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Hamlet

Real Madness
vs. Feigned
Madness
Characters

Hamlet

Ophelia
Readers of Shakespeare

1. Defending a feigned
 Hamlet was as real and actual as any other person they
met daily

2. Defending an unfeigned madness


 They focus their studies in the discovery of the
dramatist’s intention in the creation of the character
Shakespeare’s unrivalled genius
 Shakespeare portrays the abnormal actions of a
demented mind
 Symptoms
 Reasons
 Performance as a madman
 Court firmly believed in his dementia
 How difficult is even for medical specialists to be
completely sure about the sanity or insanity of a
person

 Shakespeare lived on Muggleton Street, near to an


insane asylum.
Hamlet: Enough Reasons for
madness
• His father died suddenly
• Less than 2 months, her mother gets married
• His mother marries his own uncle
• His mother and uncle celebrate their marriage
without caring about the mourning of the former king
• His father’s ghost appears and tells him that he was
murdered by his own brother
• The woman he loves rejects him
• He finds out that Ophelia betrays him
• His mother is now married to the man who killed his
father
Shakespeare’s indications of
Hamlet’s feigned madness
1. Hamlet had an objective, a goal to pursuit: revenge
2. After the ghost’s revelation, he made up a plan to
find out if the ghost told him the truth or how to
expose his father’s murder
3. He realized that knowing the truth, his world had
completely changed:
1. He couldn’t comport himself as before at the
court of Claudius
4. He had to convince not only the court but his astute
uncle about his insanity.
5. His cunning uncle had doubts about Hamlet’s
madness
Shakespeare’s indications of
Hamlet’s feigned madness
6. In his monologues, Hamlet never lapse into
irrelevant and incoherent speech.
7. He confided his plans to his fellow friend, Horatio.
He knew about his real mental condition because he
never manifested sentiments of sorrow as he would
if ignorant of the feigned madness.
8. His instructions to the players were direct and
accurate
9. His perfect performance as a madman in presence
of those whom he mistrusted and sane in dealing
with his friends
10. He acted in sudden anger when he slew Polonius
and at Ophelia’s grave because of the exaggerated
show of Laertes.
Ophelia
• Shakespeare left no doubt of the genuine
madness of Ophelia.
• She lost her father by the hand of her lover
• Her brother was far away
• Hamlet treated her terribly
• She faced a hard time and it probably drived
her crazy
• It could also make her commit suicide

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