If every literary work required a quote to best describe it, Hamlet would acquire a quote by activist Mahatma Ghandi: “There is no such thing as “too insane” unless others turn up dead because of your actions.” This quote serves as a great foreshadow for the play of Hamlet, a story of how a man’s insanity causes turmoil for everything he touches and everybody he encounters. Additionally, there is a quote that could also relate this play: “Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.” The connection between John Dryden’s quote and Hamlet’s behavior relates to the argument of whether or not Hamlet is actually insane or just pretending to be so that he can determine his moves according to the situations
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Through this quote we see the ignition of his madness from the current events. He moans and whimpers about how depressed he is over his father’s death and mother’s remarriage to his uncle, Claudius. Hamlet even goes so far to wish that his “flesh” would “melt”, which could contextually relate to him wanting to die because of all that is happening. Although these feelings seem to be the normal reaction to this current generation, it can also be portrayed as a cry for help. In this case, as the reader sees, this quote is indeed the start of something mad brewing within Hamlet and can definitely be used as an agent when discussing why Hamlet is actually mad throughout the play. As the story progresses, the audience gets the picture that Hamlet is clearly insane, both by modern and Elizabethan standards. However, how one knows that he is really insane as opposed to pretending to be ironically takes place in the same setting where evidence would prove that he is in fact pretending---in the forest where he met the ghost of his father. Through their interaction together, Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend, suggests that the Ghost of King Hamlet is actually a demon laying a trap for them. To a supporter of this particular argument Horatio’s warning could play into Hamlet actually being mad in consequence of “following the demon” that wants him to violently avenge the death of Hamlet’s murdered father. It could be arguably analyzed that Hamlet is “from himself taken away” from that point with the Ghost and
Through this quote we see the ignition of his madness from the current events. He moans and whimpers about how depressed he is over his father’s death and mother’s remarriage to his uncle, Claudius. Hamlet even goes so far to wish that his “flesh” would “melt”, which could contextually relate to him wanting to die because of all that is happening. Although these feelings seem to be the normal reaction to this current generation, it can also be portrayed as a cry for help. In this case, as the reader sees, this quote is indeed the start of something mad brewing within Hamlet and can definitely be used as an agent when discussing why Hamlet is actually mad throughout the play. As the story progresses, the audience gets the picture that Hamlet is clearly insane, both by modern and Elizabethan standards. However, how one knows that he is really insane as opposed to pretending to be ironically takes place in the same setting where evidence would prove that he is in fact pretending---in the forest where he met the ghost of his father. Through their interaction together, Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend, suggests that the Ghost of King Hamlet is actually a demon laying a trap for them. To a supporter of this particular argument Horatio’s warning could play into Hamlet actually being mad in consequence of “following the demon” that wants him to violently avenge the death of Hamlet’s murdered father. It could be arguably analyzed that Hamlet is “from himself taken away” from that point with the Ghost and