Madness And Insanity In Hamlet

In the tragic play, Hamlet written by William Shakespeare, deception, manipulation, and corruption blinded the main character, Hamlet. The act of pretending to be insane leads Hamlet to madness and his dismay. His madness caused confusion and blinded him from reality. Unfortunately, Hamlet’s insanity leads to misfortune. There are always reasons behind someone’s madness. In the play, Hamlet switches between the behaviors of sanity and insanity. He claimed he was “mad north-north-west” meaning he is insane sometimes and sane other times. Hamlet is trying to achieve his short-term goals by shifting between sanity and insanity, which ironically helps him accomplish his goal of revenge. Interestingly, Hamlet uses his insanity as a weapon by …show more content…
Hamlets insanity affects every main character in the play greatly. For example, Hamlet wanted to make Claudius suffer just like Claudius made his father suffer. His insanity made Claudius suffer of guilt of killing his father. Also, Hamlet made his mother suffer of guilt as well. In one occasion in the play Hamlet present his own play with a scene of an actor playing his mother. The actor states to the kin that she would never leave him or remarry because her love is only for him and she could love again after his death. Evilly Hamlet look at his mother as those words leave the actors mouth and his mother is in dismay and in guilt. Sadly, Ophelia was affected tremendously by Hamlets actions of insanity. In the play, while Hamlet is having a conversation with his mother in her chamber, as he is acting insane and is trying to convince her that Claudius killed his father. Hamlet senses another presence in the room and stabs through the curtain against the wall and kills Ophelia’s father. Shortly, after discovering the death of her father Ophelia goes mad. She has lost everything her father, her brother, and the love she thought hamlet had for her. Everything Ophelia was defined by, everything that kept her sane she lost. She lost everything because of Hamlet’s actions of insanity. Sadly, Ophelia’s insanity