Hamlet by Shakespeare (Research Paper Sample)

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Hamlet by Shakespeare
Hamlet is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is one of the most criticized literature works and most reviewed plays in the world today. The protagonist in the play is Hamlet. Shakespeare uses his characters very well to represent specific areas of human nature. In Hamlet, Shakespeare creates vivid and in-depth view of his characters that they clearly represent some area of the human nature. Shakespeare uses Hamlet and Ophelia to represent the theme of madness in the play. Ophelia was really mad whereby her madness originated from the circumstances she faced in her life whereas Hamlet was not really mad but feigned his madness in order to go through with his revenge. Hamlet started feigning his madness after hearing from his father’s ghost that he was murdered.
Hamlet is a very complicated character in the play. His speech and actions makes it very easy for the reader to depict the part of human nature he represents. Hamlet’s resentment and desire for his father’s death compels his actions in all through the play. The need for revenge and his hatred later on drives him to his death in the play. Hamlet was so obsessed with revenge and this destroyed his logic affecting his thought process thus making him mad. His father was murdered and this drove him into madness because he was thirsting for revenge by killing his step father and his madness convinced him that it was right to kill his step father. In the beginning of the play it is very evident that Hamlet feigns his insanity. His father’s ghost appeared to him telling him that he was murdered by his brother and it became very clear that he was planning his next move to take revenge and so he pretended that it was madness. Hamlet followed what the ghost told him about his father being murdered by Claudius and he became full of fury and decided to kill blaming it on madness yet that was his plan.
Hamlet’s feigned madness is prevalent throughout the play. He swears that he is going to carry out revenge and this develops his character into a complex temperament and motivation to kill leading him into madness. Ophelia, Hamlets girlfriend was the first to experience Hamlets’ feigned madness by being terrorized by his visit. He humiliated her after initially confessing to her that he loves her yet that was his first plan to plot his uncle’s murder and he was to use his insanity as a shield to remove any suspicion. In addition, he was driven mad by his father’s ghost who compelled him to seek out his killer and avenge him. Hamlet feigned madness in order to complete his mission of killing Claudius for murdering his father but at some point, he proliferated near to madness.
Ophelia was a strong willed character in Hamlet who faced a lot of hardships throughout the play. Ophelia’s madness is rendered through examination of her relationships with her lover Hamlet, her father Polonius and Laertes her brother. Polonius used Ophelia to further his own agenda and she obeyed him. Her madness was a mixture of love and hate (Brown 17). His brother again overshadowed her with his demanding advice and later on left her on her own without any support. She was very happy in the beginning but later on she became sad and destroyed. Furthermore, Hamlet humiliated her verbally all the time and in the end, he managed killing her father with his feigned madness. All these circumstances made her go mad, from being betrayed by her lover Hamlet, being used by his father who she obeyed to the latter , being abandoned by her brother and her father’s death this were events that led to her road to madness.
At the beginning of the play, Ophelia was one happy person. She had found her true love and she felt loved and respected with her father and brother. Her happiness was cut short by the beginning of events that destroyed her emotionally thus driving her to insanity. She relied heavily on her father and her brother as her friend and confidant for guidance and direction. Her father compelled her to follow his orders and abandon her true love and out of love and respect for him she did it never knowing the outcome will hurt her deeply. Her father made decisions for her and following all her father’s decisions, she lost her true love and the piece of happiness she felt from the start of the play. His brother also took authority over her and gave her advice that ruined her. Through all these events, losing Hamlet, his brother moving to France and never giving her support, she became totally insane.
After a series of losses in her life and now the death of her father, Ophelia’s grief begot her madness. Her father’s callous request for her to break up with Hamlet and a chain of other events in her life led to Ophelia’s demise. She no longer had her father, brother and her true love Hamlet with her and thus no one to turn to therefore, she could not handle her emotions and this led to her insanity. Thus, Ophelia’s madness originated form a long chain of events in her life that encompasses extreme grief and extensive loss. Ophelia’s madness was real as she could no longer handle the grief in her heart and her emotions overcame her leaning her insane.
Hamlet’s madness contrasts that of Ophelia primarily its legitimacy. Hamlet feigns his madness while Ophelia’s madness is real, she does not fake it but it is truly driven by the circumstances in her life. According to Mack (518), Hamlet feigned his madness in order to revenge his father’s death by killing Claudius. Hamlet at one point tries lifting the veil for the readers through his words "But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived." He is asked by Guildenstern "In what my dear lord?" He replies "I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly; I know a hawk from a handsaw" (Shakespeare 23). In addition, Hamlet’s cautious instructions to Horatio and the players also depicts his feigned madness as he addresses the king, he changes into an insane person. He simulated madness when close to the people he never trusted in his life and the people he was seeking revenge against. He confessed to Horatio that he was going to fake his madness and if he notices something fishy or strange he should not react as he will be putting on an act [Act I, scene V, lines 166-180]. Moreover, he pleads to madness when asked of his violence by Laertes when he was seeking revenge against him. He was just waiting for the perfect time to go on with his revenge of killing Claudius. Ophelia’s madness was real and driven by a long chain of events in her life starting with losing her true love, losing his brother and the death of her father. The pain and grief she felt drove her into madness. It was very clear that Ophelia had lost her mind when she tell everybody that she could hear her father speak to her, she made strange sounds beating her breasts and moreover she speaks incoherently. Hamlet at some point feigned his madness in order to kill and later on he became mad for real but Ophelia’s madness was for real, she never faked it. Unlike Hamlet, no one sees his father’s ghost but people see and hear what Ophelia talks about in her insanity. Opheliaâ...