The Real and Feigned Madness of Hamlet and Ophelia Essay...

In William Shakespeares Hamlet, a kind of madness ultimately infects everyone, leading to an ending in which almost every major character is dead. Two of these maddened characters are Hamlet and Ophelia, who also share a love for each other. But though their irrational behavior is often similar and their fates alike, one is truly mad while the other is not. Both Hamlet and Ophelia act very strangely. Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, insults everyone around him. He tells Ophelia he never loved her, calls her father a fishmonger, and in subtle ways calls his mother a whore and her new husband a murderer. And Hamlet himself is driven to acts of murder, from the unintentional stabbing of Polonius to the plotting that kills Rosencrantz and†¦show more content†¦When Polonius tells Ophelia to repel Hamlets advances, she promises to obey. And it is only after their fathers are killed that Hamlet and Ophelia begin to act mad. Both Hamlet and Ophelia are ultimately destroyed. Hamlet, whose quest was to prove the guilt of Claudius no matter what the consequences, is murdered by Laertes in a plot concocted by the king as he felt himself cornered. Ophelia drowns, perhaps willfully. But Hamlets madness is an act while Ophelias is not. Though Hamlet considers suicide in his grief after his fathers death, his madness is part of a plot to snare Claudius for murder. Hamlets tells his friend Horation, I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on (II.1.171-172). And though Hamlets behavior is crazy, others see that it is a performance. Polonius notices the method / int (II.2.203-204), and Claudius insists that what he spake, though it lacked form a little, / Was not like madness (III.1.163-164). In contrast, Ophelias madness is real. Her brother, Laertes, mourns that a young maids wits / Should be as mortal as an old mans life (IV.5.157-158) and calls her behavior A document in madness (IV.5.174). 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