The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark There are a lot of themes that arise in Shakespeare's Hamlet, but the

one theme that allured me the most was madness. The story would not have been this interesting and prevalent without madness. We don't know if Hamlet is sane or crazy, but we do know that Hamlet's madness is different from Ophelia's. Both Hamlet and Ophelia have more freedom then before, which makes the story very interesting. Madness gives them freedom to express their feelings for whatever they feel like expressing and not getting in trouble for it. An important question that arises in Hamlet is whether Hamlet is pretending to be insane or whether he really is insane. The first mention of Hamlet being crazy is when Ophelia describes Hamlets' strange appearance and behavior to her father. In this moment in the story Hamlet is probably really stressed and shocked that he needed someone to talk to so he went to Ophelia but then thought better of it and left. He probably looked all crazy because he was just so overwhelmed by news about his father being murdered that he didn't care about his appearance. Also in the beginning of the play Hamlet states that he might have to act crazy. How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, To put an antic disposition on,...-(1,5,170) So we know that he does pretend to be crazy to let people think that he is crazy, because he wants to tell people what he feels and one way of telling is by pretending to be crazy.

Another question that arises is the difference between Ophelia's madness and Hamlet. There are two kinds of crazy people. One type is when they are really just so disturbed and crazy that they just become crazy. The other kind is when you do the opposite of what society

expects you to. that We know for sure that Ophelia is really crazy from hearing her fathers death was caused by her lover, Oh, her grief has poisoned her mind. Her father died and now look at her!(4,5,76) and because she ends up killing herself. Hamlet on the other hand does exactly the opposite of what the people expect him to do. He just wants to see people's reaction and see how they feel about certain things he talks about. So over all Ophelia is really the crazy one and Hamlet just pretends to be one. If someone is insane he/she might say things that people will not listen to. People will think that they are just speaking rubbish and not pay any attention to them. Also if people pretended to be mad then they would have more freedom on what they say and won't get in any trouble. This is what Hamlet does in the play, trick people that he is mad so he could say whatever he wants. Some things that Hamlet says to people that he would not have said or done if he was sane like when he killed Polonius without giving it a thought. How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead! (3,4,25) Also the things he said to his mother he might not have said the things he said to her if he was sane. Ophelia tells the king Well, God'ield you! They say the owl was a bakers daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table.(4,5,42) She is telling him that he get what he deserves and that his sins mu not be forgives. The king just brushes her off because he knows that she is mad. If she wasn't he would have probably punished her. She also starts singing songs about weird things that kind of make sense and have a meaning to them but of course they just brush her off. In the end Hamlet is just pretending to be insane but really isn't. Ophelia on the other hand really is insane because of all the things that happen to her. Her father was after all killed by her lover. Hamlet could have gotten insane later in the story but we know that he didn't because he would not have survived the trip to England without thinking and being

smart. So we do know that Hamlet is pretty much tricking everybody except for Horatio who he told everything. When Hamlet was talking to Horatio in the end he was making fun of bing crazy. Through out this essay Shakespeare gives us hints of Hamlet being insane but then Hamlet saying he is pretending. So pretty much this essay is my opinion and what my thoughts are on Hamlet and Ophelia being insane. Hamlet is also a prodigy of Shakespeares as it is a legend. More important than the one before as it was so it shall be is one of the most quoted lines from this play as is to be or not to be. Whatever for is another word used in this play that Shakespeare invented some say particularly for this play.