MADNESS IN THE PLAY

The characters who have shown evidence of madness or insanity are Hamlet, Laertes, and Ophelia. Most of the problems and conflicts in the play were mainly caused by the presence of madness amongst the characters. Death was the main source of madness in the play. This is because everyone who ever suffered the problem of insanity was because of the death of a relative. Hamlet is the one who is mainly used to illustrate the madness. Hamlet went to murder Claudius praying to send Claudius’ soul to heaven, he considered it as an inadequate revenge and made a decision of waiting. Hamlet’s father’s ghost arrives and his madness is could be identified. He was also disturbed by the truth he was told by the ghost that Claudius is the one who had killed his father.

The confusion was because it was not possible for him to go telling people that a ghost had told him the person who killed his father. He also thought that revenging directly for his father by killing the uncle was not a good decision. This is evident from when a group of actors visited Elsinore and Hamlet gets an idea to try his uncle’s guilt. Hamlet would have the players perform a scene nearly resembling the pattern by which he imagines his uncle to have killed his father (Powell 9). This could successfully work out in that, if Claudius is guilty, he is surely expected to show some reactions. When the time of the murder comes in the theater, Claudius leaves the room leaping up.

Horatio and Hamlet agree that this proved that he is guilt (Mohammed 73). In his mum’s presence, Claudius orders Hamlet to go England due to his strange mood but on the way, Hamlet sees Prince Fortinbras marching across his land to fight for a certain lost territories. This is all about the inspiration he needed to go back to Denmark to murder Claudius. Laertes and Ophelia madness The power of revenge had made Laertes start behaving like a madman. He wanted to cut Hamlet’s throat when Hamlet was talking to his uncle. He also develops a kind of madness that is caused by the death of his father. Her father’s death and rejection by her brother Hamlet made Ophelia suffer from a mental breakdown problem.

Her death is much suspected to be through committing suicide due to the madness (Murad, Pg73). The effects of madness in the play. Madness has shown very shocking results in the play. For instance, when Hamlet wanted to kill Claudius, he used her plan of acting madly to confuse people so they could not imagine he did it. It was a very strategically put a plan that he used to revenge for his dead father. Madness was used in the play so that the audience can learn about the things that can make a person mad. Some kinds of madness that can be controlled should never be allowed to affect people. Also, the incidence where Polonius’s stabbing was used by Hamlet to kill Claudius teaches the audience of the play that they should never ignore anyone even if they are used to his/her actions.