Hamlet

A detailed Summary of Hamlet


English 12

As a result from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, many people have questioned Hamlets madness. This has been a topic of debate for numerous critics. Some believe he is truly crazy and others think he is just feigning craziness to advance his plot to revenge his father's death. Others also think that Hamlet's actions were just a way for Shakespeare to extend his play. I think Hamlet wasn't insane at all, but a sane genius, who's personality was created as a creative plot device to prolong the play by Shakespeare.

George Bernard Shaw, a critic of Hamlet's madness, considers Hamlet to be mad, but yet an "inspiration in disguise, since a man who has more brains than his fellows necessarily appears as mad to them as one who has less."(George Bernard Shaw). This quote fits the people's thought of Hamlet's being insane in a sense. People perceive Hamlet to be mad because they don't have the intelligence that Hamlet has to understand clearly what he is saying. Many characters in Shakespeare play thought Hamlet was going insane because of the gibberish he was speaking. But what Hamlet was really saying was


n't just words, but words with meaning. When Hamlet was talking to Ophelia, he said "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?"(Shakespeare, pg. 71, 119) And a reaction of Ophelia was "Oh heavenly powers, restore him!"(Shakespeare, pg. 71, 138) Hamlet was speaking loud and clear, and Ophelia still didn't comprehend what he was saying. He said "go to a nunnery" three times in a row meaning you may be pregnant go see a doctor, and Ophelia just prayed to the gods and wondered about what happened to Hamlet's mind.

Another idea about Hamlet was made by an unknown critic. His idea was that Shakespeare created Hamlets supposed madness as a plot device in order to make the play longer. This critics idea was an excellent one. He stated, "To speak the truth, our poet...has fallen into an absurdity, for there appears no reason at all in nature why the young prince did not put the usurper to death as soon as possible, especially as Hamlet is represented as a youth so brave and so careless of his own life."(Remark on the tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, 1736) This idea was such a brilliant one because Hamlet was careless with his

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Approximate Word count = 782
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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