persons and
interests around her.
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CHAPTER 3
OPHELIA AND THE SCARCITY OF HER CHOICES
She is an ordinary girl of the times in which she lives, even if she is the daughter of a noble
chamberlain from the Royal Court. Her upbringing and education were done by the family in such
a way that her behavior and image corresponded to the social requirements of the times.
Young Hamlet sincerely falls in love with her and courts her, beautiful and elegant, like a
prince he was, and she, impressed by him as a person more than by his social position, accepts his
courtship. Her family knows and tacitly accepts this relationship of theirs.
However, with the manifestation of Claudius' ambitions for having the throne, and
therefore with the king's assassination, Ophelia's life enters the process of change into worse, and
she not only cannot prevent this, but still does not know about this event. Well, as anyone else in
the Court, she knows that the King died because of the bite of a venomous snake, but she’s not
even suspecting the truth about the king’s death and she is not aware of the consequences that may
have, upon her, the King’s death.
Little does she know that the King’s death will change her life forever and will, eventually,
lead to her death. Of course, she well understands that Hamlet is very sad because of his father’s
death. However, she doesn’t expect to see him mad. She expects from him to pass through the
mourning period and to retake their relationship in normal conditions.
Ophelia is influenced by her brother and father in her relationship with Hamlet. Both of
them have a very good intention when they push her to reject Hamlet’s courting and they also
explain to her why it would be good for her to do so (her brother – more, her father – a little less).
She chooses to show them obedience, because she knows that they want the best for her. But
maybe, just maybe, she would have changes her mind if she had seen in Hamlet the man capable
enough to support her in her choice. Instead, Hamlet appears to her with a mad-like behavior and
scares her. She understands that she cannot rely on him and remains to her obedience towards her
family.
In reality, she could not do much against her family’s choice for her, but to obey and to
“make the choice herself” - improperly said, of course, because really she couldn’t make a choice.
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She was not really the type of girl to get rebel, but very submissive. She is smart, though. Seeing
that Hamlet acts like mad, she adopts a very appropriate behavior: she shows herself submissive,
she talks respectfully to him (according to his position of prince) and she answers with elegance.
Hamlet sees her as any other woman – not love worthy, being deceived by his mother. He’s
not a real misogynist, he’s just hurt, for the moment and he’s under the impression that Ophelia
betrayed him associating with her father and his uncle for supervising his behavior. He is so hurt
that he cannot understand that Ophelia did this with genuine love, in a desperate attempt to see
him healed of madness. He speaks to her with double meaning language, he offends her, he uses
a licentious language and she lets him speak like this because she’s convinced that is not him
speaking but his madness.
She is, however, very sad because of this situation. Hamlet tells her that he doesn’t love
her and she’s destroyed. She just wants him back as he was before:
“Oh, how noble his mind used to be, and how lost he is now! He used to have a gentleman’s grace,
a scholar’s wit, and a soldier’s strength. He used to be the jewel of our country, the obvious heir
to the throne, the one everyone admired and imitated. And now he has fallen so low! And of all
the miserable women who once enjoyed hearing his sweet, seductive words, I am the most
miserable. A mind that used to sing so sweetly is now completely out of tune, making harsh sounds
instead of fine notes. The unparalleled appearance and nobility he had in the full bloom of his
youth has been ruined by madness. O, how miserable I am to see Hamlet now and know what he
was before!”
Ophelia’s heart is broken more than once because of her love for Hamlet. First, she realizes
what her situation is, when her brother explains to her how much harm could cause to her the
relationship with Hamlet – it could break her heart if he would be forced to marry someone else
and it would ruin her reputation, impeding her to marry honorably. She has no choice but to be
aware that he speaks the truth so, for her own good, she has to reject Hamlet’s further courtship.
Then her father comes and advises her similarly but with another attitude: he explains to her the
reasons but he is also very strict in attitude and he commands that she has to stop seeing Hamlet.
When Hamlet meets her and speaks to her like he did (offending her, sending her to the
convent, telling her that he doesn’t love her), she’s hurt, not only by his way of treating her but
also, as we have seen, by his transformation from a noble, educated man in a madman. She sees
that he despises her but she doesn’t understands why, so she thinks that this behavior is the result
of madness. Seeing him mad, Ophelia looses all her hope for a marriage with the loved man,
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whatsoever. The hardest coup for Ophelia is the moment when she finds out that Hamlet killed
her father. In that moment she has lost almost everything. She has lost her loving and beloved
father, which was more than painful because, as we have seen, despite of his strict opinions he
was what we would call a modern parent (even in our times, a father who explains to her daughter
in detail the arguments of the interdiction he raises, is quite scarce, but in those times it was the
scarcest thing you could find – generally it was inconceivable for a parent to explain his decisions
to his kids). And, as if the situation were not tragic enough, Ophelia finds out that her lover is the
one who killed her father. This situation broke his soul into thousands of pieces.
This moment is crucial for her and we believe that this is the one starting her madness: she
understands that Hamlet hadn’t killed Polonius intentionally (he thought that it was Claudius
behind the curtain) but in the same time she hates him for what he did, because he should have
checked who was there before stabbing.
And, in the same time, she also has some last traces of love for him, because the love is
not an object which one can throw away. Because of those traces of love for him she feels guilty
because this seems a betrayal of her father and brother.
Ophelia is a naive young woman who falls victim to the circumstances created by the
ambitions of those around her. Claudius started the situation, and because of his actions, Hamlet
reacts. Hamlet’s reactions depend on himself, on his personality: his anger, his revenge desire, his
lack of attention, his lack of trust in everybody, his new attitude towards women, all of these
produce consequences.
When consequences are produced, they affect the persons around. Ophelia is a victim of
Hamlet’s behavior and interests, which make her loose almost all that is important for her: her
father, her lover, her hope.
Her past composed of learning the lived experiences (the disappointment of love for
Hamlet, the death of her father and the accusation of his death on Hamlet) that led the character
to the realm of the unseen, respectively suicide, become here the reason for the inability to escape
from their own universe. Becoming, therefore, a prisoner of her own self, Ofelia carries the burden
of her past where the feelings of maximum madness alternate with those of happiness.
The death of Ophelia is surrounded by mystery: we don’t really know if she committed
suicide or her death was an accident, because the play is not so clear.
Gertrude is the one announcing her death and the way she does it it’s considered the most
poetical way to announce such a tragedy.
39
“The bad news just keeps on coming, one disaster after another. Your sister’s drowned,
Laertes. ” and she explaines to Laertes when he asks where:
“There’s a willow that leans over the brook, dangling its white leaves over the glassy water.
Ophelia made wild wreaths out of those leaves, braiding in crowflowers, thistles, daisies, and the
orchises that vulgar shepherds have an obscene name for, but which pure-minded girls call “dead
men’s fingers.” Climbing into the tree to hang the wreath of weeds on the hanging branches, she
and her flowers fell into the gurgling brook. Her clothes spread out wide in the water, and buoyed
her up for a while as she sang bits of old hymns, acting like someone who doesn’t realize the
danger she’s in, or like someone completely accustomed to danger. But it was only a matter of
time before her clothes, heavy with the water they absorbed, pulled the poor thing out of her song,
down into the mud at the bottom of the brook. ”
We suppose that it’s a suicide, not an accident because some reasons. First, her harsh life
and the dramatic changes which happened in her life from the King’s death are very able to
produce mental instability which can lead to suicide. Then, in the 5th Act, first scene, the
gravediggers are talking:
“- Are they really going to give her a Christian burial after she killed herself?
- I’m telling you, yes. So finish that grave right away. The coroner examined her case and says it
should be a Christian funeral.
- But how, unless she drowned in self-defense?
- That’s what they’re saying she did.
- Sounds more like “self-offense,” if you ask me. What I’m saying is, if she knew she was drowning
herself, then that’s an act. An act has three sides to it: to do, to act, and to perform. Therefore she
must have known she was drowning herself.
- No, listen here, gravedigger sir
- Let me finish. Here’s the water, right? And here’s a man, okay? If the man goes into the water
and drowns himself, he’s the one doing it, like it or not. But if the water comes to him and drowns
him, then he doesn’t drown himself. Therefore, he who is innocent of his own death does not
shorten his own life
- Is that how the law sees it?
-It sure is. The coroner’s inquest law.
- Do you want to know the truth? If this woman hadn’t been rich, she wouldn’t have been given a
Christian burial.
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- Well there, now you’ve said it. ….”
The priest who made the burial rituals says to Laertes:
“I’ve performed as many rites as I’m permitted. Her death was suspicious, and were it not for the
fact that the king gave orders to bury her here, she’d have been buried outside the church
graveyard. She deserves to have rocks and stones thrown on her body. But she has had prayers
read for her and is dressed up like a pure virgin, with flowers tossed on her grave and the bell
tolling for her. ”
Concluding, if we well watch, Ophelia does not really had the chance to choose something.
Her only real choice seems to be the type of behavior she adopted with Hamlet when she thought
that he’s mad. All the rest of the events were not her choice – she was just got into the situations.
If she really killed herself, this seems to be her real choice. But if she really was mad, then
not even this can be called to be her choice, but the faith’s hand or her madness’s result.
41
CONCLUSIONS
The tragedy "Hamlet" is one of the most important peaks of Shakespeare's work. Along
with this, it is the most problematic of all the writer's creations. This problematic nature is
determined by the complexity and depth of the content of the tragedy, full of philosophical
significance.
Shakespeare did not usually invent stories for his plays. He took plots that were already
common in the literature and offered them a dramatic treatment. He updated the text, slightly
modified the development of the action, deepened the characteristics of the actors, and, as a result,
only the plot scheme remained from the original idea, but with a new acquired meaning. So it was
with "Hamlet".
Following the ambiguity and contradictions sprinkled on all levels of the personality and
behavior of the Shakespearean hero, we can only observe the great unity and fidelity to the
fragmented model of the Baroque. The androgynism of the soul, the endless layers of conflict, the
artificial madness followed by the natural one, both intertwined with fragments of philosophical
thought, finally form, on the whole, the mosaic of one of the greatest and best defined characters
of the Baroque universe, as it is reflected in the literature.
42
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barker, Harley Granville. Prefaces to Shakespeare. Vol. I. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1946.
Bradley, A.C., Shakespearean Tragedy, A.C. Bradley, Macmillan and Co., London, 1941
Campbell, Lily Bess. Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes, Slaves of Passion. New York: Barnes &
Noble, 1961.
Craig, Hardin, ed. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, and
Co., 1961
Hylands, George, ed. Hamlet, Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1963
Lawrence, Nathaniel and Daniel O'Connor eds. Readings in Existential Phenomenology.

Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1967.
Levy, Eric P. Nor th'exterior nor the inward man: The Problematics of Personal Identity in
Hamlet University of Toronto Quarterly 68.3, 1999
Lidz, Theodore. Hamlet's Enemy: Madness and Myth in Hamlet. London: Vision Press, Ltd.,
1976.
Low, Jennifer. Manhood and the Duel: Enacting Masculinity in Hamlet. Centennial Review 43.3
(1999)
Mack, Maynard, gen. ed. World Masterpieces. Vol. I. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1965
Papu, Edgar. Barocul ca tip de existenţă. Vol II. Bucureşti: Ed. Minerva, 1977
Priestly, J.B. and Spear, Josephine, eds. Adventures in English Literature. New York: Harcourt,
Brace and World, 1963.
Shakespeare. William, Hamlet. Ed. Harold Jenkins. New York: Methuen, 1982.
Wilks, John S. The Discourse of Reason: Justice and the Erroneous Conscience in Hamlet.
Shakespeare Studies 18 (1986).
43
44
44

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UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA

CHAPTER 1. “HAMLET” – A TRAGEDY MARKED BY REVENGE, DOUBT AND

CHAPTER 2. PRINCE HAMLET AND HIS FAKING MADNESS ...........................................24

CHAPTER 3. OPHELIA AND THE SCARCITY OF HER CHOICES ......................................37

1 An exact number is not known. He wrote, quite a lot, in collaboration

“HAMLET” – A TRAGEDY MARKED BY REVENGE, DOUBT AND

Tragedy is a kind of dramatic genre, in prose or verse, representing strong characters,

3 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 5

6 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

8 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

14 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

19 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 5

22 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

PRINCE HAMLET AND HIS FAKING MADNESS

23 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

27 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

28 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 5

OPHELIA AND THE SCARCITY OF HER CHOICES

Lawrence, Nathaniel and Daniel O'Connor eds. Readings in Existential Phenomenology.

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Madness in William Shakespeare&#39;s Hamlet

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Madness in William Shakespeare&#39;s Hamlet

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Available Formats

UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA

CHAPTER 1. “HAMLET” – A TRAGEDY MARKED BY REVENGE, DOUBT AND

CHAPTER 2. PRINCE HAMLET AND HIS FAKING MADNESS ...........................................24

CHAPTER 3. OPHELIA AND THE SCARCITY OF HER CHOICES ......................................37

1 An exact number is not known. He wrote, quite a lot, in collaboration

“HAMLET” – A TRAGEDY MARKED BY REVENGE, DOUBT AND

Tragedy is a kind of dramatic genre, in prose or verse, representing strong characters,

3 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 5

6 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

8 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

14 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

19 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 5

22 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

PRINCE HAMLET AND HIS FAKING MADNESS

23 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

27 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 2

28 “Hamlet”, W. Shakespeare, modern version of text, Act 1, Scene 5

OPHELIA AND THE SCARCITY OF HER CHOICES

Lawrence, Nathaniel and Daniel O'Connor eds. Readings in Existential Phenomenology.

You might also like

Madness in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Madness in William Shakespeare's Hamlet