HAMLET’S MADNESS AS FEIGNED:
Though many critics have delivered the verdict on Hamlet’s madness as genuine and real, but their judgments were counter answered by others who proved logically and rationally that Hamlet’s madness was feigned or assumed, but not real and genuine.
The very first argument given by them is that, “A mentally deranged Hamlet could not have proved a tragic hero, because in our definition of the Shakespearean tragedy we have seen that the tragic consequences must proceed mainly from the protagonist’s conscious acts or from some flaws in his characters. A mad man cannot be said to have any character, for character is the offspring of mind’s consciousness (Umrani; ______; 39).”
To analyze Hamlet’s madness as feigned one has to distinguish between the melancholia and madness, though both belong to the mental conditions of a person suffering from it.
Difference between Melancholia and Madness:
Melancholia …show more content…
“The knowledge of his father’s murder and hasty marriage of his mother may have unnerved Hamlet, and it actually did, but it will be an exaggeration to say that it actually drove him mad (Umrani; ______; 40).” Throughout the play, he is as sane in his dealings with other characters that are not loyal to him as in his dealings with Horatio and Players. Or in other words, “In every single instance in which Hamlet’s madness is manifested, he has good reason for assuming that madness; while, on the other hand, whenever there was no need to hoodwink anyone, his thought, language, and action bear no resemblance to unsoundness of intellect (Deighton; 1919;
Though many critics have delivered the verdict on Hamlet’s madness as genuine and real, but their judgments were counter answered by others who proved logically and rationally that Hamlet’s madness was feigned or assumed, but not real and genuine.
The very first argument given by them is that, “A mentally deranged Hamlet could not have proved a tragic hero, because in our definition of the Shakespearean tragedy we have seen that the tragic consequences must proceed mainly from the protagonist’s conscious acts or from some flaws in his characters. A mad man cannot be said to have any character, for character is the offspring of mind’s consciousness (Umrani; ______; 39).”
To analyze Hamlet’s madness as feigned one has to distinguish between the melancholia and madness, though both belong to the mental conditions of a person suffering from it.
Difference between Melancholia and Madness:
Melancholia …show more content…
“The knowledge of his father’s murder and hasty marriage of his mother may have unnerved Hamlet, and it actually did, but it will be an exaggeration to say that it actually drove him mad (Umrani; ______; 40).” Throughout the play, he is as sane in his dealings with other characters that are not loyal to him as in his dealings with Horatio and Players. Or in other words, “In every single instance in which Hamlet’s madness is manifested, he has good reason for assuming that madness; while, on the other hand, whenever there was no need to hoodwink anyone, his thought, language, and action bear no resemblance to unsoundness of intellect (Deighton; 1919;