Hamlet: Theme of Revenge and Madness
The
theme of revenge starts off very early in the play, when Hamlet speaks with the
ghost of his death father. When the ghost tells Hamlet how Claudius murdered
him, Hamlet is angry and overtaken with feelings of responsibility to right the
wrong that has been done; to murder Claudius. The effects of this experience on
Hamlet are showed clearly in the following quote, "And so I am revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father,
and for that, I, his sole son, d this same villain send to heaven;".
This quote clearly exemplifies Hamlets feeling toward this event. Being his
fathers only son, he feels completely responsible for his fathers revenge.
Throughout
the tragedy of Hamlet’s revenge covers the theme and among all of the
characters. Whether this revenge is in physical form, or mental form, it is
equally hurtful. From the murder of King Hamlet to the murder of Prince Hamlet
the tragedy is filled with violent acts of revenge. So this theme is addressed,
extremely clearly, and the conclusion, the death of so many characters, many
due to revenge, shows how a world filled with extensive revenge can’t exist as
a world at all. Hamlet is a deep philosophical story, however, the theme of
revenge lies just below the surface, if you look at all of the deaths, you may
see that there was a high degree of hatred, bitterness.
Moreover, the other most important theme is madness. The theme is
apparent throughout the play, mainly through the actions and thoughts of
Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes. Madness is defined as the quality or condition of
mental illness. Madness is at the center of the conflicts and problems of the
play and the characters like between
Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes to contribute to Hamlet’s tragic character.
Overall, we see that the theme of revenge and madness have significant impact on the conflicts and overall development of the play as well as the characters themselves and is successfully conveyed. I think Shakespeare developed a theme that tied the many important emotions and ideas together to make the play what it is.
Yes, a revenge play, but who gets whose revenge in the end? And madness-- is Ophelia really mad, and is Hamlet faking it? Or what? How will we define insanity? And if Ophelia is indeed the mad one, what is it that sends her over the edge?
ReplyDeleteCE
Ophelia can be classified as "really mad". In the play we don't know if she has any connection with more people than the ones around her. Because if I remember correctly she's not even old enough to jump into the pool of society; she hasn't been indroduced to the social life yet. And then all she has is taken away from her hands, from a child who is not even old enough to handle death and who doesn't have much people around to hold onto. What leads her through the doors of insanity, I guess, is her regression developed around her father's death. Not only the loss of a significant figure caused her to suffer a severe kind of pain; the pain dragged her into past and caged her.
ReplyDeleteIf we are to define insanity through Ophelia's behavior it is irrational actions performed out of the lines of expected ones from a conscious mind. And we should take her weird behavior's permanence into account. The shift in her expression after a loss that big, simply can be end up labeled as madness.
When it comes to Hamlet, if we think that madness is not something that can be controlled -and it is not something someone would want to go through willingly anyway- Hamlet is certainly is not mad. Okay, he's going through some rough patch with the confusion he has in mind, but madness is something else.
Bengisu
Ophelia's madness is caused by the actions of other characters in the story. Her father tells her to stay away from Hamlet, whom she has much affection for. Hamlet lies to her, telling her that he does not intend to be with her. After all this, Her father, Laertes is murdered by her former lover, Hamlet. and then Hamlet is sent to England. The sum of all these actions result in her feeling such distress that she becomes mentally ill.
ReplyDeleteIs Hamlet Mad? Not Likely. most would think of Hamlet's madness, or at least that that he was pretending to possess. Although Ophelia does go insane and ultimately commits suicide, the central lunacy of the play revolves around Hamlet himself. Hamlet's plan to act mad is completely unexplained. It is safe to assume that he is pretending to be mad so he can get away with saying and doing things that would not ordinarily be tolerated. Also, if people think that he was crazy, they would not pay any attention to him in his actiont to kill Claudius and avenge his father's death.
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