The line between sanity and insanity is a very thin line. Emotions which can range from happiness to pain can push anyone back and forth in the line. Shakespeare shows us in the play Hamlet how the events in Ophelia’s life drive her to total insanity.
Ophelia before her father’s death was a very sane girl. Even after Hamlets brutal treatment of her: “Hamlet: You should have not believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish it. I loved you not Ophelia: I was the more deceived” (hamlet 3.1.131). Hamlet told her to forget about him. That must have been an unbearable pain, the love of your life to tell you to forget about him god knows how painful that must have truly felt for her. She did not burst into tears or
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“You must sing…his masters daughter” (Hamlet 4.5.152). This response was because of her father’s death and the relationship termination with hamlet truly pushed her to the other side of the line. She was just singing throughout the act. Her speeches where not connected what so ever, “There’s rosemary, that’s for thoughts”. We could make the argument that anyone can sing but she did kill herself in the end of the play.
According to physiology today the six reason people try to commit suicide are: “depression, psychotic, impulsiveness, crying out for help, they have a philosophical desire to die, they’ve made a mistake”. Ophelia was going through a depression because she had just lost the love of her life and her father. She did eventually kill herself because she did not want to continue living.
These circumstances are painful for anyone. “So she not only loses one loved one, in the emotional and physical detachment from Hamlet, but two loved ones, through the death of her own flesh. “(Aaron Greene). What made the situation even worst was that no one was truly giving her the help she needed, the people who were close to her just did not know what to do about it. Aaron is right in the sense that she did not lose just one loved one but two because hamlet was nowhere to be seen. If Hamlet had been in Denmark she would have had the emotional support she needed at the
With simple and vague descriptions, Revka foreshadows her revenge to follow the death of Zara. She too will no longer be suited to be named a human, because her vengeance had rendered her a “thing” another beast, another demon whose humanity can no longer be reclaimed. In this context, Revka illustrates her mind being overtaken by despair as she plots the poisoning of the Roman soldiers – she was willing to give up her humanity, to have to live a life marked as a beast, in order to serve justice to the conscripts. Revka’s strength is evident through these simple lines as she did not succumb to adversity but rather faced it head-on by grasping her fate in her own hands and murders the soldiers. Additionally, Revka uses the term “thing” to describe
Why does insanity affect some people in different ways and why? Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare which tells us when we read it about how some people react differently to insanity then others. Hamlet is the some of the late King Hamlet who was murdered. Gertrude, King Hamlet's wife, was remarried to her brother-in-law Claudius, two months after her husband died. Insanity takes hold of three people in particular in the play: Hamlet, Ophelia and Claudius.
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a complex play, filled with layers of meaning. These are often revealed through the madness of the characters and the theme of madness throughout the play. Although Hamlet and Ophelia are the only characters thought to be so afflicted, the reactions of other characters to this madness mirrors their own preoccupations.
Insanity has been a struggle for humanity since the very first decades of the human race, very often it is hard to judge whether a person is actually struggling with this illness or is only putting on an act. Insanity is very detrimental to one’s life if real as it leads to extreme foolishness or irrationality that cannot be controlled. On the other hand, Insanity can be used as an effective strategy to hide ones plots or plans of revenge by redirecting a person’s focus away from said idea. In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet exhibits many properties of a man who has gone insane, but after deeper inspection it is obvious that all of this is just an act. The saneness of Hamlet becomes evident as he admits his sanity
Insanity can be defined as a mental illness that causes a person to have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality. Whether Shakespeare’s Hamlet was insane or feigning insanity is a controversial topic. Gregory Shafer argues that Hamlet is not insane and that he uses insanity or madness for his own political purposes (42). In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Prince Hamlet’s circumstances force him to seek revenge for the murder of his father King Hamlet. He creates a plan that he believes will give him an opportunity to kill Claudius, and the main part of this plan involves him faking insanity. Further and further into the book, his actions of a madman become more believable. However through his thoughts and actions it is clear that he is not truly insane, and his is only acting in this way in order to reach is ultimate goal of revenge.
Insanity, a theme explored by multiple authors in countless classic selections, has instilled itself as one of the darkest and interesting themes in the literary world. In Shakespeare’s legendary Hamlet, the audience questions the sanity of Hamlet and Ophelia constantly, as well as that of the other characters. As the story progresses, this becomes more and more relevant, bringing the reader to consider the causes and effects of the characters’ mental states on the resolution of the literary work.
There is a fine line between sane and madness that everyone can teeter on in some point in their lives. Sometimes this is the result of a broken relationship, a loss of a job, confusion about the future, anger, or can be a result of countless other events or reasons. This theme of insanity is present in countless pieces of literature due to its relatability to everyone, not just people with a diagnosed mental illness. People tend to do crazy things and act crazily without being completely insane. Along the same lines, when people linger in their crazy actions and start to do it purposefully, it can lead to something that is real and more permanent. Hamlet’s madness, in Hamlet by Shakespeare, is a complex idea that is constantly developing throughout
In William Shakespeare’s book Hamlet, the main character, Ophelia, struggles with her insanity, which leads her to her death. Ophelia, Hamlet's lover, is forced to reject Hamlet because of her father’s wishes; however, later on, it is established to drive her additionally mad. The decline of Ophelia's mental health is due to the reality of losing her father, her brother leaving the country, and Hamlet’s inappropriate behavior towards her. Moreover, Ophelia's craziness appears to be genuine due to how she responds to Hamlet's improper behavior towards her.
Insanity is an interesting topic to explore, tricky to determine and potentially deadly to those around the affected person. Although most people in society are sane beings, many argue that Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is not sane. His actions are not that of a sane person, but rather of a grieving man who is driven to his death by his insane lust for revenge.
The insanity of a person can be contributed through the trauma that is caused by a few events in a person’s life, but in the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare wrote the main character prince Hamlet experiences a few dramatic events from the play which his attitude changes throughout. In order to figure out whether hamlet is insane is by figuring out what the characteristics of his insanity. Characters see Hamlet in different shades of gray, each side more or less sane than others. His sanity can be his truth or his lie.
However, she started to lose hope that she could ever have a child. At that realization, she started acting lifeless, she stayed at home, and didn’t talk to anyone, even her husband. Like Hamlet, she stopped seeing the value in life because they both lost something that they cherished. Hamlet has made many careless decisions because of his drive to avenge his father. For example, impulsively killing Polonius who was behind the arras thinking it was Claudius hiding saying “How now!
Insanity is defined as a disordered state of the mind. Written in the Elizabethan era, the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare takes place in Denmark and focuses on the prince of Denmark, Hamlet. Hamlet portrays himself as insane, thereby disguising his sanity, in order to seek revenge which results in his downfall. This is illustrated when Hamlet uses double/speak to confuse the other characters, as well as when Shakespeare provided a contrast between sanity and insanity with Hamlet and Ophelia, and lastly the concept of thought versus action.
Hamlet seems to be at his best when he is cruel which could reveal a deeper method for self-medication in which he hurts those he loves most - especially his mother & Ophelia. However, while we can clearly discern his reasons for rejecting his mother, we are left with a sort of bitterness when it comes to Ophelia. Why does he treat her so cruelly? Through the very text in which he scolds her, we can uncover some answers that reveal
Hamlet’s madness is eerily similar to Ophelia’s, which may give Hamlet’s madness credibility. “Shakespeare,” according to Lidz, “carefully places Ophelia’s madness in apposition to Hamlet’s, illuminating the causes of each by making Ophelia’s plight the female counterpart of Hamlet’s dilemma.” (Lidz 88) Ophelia, throughout the play,
Ultimately, Ophelia’s insanity is the consequence of the actions of others, and she is unquestionably a victim of the tragic events that beset Denmark throughout the play. [5]