Hamlet: Faking Madness and Establishing It as a Tragedy

Alongside Hamlet being considered a tragedy, by William Shakespeare, the growing lunacy of the characters brought a contrast between the evil and the innocent. Limits are breached and destroyed with the twists and turns close family and friends take unexpectedly take. Through the scenes of uncovering the cause of King Hamlet’s death, Ophelia’s meltdown, and Gertrude’s death, William Shakespeare depicts the madness that brings the understanding that it’s a crime to kill innocence resulting in the discoveration of one’s true nature.

The cause of King Hamlet’s death conveys how cowardly behavior creates a growing corruption that slowly starts to melt the false front the killer has placed in front of himself. Claudius was a greedy individual from the beginning but only acted when he saw a perfectly weak king in front of him waiting to have the throne abducted. Claudius “the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown” (Hamlet 1.5 44-45). From the whole conversation between Hamlet and his father’s ghost, it is uncovered that Claudius was the sole reason his father had passed away. The news arrives as a plot twist in the play and delivers a big shock to Hamlet. “And in the porches of my ears did pour the leprous distilment” (Hamlet 1.5 68-69). While King Hamlet had been sleeping alone, Claudius seized the opportunity like any ordinary coward. Being blinded by his excessive greed had rendered him forgetful of any morals he had learned. Murdering his own brother had shown that his madness for the crown had shown him as a truly feeble man.

Hamlet’s temporary facade in his plan resulted in one of the unfeigned forms of love existing in his life to silence herself in her own misery. When Hamlet started acting abnormal around everyone around him, Ophelia’s concern flourished till she became wretched with his actions. She is “divided from herself and her fair judgement” (Hamlet 4.5 89). After exiting, Claudius reflects on what has become of Ophelia after Polonius’ death. The fluctuations in Ophelia are so distinct that the cowardly king himself has taken notice. This crippling of demeanor in Ophelia unveils that the affection and cherishment once present in her cheerful eyes has deformed into mere dust. Her approaching madness had begun to flaunt its dark and devilish wings with the mission to consume her whole till she was exterminated. Gertrude described her dying form “As one incapable of her own distress, or like a creature native and indued onto that element” (Hamlet 4.7 196-198). When Ophelia was drowning in the brook, she didn’t have a look of fear inscribed on her face. She had lost so many of her loved ones that losing herself was nothing out of the ordinary any longer. Emotions had been drained and dried in her trickling tears that led her to the breaking point. She had wanted love but had been given agony. Her sanity itself had been cornered by psychoticness with the intention to annihilate everything in its path, including Ophelia’s joyful nature. The innocent aura she once carried had been stomped into her grave as she had become unsanctified.

Reclaiming the throne and marrying her incestous lover had been an efficacious conquest for Gertrude only for it all to miscarry and send her to the everlasting fire dreaded by all. While she should’ve been grieving over her lifeless husband, Gertrude was engrossed in scolding her son over the loss. Being a marvelous mother she speaks to Hamlet saying “Do not forever with thy vailed lids seek for thy noble father in the dust” (Hamlet 1.2 71-72). Gertrude advises Hamlet to stop grieving over his father because Hamlet has a new one that is alive and breathing, Claudius. Her lack of emotion and sorrow better illustrate how much of a cold woman she was in understanding her own blood. She had rapacity singing in her darkened blood seeing only the throne she couldn’t honorably give away. However, seeing Hamlet’s facade had breached a burden in the missing tenderness she couldn’t splendor him with. This transition had shown more when she spoke “I will, my lord. I pray you, pardon me (drinks)” (Hamlet 5.2 305). Gertrude had been told not to drink the wine meant for Hamlet in her hand by Claudius but she does so anyway. This act of defiance shows her attempting to turn into a better mother after also witnessing Ophelia’s deplorable death. Her nature had changed once her eyes had been opened to how wrong of a man Claudius truly was. Her madness had changed from power gained from the throne to loyalty from her beloved son.

The consistent differentiation between good and bad entities better establishes Hamlet as a proper tragedy. Horrific unexpected actions better clarify whether a person is innocent or guilty. The play is brimming with such individuals who have committed crimes worthy of being punished. William Shakespeare unveils the honest nature shown because of one’s transition into hysteria due to committing a crime against innocence.

Works Cited

1. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Prentice-Hall, 1998