hamlet theme of madness thesis

How is the Theme of Madness Present in Hamlet?

Back to: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

In Hamlet, Shakespeare takes us to the limit of portraying human minds at work. Through the theme of madness, one can notice how much thoughts can go behind a single action. The Tragedy of Hamlet is a play essentially about making up a human mind and that’s how it touches upon the idea of madness.

In the play, we have Hamlet who is either mad or pretends to be mad, there’s Ophelia who truly gives in to madness, loses her mind and we have Laertes who under the duress loses his reason. When Hamlet confronts the ghost for the first time, it is Horatio who warns that it “ might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness? ”.

In Hamlet, one sees the madness for love which is one true madness. Polonius says to Ophelia, “ mad for thy love? ”, “ the very ecstasy(madness) of love ” after she reveals it to him. Shakespeare shows us madness and the sources of madness too.

After the ecstasy of love, it is the grief which turns him towards madness which he can’t notice by himself i.e. when the gravedigger tells him that Hamlet was sent to England because he was mad, he cries out, “ how came he mad? ”.

Hamlet is introduced in the play in a deep mournful state. He is devastated by the fact that his mother didn’t even mourn his father’s death and got seduced by Claudius, his uncle. It is Polonius who labels Hamlet as mad repeatedly. He says to Gertrude that “ your noble son is mad. Mad call I it, for, to define true madness, what is’t but to be nothing else but mad? ”.

He grants him mad and asks to “ find out the cause of this…defect .” But at the same time, one also learns that Hamlet is a supremely conscious character. It is again Polonius who notices that “ though this be madness, yet there is method in’t .”

Guildenstern understands that through “ a crafty madness Hamlet keeps himself aloof .” Throughout the play the question of madness is evoked by various characters, offering us a comprehensive view of it from a different perspective.

Claudius notes Hamlet’s greatness and at the same time utters that “ madness in great ones must not go unwatched. ” In the end, Hamlet’s mother is also unable to understand him and cries out, “ alas, he’s mad! ” So, the play meditates on the error of judging madness on the surface.

Hamlet answers on the true nature of his madness when he says that “I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft.” It clarifies the thematic concerns on madness in the play. Madness can also be a pretention.

The forces which Hamlet was confronting were much larger and powerful than him as an individual so madness becomes his tool to navigate through all those.

Justifying it to the king, he says, “ I here proclaim was madness. ” The wrongs aren’t done by him, “ Hamlet denies it. ” “ who does it then? His madness. ” At the same time, in Ophelia one may notice the true effects of madness.

It is hard to notice whether it is caused by the murder of his father by her own lover or the loss of Hamlet’s love for her or maybe both. Her symptoms are visibly that of losing one’s mind.

She gets “ divided from herself and her fair judgement, without which we are pictures or mere beasts. ” This can be the very reason to assign some madness to Laertes under the shock of revenge. The play meditates upon the varying states of human minds and how under certain duress, they may cross into the realm of madness where reason doesn’t work.

William Shakespeare

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Action and Inaction

Hamlet  is part of a literary tradition called the revenge play, in which a person—most often a man—must take revenge against those who have wronged him. Hamlet , however, turns the genre on its head in an ingenious way: Hamlet , the person seeking vengeance, can't actually bring himself to take his revenge. As Hamlet struggles throughout the play with the logistical difficulties and moral burdens of vengeance, waffling between whether he should kill Claudius …

Appearance vs. Reality

Hamlet is full of references to the wide gulf that often exists between how things appear and how they really are. From Hamlet ’s own “craft[ed]” madness to Claudius ’s many schemes and plots involving Polonius , Ophelia , Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern to the very foundation of Denmark’s political stability (or lack thereof), things within Elsinore castle are hardly ever as they seem. Hamlet ’s characters’ collective desire to make sense of the difference between…

Though there are only two traditionally female characters in Hamlet — Ophelia and Gertrude —the play itself speaks volumes about the uniquely painful, difficult struggles and unfair fates women have suffered throughout history. Written in the first years of the 17th century, when women were forbidden even from appearing onstage, and set in the Middle Ages, Hamlet exposes the prejudices and disadvantages which narrowed or blocked off the choices available to women–even women of noble…

Religion, Honor, and Revenge

Every society is defined by its codes of conduct—its rules about how to act and behave. In  Hamlet , the codes of conduct are largely defined by religion and an aristocratic code that demands honor—and revenge if honor has been soiled. As the play unfolds and Hamlet (in keeping with his country’s spoken and unspoken) rules) seeks revenge for his father’s murder, he begins to realize just how complicated vengeance, justice, and honor all truly…

Poison, Corruption, Death

When the sentinel Marcellus speaks the line “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” after seeing the ghost of the former King Hamlet, he is speaking to a broadly-held societal superstition. In medieval times and the Middle Ages—the era in which Hamlet is set—the majority of people believed that the health of a nation was connected to the legitimacy of its king.  As Hamlet endeavors to discover—and root out—the “rotten” core of Denmark, he…

Themes in Hamlet: Doubt, Revenge, and More

The diversity of themes in Hamlet impresses the readers with its multifacetedness and relevance for modern times. Even though William Shakespeare wrote the play several centuries ago, it remains popular due to the issues it explored. These themes convey the author’s intentions, ideas, and thoughts.

Want to explore Hamlet’s themes in detail? Let’s do it together! Stay on this page prepared by our experts and learn a lot of valuable insights.

🤷🏻 Theme of Doubt

• ⚰️ Death Theme

⚔️ Theme of Revenge

🤥 appearance vs. reality, 👭 theme of misogyny.

• ⛪ Religion Theme
• 🙈 Corruption Theme

🏡 Family Theme

💫 theme of madness.

• 🗺️ Navigation

🎓 References

If you decide to count how many times Hamlet doubts throughout the play, you will probably get lost. He does it all the time! Therefore, one of the leading themes of Hamlet is doubt.

There are two main issues that the protagonist cannot decide upon:

• whether to kill Claudius and avenge his father;
• whether to commit suicide and escape the problem.

The play starts with the Ghost’s appearance. It claims that Claudius murdered Old Hamlet to take the throne. If it was a typical revenge tragedy, Hamlet would get furious and murder his uncle immediately. However, Shakespeare decides to make his protagonist indecisive. Therefore, instead of killing the King instantly, Hamlet starts questioning the Ghost’s words.

Why does Hamlet delay murdering Claudius?

Prince is indecisive and full of doubts. On the one hand, he seeks revenge for his father. On the other hand, Hamlet is afraid to make a mistake and kill the wrong person. Prince is unsure whether Claudius is a murderer as he doesn’t trust the Ghost on the spot. Hence, he decides to conduct an investigation and prove Claudius’s guilt.

Ultimately, Hamlet makes sure that Claudius is an actual murderer. However, Prince still cannot take action.

Why doesn’t Hamlet kill Claudius even knowing that he is guilty?

Prince is waiting for an appropriate time. He could kill Claudius immediately after discovering his guilt, but Hamlet did not do that. The King was praying. Prince decided that the person killed while doing so may go to heaven, which is not fair for a murderer:

“Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.” Act 3 Scene 3

But is it a solid reason? Or did Hamlet’s hesitation just take over him?

With the progress of the play, the readers can notice that Hamlet’s doubts become destructive for him. Prince even starts questioning life’s essence.

Hamlet’s fourth soliloquy, “To be or not to be,” becomes iconic. It discusses the painfulness and miserableness of human life and the dark uncertainty that comes after death. After an intense inner dispute, Hamlet realizes that suicide is not a solution. He is afraid of eternal suffering:

“who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;” Act 3 Scene 1

So, he decides to avenge Claudius no matter what it would cost him.

Meanwhile, Laertes and Claudius are not hesitating. They act actively and plot Hamlet’s murder. But does it help them? Not really. At the end of the play, they still die.

Is decisive action better than doubt?

Shakespeare insists that it doesn’t matter as long as it’s tied to vengeance. At the very end, everyone who is somehow connected to revenge ends tragically.

💬 Quotes about Doubt

“To be, or not to be, that is the question, Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?” Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1

“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love” Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2

“This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father murder’d, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, A scullion!” Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2

⚰️ Death & Mortality Theme

The play is written in a pessimistic and dark tone. Therefore, the themes of death and mortality in Hamlet are two of the leading ones.

The most tragic element of the play is numerous deaths. From the very beginning, the Ghost appears at the castle and tells about the King’s unnatural demise. Here is when the storyline devoted to the mystery of death in Hamlet starts.

The theme is touched upon regularly:

In Act 1 , Prince is tortured by grief and misery from the death of his father. He even considers suicide as a solution. However, this idea fades away from his mind because he is afraid of the dark uncertainty and eternal suffering of death.

Moreover, in Act 1 , Shakespeare describes the decay and the flourishing of corruption caused by Old Hamlet’s death. The death theme is evident through the country that is gradually dying at the hands of the selfish ruler.

In Act 3 , Hamlet accidentally stabs Polonius. Prince did not intend to murder him, but Polonius’s recklessness plays a fatal joke on him.

“Wretched, rash, intruding fool” Act 3, Scene 4

– that is how Hamlet calls Polonius after wounding him. So, Hamlet kills a person. Does it mean that he is ready to commit another murder after that? We cannot say for sure because Prince still delays his revenge on Claudius.

In Act 4 , the theme of death in Hamlet becomes even more critical. Unable to deal with Poloniu’s demise, Ophelia, his daughter, commits suicide. The readers witness one more tragic end.

In Act 5 , a sequence of tragic actions leads to Hamlet’s obsession with death. At Ophelia’s funeral, the gravediggers discover the skull of Yorick. He was a joyful person who Hamlet remembers from early childhood. Analyzing the essence of life, Prince comes up with a solid conclusion. He claims that no matter how good you are at life, at the very end, your body will inevitably decay, and your soul will fade away. All the people are equal after death, and it comes for all of us.

Analyzing the concept of mortality in Hamlet , we can conclude that the scene with the skull of Yorick became a critical one for the main character. Hamlet finally accepts death and indicates that “the readiness is all” (Act 5, Scene 2). From now on, his reflections on the topic are neither a matter of fear nor longing. He fully accepts that without death, there cannot be life.

After the fatal injury, Hamlet asks Horatio to save his legacy so that he can live as long as the story lives.

💬 Quotes about Death & Mortality

“Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.” Gertrude, Act 1 Scene 2

“I am thy father’s spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid” The Ghost, Act 1 Scene 5

“To die:—to sleep: No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished.” Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1

By its genre, Hamlet is a revenge tragedy. Therefore, it is a given that the revenge theme plays an essential role.

Shakespeare modified this genre. In a typical revenge tragedy, the protagonist seeks immediate vengeance. However, here the main character does not take any instant actions. Hence, the theme of revenge in Hamlet is discovered from an unusual perspective.

By his nature, the protagonist is a thoughtful, decent, brilliant young man who would not do anyone any harm. Therefore, Hamlet and revenge wouldn’t normally go in the same line. However, when it comes to his family’s honor, Prince is supposed to take action against his father’s offender. Yet, Hamlet is unable to perform the violence that his call to revenge demands.

As the play unfolds, Hamlet plunges deeper and deeper into existential musings. His revenge does not happen immediately after talking to the Ghost. Prince makes sure that it was his uncle who murdered his father.

“I’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle: I’ll observe his looks; I’ll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, I know my course.” Act 2 Scene 2

Even after an investigation that proved Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet is still full of doubt. He cannot understand whether he should or can commit a crime or not. It is a highly unusual path for revenge tragedies.

Overall, exploring the theme of revenge in Hamlet , we can conclude that Shakespeare masterfully conducted a psychological study of a character who is full of hesitance and fear. Hamlet is not a typical protagonist of a revenge tragedy. Yet, in the end, he completes his mission. The father’s insulter, Claudius, dies from Hamlet’s sword.

💬 Quotes about Revenge

“Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimprovèd mettle hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Shark’d up a list of lawless resolutes For food and diet to some enterprise That hath a stomach in ‘t; which is no other (As it doth well appear unto our state) But to recover of us, by strong hand And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands So by his father lost” Horatio, Act 1 Scene 1

“Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” The Ghost, Act 1 Scene 5

“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wanned, Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit—and all for nothing!” Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2

Appearance vs. reality is a major theme in Hamlet . It is discovered in the play multiple times through different lenses and under various circumstances. Let’s examine the brightest examples of deception in Hamlet together:

Claudius is seen as a national hero. He saved the country by becoming a new king after his brother’s sudden death. But is he that honorable in reality? Not really.

Even though Claudius pretends to be a wise ruler of the country, in reality, he is the main villain in the play. This character causes all the significant lies and deceit in Hamlet . He mercilessly kills his brother to take the throne. Attempting to hide his terrible deed, Claudius starts manipulating everyone around.

The primary victim of his villainy is, of course, Prince. Trying to establish total control over his nephew, Claudius starts spying on Hamlet. The King also involves many other people, like Ophelia, Gertrude, Laertes, Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, in his evil plan. As a result, all of them suffer from the negative consequences of his spoiled nature.

Overall, Claudius pretends to be a wise governor of Denmark, a loving husband for Gertrude, and a caring stepdad for Hamlet. In reality, he is a liar, manipulator, and merciless murderer.

Polonius is a prime example of the theme of appearance vs. reality as he really strives to appear a loving parent and a nice person. In fact, he is the opposite.

His relationship with his children is quite controversial. Polonius tries his best to pretend to be a caring father. However, in reality, he does not care about his kids’ feelings and ambitions.

Laertes , the older son, is studying in France. Trying to be a good father, Polonius advises him how to live life honorably. But what happens in reality? He sends Reynaldo to France to spy on his son. This proves Polonius’s disrespect and mistrust towards Laertes.

Ophelia , the younger daughter, also becomes a victim of his selfishness. Trying to gain Claudius’s respect, Polonius starts spying on Hamlet. For this reason, he ensures Ophelia that Prince does not love her. Polonius also prohibits his daughter from having any kind of interaction with him. Even though Ophelia is in love with Hamlet, she remains loyal to her father and follows his command.

Later, Claudius and Polonius ask Ophelia to talk to Hamlet so that they could spy upon their conversation. For a young lady, it is a real emotional challenge. However, Polonius does not care about his daughter’s feelings. He only desires to gain the King’s respect. Therefore, his appearance as a caring parent does not correspond to the reality of a selfish and deceitful man.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pretend to be Hamlet’s good friends. Yes, they indeed were friends in childhood, but not now. In reality, they work with Claudius.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are spying on Hamlet so that the new King knows what Hamlet’s deal is. Though, Prince sees through them:

“Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.” Act 3 Scene 2

He understands their rotten nature and orders to kill them later in the play. Thus, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s naivety and silly desire to gain Claudius’ respect lead them to death.

Gertrude is quite an unusual and intriguing figure in the play. The majority of the time, the readers are incapable of determining whether she is lying or not:

• Did she know that Claudius murdered King Hamlet?
• Does she lie to Claudius about Hamlet’s insanity after Polonius’ murder? Or does she truly believe in it?
• Does she lie that she didn’t see the Ghost when he was in the room?

Shakespeare leaves these questions hidden by the veil. Therefore, the readers do not know whether Gertrude’s deception in Hamlet is real or not. The only option for us is to interpret the Queen’s behavior in our own way.

The main character of the play also reflects the appearance vs. reality theme. Hamlet masterfully convinces everyone around that he is insane. In fact, he sees everyone’s true nature and uses his status to investigate Claudius.

Though, Hamlet’s deception is apparent through his communication with Ophelia. During their conversation, he is cruel and mean to her. Yet, after her death, Prince confesses that he loved her.

Overall, the theme of appearance vs. reality is a primary one in Hamlet . Shakespeare skillfully explored it through different characters in the play.

💬 Quotes about Deception

“This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” Polonius, Act 1 Scene 3

“How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plastering art, Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word: O heavy burthen!” Claudius, Act 3 Scene 1

“I am justly killed with mine own treachery.” Laertes, Act 5 Scene 2

The issue of gender roles in Hamlet is another topic that should be discussed in detail. There are two women in the play – Ophelia and Gertrude. However, they create a solid ground for the discussion of feminism in Hamlet . Let’s dive deeper and explore the examples of misogyny in the play in detail.

The theme of misogyny in Hamlet takes its roots in Prince’s attitude towards his mother. He is disgusted by Gertrude’s decision to marry Claudius right after her husband’s demise. Therefore, he accuses his mother of being two-faced and insincere:

“Ears without feeling, feeling without sight Ears without hands or eyes, smellings sans all Or but a sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope.” Act 3, scene 4

Yet, let’s analyze this situation from Gertrude’s perspective. Being a woman in Hamlet’s time meant lacking freedom and independence. A woman was supposed to be under a man’s strict supervision and protection. Hence, Gertrude does not have a lot of options. In her situation, marrying Claudius was a reasonable decision since this marriage would guarantee her social security.

Nevertheless, Hamlet does not understand his mother’s position. His hatred reaches its peak when Prince starts believing that all women are deceitful and unloyal. Hamlet thinks that there is a strong connection between female sexuality and moral corruption. He claims that women are simply slaves to their sexual desires, and thus, they are too weak to be loyal.

Ophelia becomes a victim of Hamlet’s hatred as well. She sincerely loves Prince. However, his actions and words towards a young lady are insulting. During their intense conversation, Hamlet tells her:

“Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.” Act 3 Scene 1

In other words, Hamlet is accusing Ophelia of pretending to be innocent when in fact, she is promiscuous.

Female Sexuality

The role of women in Hamlet can also be discovered through the lens of female sexuality. Paradoxically, women’s sexuality is controlled by men.

For example, Laertes and Polonius act like they are guardians of Ophelia’s innocence and virginity. They insist that she rejects Hamlet’s advances, despite her love for him. Clearly, there’s a double standard for women where sexuality is concerned.

Hamlet also interferes in Gertrude’s sexual relationship with Claudius while overlooking his uncle’s role in the relationship. The explanation is probably a combination of women’s passive role in society and Hamlet’s overpowering feelings for his mother.

It is also worth mentioning that women are perceived as puppets in men’s hands. Claudius and Polonius use Ophelia and Gertrude when it comes to spying on Hamlet. In fact, these two characters love Hamlet. However, since women’s status in society was too low, they did not have a right to go against men. Hence, Ophelia and Gertrude were involved in Claudius’s evil plan against their will.

💬 Quotes about Misogyny

“Frailty, thy name is woman!” Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2

“Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, And keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough, If she unmask her beauty to the moon: Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious strokes:” Laertes, Act 1 Scene 3

“I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name God’s creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance.” Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1

⛪ Religion in Hamlet

Exploring the theme of religion in Hamlet , it is worth mentioning that the play was written during the 16th century’s religious anxieties in England. Thus, Shakespeare reflects the realities of his time in Hamlet .

What happened in 16th-century England?

The Religious Reformation occurred. As a result, a significant number of people converted from Catholicism to Protestantism. This led to tension between two religious branches: Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

In Hamlet , this tension is reflected through the characters of Old Hamlet and Young Hamlet.

We can assume that the King is Catholic. Why? Because when the Ghost appears, he claims that he is stuck in some kind of purgatory. The Ghost of Hamlet’s father tells that he is:

“Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin’d to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg’d away.” Act 1 Scene 4

Here we can notice the reflection of the culture in Hamlet . According to cultural and religious norms, purgatory is an element of the Roman Catholic Church. As Old Hamlet’s spirit claims that his soul is stuck there, we can conclude that the recently departed King was Catholic.

In contrast, Hamlet’s religion is Protestantism. He studies at Wittenberg University, where Protestant reformation leader Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses. Thus, Wittenberg is considered to be home to the movement. Hamlet shares fresh views and innovative ideas. He perceives the world around him from the perspective of Protestantism. It becomes challenging for him to confront old Catholic traditions and prejudices.

How does religion affect Hamlet?

Of course, Hamlet’s belongingness to Protestantism influences his personality. Firstly , he considers suicide as an option to get rid of all of his problems. For the Protestant worldview, it is not a solution. At the end of his famous monologue, Hamlet decides against suicide as he’s unsure about his soul’s place after death.

Secondly , Hamlet’s hesitance can be explained by his belongingness to religion. We can assume that the protagonist doubts whether to kill his uncle as he fears eternal damnation. When Prince finally stabs Claudius, the readers observe the failure of religion in Hamlet. Even though murder is immoral and unacceptable by faith, he ultimately avenges his father.

💬 Quotes about Religion

“O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, A brother’s murder. Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will.” Claudius, Act 3 Scene 3

“To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is,” Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss: So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. Gertrude, Act 4 Scene 5

“Well, God ‘ild you! They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!” Ophelia, Act 4 Scene 5

🙈 Corruption, Poison, and Decay

An atmosphere of corruption, poison, and decay lingers over Hamlet from the play’s very first scene and continues till the very end. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” notices Marcellus in Act 1 Scene 4. What does he mean? How does this quote set the tone of the play ? Let’s figure out the meaning of the poison metaphor in Hamlet and discover the themes of corruption and decay.

The general feeling of disease and decay appears in Hamlet act 1. In the first lines of the play, Francisco tells Barnardo:

“For this relief much thanks: ’tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.” Act 1, scene 1

But what is this sickness? And is it only Francisco who feels terrible inside? Or is there somebody else in Hamlet with a disease?

The entire play is built upon the idea of the corruption of the body and the soul. After the death of Old Hamlet, Claudius takes the throne. However, the new King only pretends to be a good ruler. In fact, he is the cause of the country’s decay and the flourishing of corruption in Hamlet .

Shakespeare highlights the negative consequences of Claudius’s governance by describing nature’s decay. The author shows that weeds are overwhelming healthy plants, and everything is rotting in the gardens.

A significant symbol in Hamlet is poison. Throughout the play, several characters die because of it. This adds extra meaning to the concept of the play since poison corrupts people from the inside.

Shakespeare depicts a poisonous and gloomy atmosphere in Hamlet to argue that there is a link between internal rot and external decay. The state of Denmark experiences political corruption. Shakespeare, however, invokes another kind of corruption — rotting, putrefying, and fouling — to prove to the readers that a corrupt kingdom is just as horrible as a decaying corpse.

💬 Quotes about Corruption

“Fie on’t! ah fie! ’tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely.” Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Marcellus, Act 1 Scene 4

In his plays, Shakespeare frequently touches on the theme about family. The author masterfully depicts the relationships between parents and children, spouses, and other relatives. Let’s take a closer look at the family theme in Hamlet .

The story rotates around Hamlet’s family tree. His mother, Gertrude, marries his uncle, Claudius, very soon after his father’s demise. Firstly , Prince is disgusted and incredibly bothered by his mother’s affair and marriage with his uncle. He starts thinking that all the women are two-faced and deceitful.

Secondly , Hamlet realizes that Gertrude and Claudius commit incest. Though, he doesn’t blame Claudius for this. That’s why there is a common opinion that Hamlet has the “Oedipus Complex.”

What does “Oedipus Complex” means?

It is a state of sexual attraction towards a parent of the opposite sex. Does Зrince indeed desire his mother? Shakespeare does not reveal this secret. We, the readers, may only make our assumptions.

Another vivid example of family conflict in Hamlet is Polonius’s family. He takes too much control over his children, Laertes and Ophelia, trying to trace their actions. Pretending to be a caring father, Polonius spies upon his son and hurts his daughter’s sincere feelings towards Prince. Thus, Polonius is a representation of poor parenting in Hamlet and the symbol of weak family ties.

All the examples of family significance in the play lead to deaths:

• Being a faithful son Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death. This proves Prince’s honor and loyalty to his family.
• Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine and dies, saving her son. It may demonstrate her unconditional love for Hamlet as she sacrifices herself for her child.
• Ophelia gets insane as she learns about her father’s death and commits suicide.
• Laertes becomes mad as well and decides to avenge Hamlet for Polonius’ and Ophelia’s demise.

Overall, the theme of family in Hamlet is somewhat controversial. Shakespeare demonstrates relationships in the play from different angles. Thus, the readers can evaluate the significance of family ties in people’s lives.

💬 Quotes about Family

“O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good: But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.” Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2

“Look you, sir, Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris; And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, What company, at what expense; and finding By this encompassment and drift of question That they do know my son, come you more nearer Than your particular demands will touch it: Take you, as ’twere, some distant knowledge of him; As thus, ‘I know his father and his friends, And in part him.'” Polonius, Act 2 Scene 1

“How stand I then, That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep?” Hamlet, Act 4 Scene 4

The theme of madness in Hamlet plays a crucial role and drives the plot of the play. Shakespeare depicted insanity through different characters. The primary ones are Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes.

If we conduct Hamlet’s madness analysis, we can assume that he only pretended to be insane in the beginning. His original intention was to fool everyone around and prove Claudius’s guilt. However, as the action unfolds, his madness partially turns into a real one since he becomes more vulnerable.

The reasons for Hamlet’s madness are apparent. The desperate desire to avenge his father by killing Claudius occupies his mind. Consequently, Hamlet’s mental illness progresses. He starts acting impulsively and even thinks of suicide as an option. Thus, Hamlet’s insanity plays a cruel joke: he becomes mentally unstable and unable to take full control of his actions.

Shakespeare also discovers the theme of madness in Hamlet through the character of Laertes. After Prince stabs Polonius, Laertes gets too frustrated and seeks revenge. Due to rage and grief, he strives to avenge his father and kill Hamlet. With the progress of the play, he has even more reasons for revenge as Ophelia also dies.

In the end, Laertes’s madness is defeated. He considers the apology from Hamlet, proving he isn’t actually insane. His fury and rage made him blind, making him willing to pursue revenge.

Ophelia’s madness is another aspect that should be considered. If Hamlet’s and Laertes’s insanity is questionable, hers is real.

Ophelia is a fragile character. Being too overwhelmed by her father’s death, she loses her mind. Moreover, if we conduct an in-depth Ophelia’s madness analysis, we can conclude that her insanity comes from Hamlet’s betrayal. The lady is sincerely in love with Prince. However, he mistreats her and stabs her father. Being unable to resist such stress, Ophelia loses her mind.

The scene with the flowers proves that Ophelia’s madness in Hamlet is genuine. She commits suicide right after:

“but long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.” Act 4 Scene 7

Overall, the significance of madness in Hamlet should not be underestimated since this theme drives the progress of the play. Amongst all the characters, Ophelia was the one person who was infected by true insanity. In contrast, the madness of Hamlet and Laertes is controllable. All the characters had one thing in common: their turmoil was driven and encouraged by a devastating loss in their lives.

💬 Quotes about Madness

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.” Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2

“It shall be so: Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go.” Claudius, Act 3 Scene 1

“Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes? Never Hamlet: If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away, And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. Who does it, then? His madness: if’t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong’d; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.” Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 2

Thank you for reading! Check other articles about Hamlet via the links below.

• Hamlet, Entire Play — William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, created by Jeremy Hylton
• 6 Major Themes In Shakespeare’s Hamlet — No Sweat Shakespeare
• Themes, Symbols & Character Analysis Motifs in Hamlet — Gale, A Cengage Company
• Analyzing the Theme of Religion in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet — Owlcation
• Resisting Hamlet Revenge and Nonviolent Struggle in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider — Brian Walsh, Literature/Film Quarterly, Salisbury University
• Hamlet and Revenge — Kiernan Ryan, The British Library
• Death as a Theme in Hamlet — Lee Jamieson, ThoughtCo
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IvyPanda. (2023, August 12). Themes in Hamlet: Doubt, Revenge, and More. https://ivypanda.com/lit/hamlet-study-guide/themes/

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Hamlet Madness Essay

Hamlet’s madness is a key element to the play Hamlet. Hamlet, the protagonist of Hamlet, becomes depressed and horrified after discovering that his uncle Claudius has murdered his father and married Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet seeks revenge on Claudius for this transgression but feels like he has lost all agency because he can’t be sure if people are lying or telling him the truth. His refusal to make any decisions based on anything other than absolute certainty destroys everything around him until Hamlet finally goes mad himself and dies as a result of complications brought about by pneumonia.

Hamlet’s Madness While it seems likely that Hamlet becomes insane mostly due to grief, guilt and regret (all exacerbated by being ignored by his father, betrayed by his mother and uncle, forced to stay in the same house as the murderer of Hamlet’s father, etc), Hamlet does show symptoms consistent with mental illness in early scenes. For example, Hamlet sees Claudius praying and has “A lunatic could not be so proud / A madman would not hear it” (II. ii. 298-99) because Hamlet knows that Claudius killed Hamlet’s father but Claudius is praying for forgiveness from a man that he murdered.

Another symptom of Hamlet’s madness is Hamlet’s overreaction to Polonious death when he stabs through a curtain at him once he realizes that it isn’t actually the king who had been eavesdropping on Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet also claims to be “A dull and muddy-mettled rascal” (I. ii. 132), a lack of will to do anything after learning that his father is dead and Hamlets inability to accept what is happening around him as reality (thinking that Claudius was praying) all suggest Hamlet’s madness throughout the play.

Hamlet does not go mad immediately after discovering Claudius’ crime however; Hamlet has clearly been contemplating this for most of the play, especially since he is already thinking about such things before meeting his father’s ghost at the beginning of the play. Hamlet thinks about death and revenge almost constantly throughout the entirety of Hamlet, so it seems unlikely that he would flip out the minute he hears that his father was killed.

Hamlet simply can’t make decisions for himself, and Hamlet spends most of the play looking for the reason why Claudius would murder Hamlet’s father if it wasn’t for Hamlet’s death; because Hamlet has still not made a decision on what to do after he has discovered the truth about his uncle Claudius, Hamlet does not move forward and instead must take time to “catch [his] breath” (I. v. 43). Hamlet often seems very confused in early scenes of Hamlet, which is understandable considering that Hamlet’s father dies at the beginning of the play, right in front of him.

Hamlet’s inability to cope with this compounded by everything else going on around Hamlet results in Hamlet’s madness. Although Hamlet’s father is dead, Hamlet does have other family members around him throughout the play who could have helped Hamlet cope with his loss. While Hamlet’s mother remarries soon after Hamlet’s father’s death, she has an opportunity to discuss this with Hamlet before announcing it at a public event which can be seen as very rude without speaking to Hamlet about it first. Laertes also returns from France prematurely for his sister’s funeral so he could have been there for support if needed.

Both of these characters are related to Hamlet and know what Hamlet has gone through recently; Claudius knows that killing someone’s parent would look bad but he probably did not understand how much grief this would cause Hamlet. Hamlet’s mother, on the other hand, should know firsthand how Hamlet would react to losing his father especially since Hamlet was already very upset before he saw Claudius praying. Even after Hamlet learns that his uncle murdered his father, Hamlet is still not completely sure of what to do for almost half the play until Laertes goes crazy with grief which pushes Hamlet into action.

This long period where Hamlet has trouble deciding what to do suggests mental illness or at least heavy grief and stress. Rosenthal notes that Hamlet’s madness doesn’t have any effect on him throughout most of the play except during Act V when it becomes clear that “the weight of all these past months descends upon Hamlet” and Hamlet finally understands the consequence of what he has been planning. Hamlet’s death in this scene is described as “gently, even graciously,” which shows that Hamlet is at peace with himself and accepting of his fate.

Hamlet’s madness throughout Hamlet usually demonstrates Hamlet’s struggle to cope and understand what’s going on around him but it does not usually affect his actions until the end of Hamlet when Hamlet realizes how much time has passed while he was delayed in avenging his father’s death. After all the other characters are dead, Hamlet dies speaking to Horatio about Fortinbras marching through Denmark after Hamlet’s death which could be a reference to Fortinbras’ against Poland during which Fortinbras takes Hamlet’s words, “the readiness is all” (V. ii. 98) to mean that Hamlet wished his death to be as convenient for Fortinbras as possible.

Hamlet uses this quote earlier in the play when he tells Horatio not to reveal Hamlet’s plan to kill Claudius until after it has happened because Hamlet wants everything set up before he reveals himself again. Not everyone views Hamlet’s madness as physical, though. For example, Peter Ure argues that Hamlet’s madness was caused by opium instead of grief and stress, which could provide an alternate explanation for Hamlet’s behavior throughout the play including during Act V where Hamlet finally sees the consequences of what he has done so far.

However, Hamlet’s very traditional views on death suggest that Hamlet is not the type of person to seek out drugs for pleasure. Hamlet references heaven and hell multiple times throughout Hamlet which shows Hamlet’s strong belief in afterlife. Hamlet also mentions superstition multiple times regarding ghosts and describes “the dread of something after death” (III. i. 78) as one reason Hamlet’s father’s spirit cannot rest which suggests Hamlet does not want to risk dying because he would not be able to go to heaven if he kills himself.

The only time Hamlet questions his beliefs is during his conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern where he is trying to figure out what they know about him but this conversation is less about Hamlet doubting his beliefs and more about Hamlet no longer enjoying acting like the way he usually does. Hamlet’s strong views on death Hamlet also show that Hamlet is not likely to disregard his own life just because it’s getting harder for him to live it.

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The Theme of Madness in the Play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Plays — Hamlet Madness

Essays on Hamlet Madness

Prompt examples for "hamlet" madness essays, exploring hamlet's madness.

Examine the character of Hamlet and his descent into madness throughout the play. What are the triggers for his madness, and how does his behavior change over the course of the story?

Madness as a Theme

Discuss the theme of madness in "Hamlet." How is madness portrayed in the play, and what purpose does it serve in the overall narrative? Explore different characters' experiences with madness.

The Feigned Madness of Hamlet

Analyze Hamlet's decision to feign madness as part of his plan for revenge. What are his motivations for this deception, and how does it impact the other characters and the unfolding events?

Ophelia's Madness

Explore the character of Ophelia and the circumstances leading to her madness. How does Ophelia's madness highlight the themes of love, loss, and vulnerability in the play?

Polonius's Role in Hamlet's Madness

Discuss the role of Polonius in Hamlet's descent into madness. How does Polonius's spying and manipulation contribute to the unfolding events, and what are the consequences?

Moral and Psychological Implications

Examine the moral and psychological implications of madness in "Hamlet." How does the theme of madness shed light on the characters' inner conflicts and the broader moral questions raised in the play?

Comparative Analysis: Madness in Shakespeare's Works

Compare and contrast the portrayal of madness in "Hamlet" with its treatment in other Shakespearean plays, such as "King Lear" or "Macbeth." How do these depictions differ?

Madness and Reality

Explore the blurred lines between madness and reality in "Hamlet." How do characters, including Hamlet, perceive the world around them, and how does this perception influence their actions?

The Impact of Madness on Relationships

Analyze how madness affects the relationships between characters in "Hamlet." How do characters' perceptions of each other change as madness becomes a central theme?

The Tragic Consequences of Madness

Discuss the tragic outcomes resulting from the theme of madness in "Hamlet." How do the characters' actions driven by madness lead to the play's final events and resolution?

The Representation of Madness in Shakespeare's Text, Hamlet

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The Important Theme of Madness in Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Madness and melancholy in hamlet by william shakespeare, depiction of madness in shakespeare’s hamlet: ophelia’s schizophrenia, analysis of the significance of ophelia's madness, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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How Hamlet is Faking Insanity: Appearance Vs Reality in Shakespeare's Play

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Unveiling Motives Why Does Hamlet Pretend to Be Mad

A mad tragic hero as one of the themes in shakespeare's 'hamlet'.

c. 1599-1601, by William Shakespeare

Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother.

Madness is one of the most pervasive themes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Several of the characters in Hamlet could be considered mad. Most notably, Hamlet and Ophelia characterize the idea of madness in this play. The madness displayed by each of these characters is driven in part by the deaths of their fathers, however, they each portray it in different ways regardless of the similar origins. The madness of each of these characters ultimately ends in tragedy.

Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Goratio, Laertes, Voltimand and Cornelius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Osric, Marcellus, Barnardo, Francisco, Ghost

Shakespeare’s telling of the story of Prince Hamlet was derived from several sources, notably from Books III and IV of Saxo Grammaticus’s 12th-century Gesta Danorum and from volume 5 (1570) of Histoires tragiques, a free translation of Saxo by François de Belleforest. The play was evidently preceded by another play of Hamlet (now lost), usually referred to as the Ur-Hamlet, of which Thomas Kyd is a conjectured author.

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.” “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

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Jeffrey R. Wilson

Essays on hamlet.

Written as the author taught Hamlet every semester for a decade, these lightning essays ask big conceptual questions about the play with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover, and answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. In doing so, Hamlet becomes a lens for life today, generating insights on everything from xenophobia, American fraternities, and religious fundamentalism to structural misogyny, suicide contagion, and toxic love.

Prioritizing close reading over historical context, these explorations are highly textual and highly theoretical, often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Readers see King Hamlet as a pre-modern villain, King Claudius as a modern villain, and Prince Hamlet as a post-modern villain. Hamlet’s feigned madness becomes a window into failed insanity defenses in legal trials. He knows he’s being watched in “To be or not to be”: the soliloquy is a satire of philosophy. Horatio emerges as Shakespeare’s authorial avatar for meta-theatrical commentary, Fortinbras as the hero of the play. Fate becomes a viable concept for modern life, and honor a source of tragedy. The metaphor of music in the play makes Ophelia Hamlet’s instrument. Shakespeare, like the modern corporation, stands against sexism, yet perpetuates it unknowingly. We hear his thoughts on single parenting, sending children off to college, and the working class, plus his advice on acting and writing, and his claims to be the next Homer or Virgil. In the context of four centuries of Hamlet hate, we hear how the text draws audiences in, how it became so famous, and why it continues to captivate audiences.

At a time when the humanities are said to be in crisis, these essays are concrete examples of the mind-altering power of literature and literary studies, unravelling the ongoing implications of the English language’s most significant artistic object of the past millennium.

Publications

Why is Hamlet the most famous English artwork of the past millennium? Is it a sexist text? Why does Hamlet speak in prose? Why must he die? Does Hamlet depict revenge, or justice? How did the death of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, transform into a story about a son dealing with the death of a father? Did Shakespeare know Aristotle’s theory of tragedy? How did our literary icon, Shakespeare, see his literary icons, Homer and Virgil? Why is there so much comedy in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy? Why is love a force of evil in the play? Did Shakespeare believe there’s a divinity that shapes our ends? How did he define virtue? What did he think about psychology? politics? philosophy? What was Shakespeare’s image of himself as an author? What can he, arguably the greatest writer of all time, teach us about our own writing? What was his theory of literature? Why do people like Hamlet ? How do the Hamlet haters of today compare to those of yesteryears? Is it dangerous for our children to read a play that’s all about suicide? 

These are some of the questions asked in this book, a collection of essays on Shakespeare’s Hamlet stemming from my time teaching the play every semester in my Why Shakespeare? course at Harvard University. During this time, I saw a series of bright young minds from wildly diverse backgrounds find their footing in Hamlet, and it taught me a lot about how Shakespeare’s tragedy works, and why it remains with us in the modern world. Beyond ghosts, revenge, and tragedy, Hamlet is a play about being in college, being in love, gender, misogyny, friendship, theater, philosophy, theology, injustice, loss, comedy, depression, death, self-doubt, mental illness, white privilege, overbearing parents, existential angst, international politics, the classics, the afterlife, and the meaning of it all. 

These essays grow from the central paradox of the play: it helps us understand the world we live in, yet we don't really understand the text itself very well. For all the attention given to Hamlet , there’s no consensus on the big questions—how it works, why it grips people so fiercely, what it’s about. These essays pose first-order questions about what happens in Hamlet and why, mobilizing answers for reflections on life, making the essays both highly textual and highly theoretical. 

Each semester that I taught the play, I would write a new essay about Hamlet . They were meant to be models for students, the sort of essay that undergrads read and write – more rigorous than the puff pieces in the popular press, but riskier than the scholarship in most academic journals. While I later added scholarly outerwear, these pieces all began just like the essays I was assigning to students – as short close readings with a reader and a text and a desire to determine meaning when faced with a puzzling question or problem. 

The turn from text to context in recent scholarly books about Hamlet is quizzical since we still don’t have a strong sense of, to quote the title of John Dover Wilson’s 1935 book, What Happens in Hamlet. Is the ghost real? Is Hamlet mad, or just faking? Why does he delay? These are the kinds of questions students love to ask, but they haven’t been – can’t be – answered by reading the play in the context of its sources (recently addressed in Laurie Johnson’s The Tain of Hamlet [2013]), its multiple texts (analyzed by Paul Menzer in The Hamlets [2008] and Zachary Lesser in Hamlet after Q1 [2015]), the Protestant reformation (the focus of Stephen Greenblatt’s Hamlet in Purgatory [2001] and John E. Curran, Jr.’s Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency [2006]), Renaissance humanism (see Rhodri Lewis, Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness [2017]), Elizabethan political theory (see Margreta de Grazia, Hamlet without Hamlet [2007]), the play’s reception history (see David Bevington, Murder Most Foul: Hamlet through the Ages [2011]), its appropriation by modern philosophers (covered in Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster’s The Hamlet Doctrine [2013] and Andrew Cutrofello’s All for Nothing: Hamlet’s Negativity [2014]), or its recent global travels (addressed, for example, in Margaret Latvian’s Hamlet’s Arab Journey [2011] and Dominic Dromgoole’s Hamlet Globe to Globe [2017]). 

Considering the context and afterlives of Hamlet is a worthy pursuit. I certainly consulted the above books for my essays, yet the confidence that comes from introducing context obscures the sharp panic we feel when confronting Shakespeare’s text itself. Even as the excellent recent book from Sonya Freeman Loftis, Allison Kellar, and Lisa Ulevich announces Hamlet has entered “an age of textual exhaustion,” there’s an odd tendency to avoid the text of Hamlet —to grasp for something more firm—when writing about it. There is a need to return to the text in a more immediate way to understand how Hamlet operates as a literary work, and how it can help us understand the world in which we live. 

That latter goal, yes, clings nostalgically to the notion that literature can help us understand life. Questions about life send us to literature in search of answers. Those of us who love literature learn to ask and answer questions about it as we become professional literary scholars. But often our answers to the questions scholars ask of literature do not connect back up with the questions about life that sent us to literature in the first place—which are often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Those first-order questions are diluted and avoided in the minutia of much scholarship, left unanswered. Thus, my goal was to pose questions about Hamlet with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover and to answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. 

In doing so, these essays challenge the conventional relationship between literature and theory. They pursue a kind of criticism where literature is not merely the recipient of philosophical ideas in the service of exegesis. Instead, the creative risks of literature provide exemplars to be theorized outward to help us understand on-going issues in life today. Beyond an occasion for the demonstration of existing theory, literature is a source for the creation of new theory.

Chapter One How Hamlet Works

Whether you love or hate Hamlet , you can acknowledge its massive popularity. So how does Hamlet work? How does it create audience enjoyment? Why is it so appealing, and to whom? Of all the available options, why Hamlet ? This chapter entertains three possible explanations for why the play is so popular in the modern world: the literary answer (as the English language’s best artwork about death—one of the very few universal human experiences in a modern world increasingly marked by cultural differences— Hamlet is timeless); the theatrical answer (with its mixture of tragedy and comedy, the role of Hamlet requires the best actor of each age, and the play’s popularity derives from the celebrity of its stars); and the philosophical answer (the play invites, encourages, facilitates, and sustains philosophical introspection and conversation from people who do not usually do such things, who find themselves doing those things with Hamlet , who sometimes feel embarrassed about doing those things, but who ultimately find the experience of having done them rewarding).

Chapter Two “It Started Like a Guilty Thing”: The Beginning of Hamlet and the Beginning of Modern Politics

King Hamlet is a tyrant and King Claudius a traitor but, because Shakespeare asked us to experience the events in Hamlet from the perspective of the young Prince Hamlet, we are much more inclined to detect and detest King Claudius’s political failings than King Hamlet’s. If so, then Shakespeare’s play Hamlet , so often seen as the birth of modern psychology, might also tell us a little bit about the beginnings of modern politics as well.

Chapter Three Horatio as Author: Storytelling and Stoic Tragedy

This chapter addresses Horatio’s emotionlessness in light of his role as a narrator, using this discussion to think about Shakespeare’s motives for writing tragedy in the wake of his son’s death. By rationalizing pain and suffering as tragedy, both Horatio and Shakespeare were able to avoid the self-destruction entailed in Hamlet’s emotional response to life’s hardships and injustices. Thus, the stoic Horatio, rather than the passionate Hamlet who repeatedly interrupts ‘The Mousetrap’, is the best authorial avatar for a Shakespeare who strategically wrote himself and his own voice out of his works. This argument then expands into a theory of ‘authorial catharsis’ and the suggestion that we can conceive of Shakespeare as a ‘poet of reason’ in contrast to a ‘poet of emotion’.

Chapter Four “To thine own self be true”: What Shakespeare Says about Sending Our Children Off to College

What does “To thine own self be true” actually mean? Be yourself? Don’t change who you are? Follow your own convictions? Don’t lie to yourself? This chapter argues that, if we understand meaning as intent, then “To thine own self be true” means, paradoxically, that “the self” does not exist. Or, more accurately, Shakespeare’s Hamlet implies that “the self” exists only as a rhetorical, philosophical, and psychological construct that we use to make sense of our experiences and actions in the world, not as anything real. If this is so, then this passage may offer us a way of thinking about Shakespeare as not just a playwright but also a moral philosopher, one who did his ethics in drama.

Chapter Five In Defense of Polonius

Your wife dies. You raise two children by yourself. You build a great career to provide for your family. You send your son off to college in another country, though you know he’s not ready. Now the prince wants to marry your daughter—that’s not easy to navigate. Then—get this—while you’re trying to save the queen’s life, the prince murders you. Your death destroys your kids. They die tragically. And what do you get for your efforts? Centuries of Shakespeare scholars dumping on you. If we see Polonius not through the eyes of his enemy, Prince Hamlet—the point of view Shakespeare’s play asks audiences to adopt—but in analogy to the common challenges of twenty-first-century parenting, Polonius is a single father struggling with work-life balance who sadly choses his career over his daughter’s well-being.

Chapter Six Sigma Alpha Elsinore: The Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Claudius likes to party—a bit too much. He frequently binge drinks, is arguably an alcoholic, but not an aberration. Hamlet says Denmark is internationally known for heavy drinking. That’s what Shakespeare would have heard in the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, English writers feared Denmark had taught their nation its drinking habits. Synthesizing criticism on alcoholism as an individual problem in Shakespeare’s texts and times with scholarship on national drinking habits in the early-modern age, this essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual, but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicted in Hamlet. One window into these early-modern cultures of drunkenness is sociological studies of American college fraternities, especially the social-learning theories that explain how one person—one culture—teaches another its habits. For Claudius’s alcoholism is both culturally learned and culturally significant. And, as in fraternities, alcoholism in Hamlet is bound up with wealth, privilege, toxic masculinity, and tragedy. Thus, alcohol imagistically reappears in the vial of “cursed hebona,” Ophelia’s liquid death, and the poisoned cup in the final scene—moments that stand out in recent performances and adaptations with alcoholic Claudiuses and Gertrudes.

Chapter Seven Tragic Foundationalism

This chapter puts the modern philosopher Alain Badiou’s theory of foundationalism into dialogue with the early-modern playwright William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . Doing so allows us to identify a new candidate for Hamlet’s traditionally hard-to-define hamartia – i.e., his “tragic mistake” – but it also allows us to consider the possibility of foundationalism as hamartia. Tragic foundationalism is the notion that fidelity to a single and substantive truth at the expense of an openness to evidence, reason, and change is an acute mistake which can lead to miscalculations of fact and virtue that create conflict and can end up in catastrophic destruction and the downfall of otherwise strong and noble people.

Chapter Eight “As a stranger give it welcome”: Shakespeare’s Advice for First-Year College Students

Encountering a new idea can be like meeting a strange person for the first time. Similarly, we dismiss new ideas before we get to know them. There is an answer to the problem of the human antipathy to strangeness in a somewhat strange place: a single line usually overlooked in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . If the ghost is “wondrous strange,” Hamlet says, invoking the ancient ethics of hospitality, “Therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” In this word, strange, and the social conventions attached to it, is both the instinctual, animalistic fear and aggression toward what is new and different (the problem) and a cultivated, humane response in hospitality and curiosity (the solution). Intellectual xenia is the answer to intellectual xenophobia.

Chapter Nine Parallels in Hamlet

Hamlet is more parallely than other texts. Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes have their fathers murdered, then seek revenge. Brothers King Hamlet and King Claudius mirror brothers Old Norway and Old Fortinbras. Hamlet and Ophelia both lose their fathers, go mad, but there’s a method in their madness, and become suicidal. King Hamlet and Polonius are both domineering fathers. Hamlet and Polonius are both scholars, actors, verbose, pedantic, detectives using indirection, spying upon others, “by indirections find directions out." King Hamlet and King Claudius are both kings who are killed. Claudius using Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet mirrors Polonius using Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. Reynaldo and Hamlet both pretend to be something other than what they are in order to spy on and detect foes. Young Fortinbras and Prince Hamlet both have their forward momentum “arrest[ed].” Pyrrhus and Hamlet are son seeking revenge but paused a “neutral to his will.” The main plot of Hamlet reappears in the play-within-the-play. The Act I duel between King Hamlet and Old Fortinbras echoes in the Act V duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Claudius and Hamlet are both king killers. Sheesh—why are there so many dang parallels in Hamlet ? Is there some detectable reason why the story of Hamlet would call for the literary device of parallelism?

Chapter Ten Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Why Hamlet Has Two Childhood Friends, Not Just One

Why have two of Hamlet’s childhood friends rather than just one? Do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have individuated personalities? First of all, by increasing the number of friends who visit Hamlet, Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of being outnumbered, of multiple enemies encroaching upon Hamlet, of Hamlet feeling that the world is against him. Second, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not interchangeable, as commonly thought. Shakespeare gave each an individuated personality. Guildenstern is friendlier with Hamlet, and their friendship collapses, while Rosencrantz is more distant and devious—a frenemy.

Chapter Eleven Shakespeare on the Classics, Shakespeare as a Classic: A Reading of Aeneas’s Tale to Dido

Of all the stories Shakespeare might have chosen, why have Hamlet ask the players to recite Aeneas’ tale to Dido of Pyrrhus’s slaughter of Priam? In this story, which comes not from Homer’s Iliad but from Virgil’s Aeneid and had already been adapted for the Elizabethan stage in Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragedy of Dido, Pyrrhus – more commonly known as Neoptolemus, the son of the famous Greek warrior Achilles – savagely slays Priam, the king of the Trojans and the father of Paris, who killed Pyrrhus’s father, Achilles, who killed Paris’s brother, Hector, who killed Achilles’s comrade, Patroclus. Clearly, the theme of revenge at work in this story would have appealed to Shakespeare as he was writing what would become the greatest revenge tragedy of all time. Moreover, Aeneas’s tale to Dido supplied Shakespeare with all of the connections he sought to make at this crucial point in his play and his career – connections between himself and Marlowe, between the start of Hamlet and the end, between Prince Hamlet and King Claudius, between epic poetry and tragic drama, and between the classical literature Shakespeare was still reading hundreds of years later and his own potential as a classic who might (and would) be read hundreds of years into the future.

Chapter Twelve How Theater Works, according to Hamlet

According to Hamlet, people who are guilty of a crime will, when seeing that crime represented on stage, “proclaim [their] malefactions”—but that simply isn’t how theater works. Guilty people sit though shows that depict their crimes all the time without being prompted to public confession. Why did Shakespeare—a remarkably observant student of theater—write this demonstrably false theory of drama into his protagonist? And why did Shakespeare then write the plot of the play to affirm that obviously inaccurate vision of theater? For Claudius is indeed stirred to confession by the play-within-the-play. Perhaps Hamlet’s theory of people proclaiming malefactions upon seeing their crimes represented onstage is not as outlandish as it first appears. Perhaps four centuries of obsession with Hamlet is the English-speaking world proclaiming its malefactions upon seeing them represented dramatically.

Chapter Thirteen “To be, or not to be”: Shakespeare Against Philosophy

This chapter hazards a new reading of the most famous passage in Western literature: “To be, or not to be” from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . With this line, Hamlet poses his personal struggle, a question of life and death, as a metaphysical problem, as a question of existence and nothingness. However, “To be, or not to be” is not what it seems to be. It seems to be a representation of tragic angst, yet a consideration of the context of the speech reveals that “To be, or not to be” is actually a satire of philosophy and Shakespeare’s representation of the theatricality of everyday life. In this chapter, a close reading of the context and meaning of this passage leads into an attempt to formulate a Shakespearean image of philosophy.

Chapter Fourteen Contagious Suicide in and Around Hamlet

As in society today, suicide is contagious in Hamlet , at least in the example of Ophelia, the only death by suicide in the play, because she only becomes suicidal after hearing Hamlet talk about his own suicidal thoughts in “To be, or not to be.” Just as there are media guidelines for reporting on suicide, there are better and worse ways of handling Hamlet . Careful suicide coverage can change public misperceptions and reduce suicide contagion. Is the same true for careful literary criticism and classroom discussion of suicide texts? How can teachers and literary critics reduce suicide contagion and increase help-seeking behavior?

Chapter Fifteen Is Hamlet a Sexist Text? Overt Misogyny vs. Unconscious Bias

Students and fans of Shakespeare’s Hamlet persistently ask a question scholars and critics of the play have not yet definitively answered: is it a sexist text? The author of this text has been described as everything from a male chauvinist pig to a trailblazing proto-feminist, but recent work on the science behind discrimination and prejudice offers a new, better vocabulary in the notion of unconscious bias. More pervasive and slippery than explicit bigotry, unconscious bias involves the subtle, often unintentional words and actions which indicate the presence of biases we may not be aware of, ones we may even fight against. The Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet exhibited an unconscious bias against women, I argue, even as he sought to critique the mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society. The evidence for this unconscious bias is not to be found in the misogynistic statements made by the characters in the play. It exists, instead, in the demonstrable preference Shakespeare showed for men over women when deciding where to deploy his literary talents. Thus, Shakespeare's Hamlet is a powerful literary example – one which speaks to, say, the modern corporation – showing that deliberate efforts for egalitarianism do not insulate one from the effects of structural inequalities that both stem from and create unconscious bias.

Chapter Sixteen Style and Purpose in Acting and Writing

Purpose and style are connected in academic writing. To answer the question of style ( How should we write academic papers? ) we must first answer the question of purpose ( Why do we write academic papers? ). We can answer these questions, I suggest, by turning to an unexpected style guide that’s more than 400 years old: the famous passage on “the purpose of playing” in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . In both acting and writing, a high style often accompanies an expressive purpose attempting to impress an elite audience yet actually alienating intellectual people, while a low style and mimetic purpose effectively engage an intellectual audience.

Chapter Seventeen 13 Ways of Looking at a Ghost

Why doesn’t Gertrude see the Ghost of King Hamlet in Act III, even though Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, Marcellus, and Prince Hamlet all saw it in Act I? It’s a bit embarrassing that Shakespeare scholars don’t have a widely agreed-upon consensus that explains this really basic question that puzzles a lot of people who read or see Hamlet .

Chapter Eighteen The Tragedy of Love in Hamlet

The word “love” appears 84 times in Shakespeare’s Hamlet . “Father” only appears 73 times, “play” 60, “think” 55, “mother” 46, “mad” 44, “soul” 40, “God" 39, “death” 38, “life” 34, “nothing” 28, “son” 26, “honor” 21, “spirit” 19, “kill” 18, “revenge” 14, and “action” 12. Love isn’t the first theme that comes to mind when we think of Hamlet , but is surprisingly prominent. But love is tragic in Hamlet . The bloody catastrophe at the end of that play is principally driven not by hatred or a longing for revenge, but by love.

Chapter Nineteen Ophelia’s Songs: Moral Agency, Manipulation, and the Metaphor of Music in Hamlet

This chapter reads Ophelia’s songs in Act IV of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the context of the meaning of music established elsewhere in the play. While the songs are usually seen as a marker of Ophelia’s madness (as a result of the death of her father) or freedom (from the constraints of patriarchy), they come – when read in light of the metaphor of music as manipulation – to symbolize her role as a pawn in Hamlet’s efforts to deceive his family. Thus, music was Shakespeare’s platform for connecting Ophelia’s story to one of the central questions in Hamlet : Do we have control over our own actions (like the musician), or are we controlled by others (like the instrument)?

Chapter Twenty A Quantitative Study of Prose and Verse in Hamlet

Why does Hamlet have so much prose? Did Shakespeare deliberately shift from verse to prose to signal something to his audiences? How would actors have handled the shifts from verse to prose? Would audiences have detected shifts from verse to prose? Is there an overarching principle that governs Shakespeare’s decision to use prose—a coherent principle that says, “If X, then use prose?”

Chapter Twenty-One The Fortunes of Fate in Hamlet : Divine Providence and Social Determinism

In Hamlet , fate is attacked from both sides: “fortune” presents a world of random happenstance, “will” a theory of efficacious human action. On this backdrop, this essay considers—irrespective of what the characters say and believe—what the structure and imagery Shakespeare wrote into Hamlet say about the possibility that some version of fate is at work in the play. I contend the world of Hamlet is governed by neither fate nor fortune, nor even the Christianized version of fate called “providence.” Yet there is a modern, secular, disenchanted form of fate at work in Hamlet—what is sometimes called “social determinism”—which calls into question the freedom of the individual will. As such, Shakespeare’s Hamlet both commented on the transformation of pagan fate into Christian providence that happened in the centuries leading up to the play, and anticipated the further transformation of fate from a theological to a sociological idea, which occurred in the centuries following Hamlet .

Chapter Twenty-Two The Working Class in Hamlet

There’s a lot for working-class folks to hate about Hamlet —not just because it’s old, dusty, difficult to understand, crammed down our throats in school, and filled with frills, tights, and those weird lace neck thingies that are just socially awkward to think about. Peak Renaissance weirdness. Claustrophobicly cloistered inside the castle of Elsinore, quaintly angsty over royal family problems, Hamlet feels like the literary epitome of elitism. “Lawless resolutes” is how the Wittenberg scholar Horatio describes the soldiers who join Fortinbras’s army in exchange “for food.” The Prince Hamlet who has never worked a day in his life denigrates Polonius as a “fishmonger”: quite the insult for a royal advisor to be called a working man. And King Claudius complains of the simplicity of "the distracted multitude.” But, in Hamlet , Shakespeare juxtaposed the nobles’ denigrations of the working class as readily available metaphors for all-things-awful with the rather valuable behavior of working-class characters themselves. When allowed to represent themselves, the working class in Hamlet are characterized as makers of things—of material goods and services like ships, graves, and plays, but also of ethical and political virtues like security, education, justice, and democracy. Meanwhile, Elsinore has a bad case of affluenza, the make-believe disease invented by an American lawyer who argued that his client's social privilege was so great that it created an obliviousness to law. While social elites rot society through the twin corrosives of political corruption and scholarly detachment, the working class keeps the machine running. They build the ships, plays, and graves society needs to function, and monitor the nuts-and-bolts of the ideals—like education and justice—that we aspire to uphold.

Chapter Twenty-Three The Honor Code at Harvard and in Hamlet

Students at Harvard College are asked, when they first join the school and several times during their years there, to affirm their awareness of and commitment to the school’s honor code. But instead of “the foundation of our community” that it is at Harvard, honor is tragic in Hamlet —a source of anxiety, blunder, and catastrophe. As this chapter shows, looking at Hamlet from our place at Harvard can bring us to see what a tangled knot honor can be, and we can start to theorize the difference between heroic and tragic honor.

Chapter Twenty-Four The Meaning of Death in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

By connecting the ways characters live their lives in Hamlet to the ways they die – on-stage or off, poisoned or stabbed, etc. – Shakespeare symbolized hamartia in catastrophe. In advancing this argument, this chapter develops two supporting ideas. First, the dissemination of tragic necessity: Shakespeare distributed the Aristotelian notion of tragic necessity – a causal relationship between a character’s hamartia (fault or error) and the catastrophe at the end of the play – from the protagonist to the other characters, such that, in Hamlet , those who are guilty must die, and those who die are guilty. Second, the spectacularity of death: there exists in Hamlet a positive correlation between the severity of a character’s hamartia (error or flaw) and the “spectacularity” of his or her death – that is, the extent to which it is presented as a visible and visceral spectacle on-stage.

Chapter Twenty-Five Tragic Excess in Hamlet

In Hamlet , Shakespeare paralleled the situations of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras (the father of each is killed, and each then seeks revenge) to promote the virtue of moderation: Hamlet moves too slowly, Laertes too swiftly – and they both die at the end of the play – but Fortinbras represents a golden mean which marries the slowness of Hamlet with the swiftness of Laertes. As argued in this essay, Shakespeare endorsed the virtue of balance by allowing Fortinbras to be one of the very few survivors of the play. In other words, excess is tragic in Hamlet .

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