Introduction
Apart from revenge, madness is another big theme throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet. Several characters in the play portray the theme of madness in the play. Mostly, madness is seen in Ophelia and Hamlet in the play, which is driven by the death of their fathers. However, their madness is portrayed in different ways, even though it is driven from the same origins. For instance, the first point where madness is seen in the play is when Hamlet is left to seek revenge for the murders of his father. In the end, all the madness of each character ultimately ends in tragedy. The paper will analyze and discuss the role and the impact of the madness in the play and also if the Hamlet is the on culpable for the death of Polonius.
What is Madness?
Madness is being mentally ill by showing extremely foolish behaviour and state of chaotic activity. In the Hamlet play, madness has a big role and many impacts on it. The first role is that madness is the main theme other than revenge throughout the play, and even it is the cause of the plot as it is. For example, Hamlet's madness makes him display many characteristics in the play. When the play is starting, Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father and by that, it can be said he is already mad. According to the play, the ghost tells him that he was killed by Claudius, making him seek revenge. At that point, he displays his character of erratic behaviour, pretending he has become mad with a desire to avenge his father's death. However, he also worries that the ghost might be a devil which will betray his soul at the end. That makes Hamlet even more confused as what to do, making him being even closer to madness.
Further, Hamlet had a chance to kill Claudius at the initial of play, but he decided not to because he thought if he killed him praying his soul would go to heaven. That made him wait until another time to prevent his soul from going to heaven. That made him be even closer to madness since the longer he waited, the more he became melancholy. For example, his famous monologue ‘to be, or not to be’ in Act 3, in scene one shows more of his melancholic states. At this state, Hamlet can be said to be having a crisis within himself whether or not to take his own life. By taking up his life, it would be a better off in calming the existential crisis. Thus, his melancholy and madness has driven him to the point of wanting to commit suicide.
Suffering from Melancholy
Hamlet madness had impacted him to be suffering from melancholy which comes from the actual mental illness most likely depression. The madness has even caused him to display negative and pessimistic thoughts. The state of madness has resulted in him into a state of depression when he is unable to cope with his perceived responsibility to his father's death. At the end of the play, Hamlet madness causes not only his death but also the death of many other characters, including his mother, who drinks the poison that was meant for him. Hence, his pretence of being mad for the vengeance of his father's death ended up, causing even more destruction to his own family.
However, in the play, Hamlet madness fairs Ophelia's madness through death and love in the heart of the play. In the play, Ophelia is portrayed as a person who is weak and even unable to stand by herself or even have a sense of individuality. For example, in the play, Ophelia says to her father that she does not know what she should think, meaning she does not have an identity of herself. That indicates mental illness which is madness. In the play, Ophelia's fathers are her identity, and this loss of identity makes her becomes even more mad. However, Ophelia's madness is driven by the loss of a male influence which has been in her life. According to Shakespeare, Laertes is the sister to Ophelia, Polonius is his pawn, and she is Hamlet's Lover. Thus, when these influences are removed from her life, she losses her identity and even become mad. However, when her father is dead, she losses she even losses a major part of her life. She is also rejected by Hamlet and the expectation of Laertes to be chaste drives her into a state of madness influenced by sexual frustration. The impact of madness in the life of Ophelia's she is not able to recognize herself as an independent without the three dominant male figures in her life (Brown).
There is also the issue of madness which contributes to the Ophelia madness. In the play, she is seen being much aware of England's medieval catholic past. Hence, when she losses the three men in her life, she starts to grief, making allusions to the medieval catholic forms of pity. Thus, the religious ideas on the role of women may have contributed to Ophelia’s dependence on the three men in her life. Angry with the grief on the death of her father, Ophelia ends up drowning herself into the river. At the end of the play, Ophelia commits suicide since she had nothing to live for without the people she loved in her life and even bestowed the sense of identity upon herself.
However, Hamlet is culpable for the death of Polonius in the play. In the play, during the confrontation with his mother, he stabs a man behind a curtain who turns to be the father of Ophelia the king's courtier, Polonius. That is when Ophelia, who is Hamlet's lover, goes mad and commit suicide. Although everyone at the final act of the play is killed, Polonius is revived to face the trial for killing Polonius. In the court, Washington, who is the attorney to Hamlet defend him, saying he did not fake the insanity, but he is just a sick boy who needs help (Wilber). He goes further to defend him, saying that the prosecutor wants to make a crime out of illness. They go head to give medical evidence from Harvard psychiatrist Dr Guttheil who is a witness in the case. He goes ahead to say that a mentally stable person would not drag the dead body saying ‘he will lug the guts into the neighbor room’ (Wilber). Unfortunately, the jury of volunteers from the audience agreed to the crime Hamlet was accused of. Not only was Hamlet responsible for driving Ophelia to her death, but jurors also he was guilty of killing Polonius. They said they did not believe that Hamlet was mentally ill. However, the plot of the play shows he had the mental ability to plan how and when to avenge his father’s death. Although in real life Hamlet case of being criminally responsible would not end at that point, there was no time for that issue. His lawyer had defended him, saying that the killing can be justified.
Playing Madness
In playing madness, Hamlet, become mad (Wilber). At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is perceived as an intelligent and even very knowledgeable man. Still, his mental health declines along with the story and even becomes the character of madness. However, everyone can agree that if someone killed themselves because of the careless action of another person, it is enough to drive them insane. For example, in the play, Hamlet is the last person to hear about Ophelia's death, and that made him throw himself into the gravesite where she was buried. Although along with the play, it becomes harder even to follow Hamlet's ideas because they are jumbled. However, the readers, along with the play question if Hamlet's madness was from the start of the play of it comes along the way. That is because when he sees his father's ghost at the beginning, it might be he was mad already.
