Hamlet?

[Xazor Elessar]

Just had a quick question about Hamlet. I know that there are many views on this subject, and I'd appreciate everyone's opinion on this.

Q: Was Hamlet in control of his 'antic disposition'? Was he truly sane or was he insane?

I'm writing a term paper about this and I wanted some opinions so that I could encorporate them in here somehow so I don't just have my opinion as the only 'way' to view it. Thanks to whomever helps me! :D

Xaz'
:crack

[Sanis Prent]

Wasn't much of a fan of Hamlet, unfortunately...and its been about 6 years since I read it.

[Telan Desaria]

I am partial to the theory that Hamlet could indeed control his rantings and it was an act to aid in the bringing out of his father's true murderer. In his death, he seemed quite sane.

Insane men cannot fight with a saber.

[Xazor Elessar]

o_O

:lol With a saber? ;) :lol Thanks for the insight.... :D Yeah, I really don't want to be reading this (I mean, I've read it four times already)...but I am definatly not a fan of it. It's okay, but not the kind of story I really enjoy. Though, I must say, the question of his sanity is quite interesting. :)

[Sanis Prent]

I'm much more of a fan of MacBeth, Julius Caesar, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Especially the Pyramus and Thisby short).

[Xazor Elessar]

Julius Caesar was really good...I do like that one alot. :)

[Zatania Duvall]

Oh jeez, it's been too long since I've read this! Well, now I know what to do on the trip down to Louisiana next month.

[Xazor Elessar]

:lol You don't remember anything from it though? I just need a few opinions....I was hoping that someone had read it and remembered. :lol

[Zatania Duvall]

I can barely remember my name sometimes. lol All I remember is Ophelia killing herself after Hamlet killed her father. If I had saved my journal entries from highschool about it, I'd help ya cuz I know I talked about that subject somewhere along the road.

[Sanis Prent]

I remember practically nothing from it. It thoroughly uninterested me.

[Emma Harvan]

Hmmm... Well I think that a lot of it was in the environment arround Hamlet. He certainly decayed morally and mentally as the play progressed, keeping in theme with Shakespeare's death/decay motif. You'll notice that almost everyone in teh play and nearly all the relationships slowly collapse. Even the state of Denmark is 'rotton'. So I think to a degree he was in control of his actions, he certainly meditated them but he just slowly became less and less the Hamlet from the beginning:)

[Xazor Elessar]

Yeah, it's just.....bleh....not a fun thing to read, especially since they switch around so much on what's going on. One minute they're talking about Hamlet and Ophelia...the next, it's Fortinbras and his nonesense. :lol

[Xazor Elessar]

Ooooooo, thankies Emma! :)

[Sanis Prent]

If you want a fun read...try Niccolo Macchiavelli's "The Prince". Its only 70-ish pages, but its a mindbender. Basically, World Domination for Dummies.

[Ryla Relvinian]

Things you could talk about regarding sanity.

Ophelia and Hamlet both loose their fathers, and both appear to be insane. What does Hamlet's speech about acting and false emotions say about his like of pretending? (Act 2 scene 2 I believe.) Does it seem a bit odd that he preforms the same actions that he detests? From Hamlet’s perspective, the actor is a liar, even a thief who draws out and steals the audience’s tears and laughs. Hamlet sees himself not as bound by outside circumstances but rather a coward of his own right. Even Hamlet realizes that, at this point in the situation, it is safer to be a coward than a raving loony.

Ophelia, on the other hand, is stuck in a situation that is seen often in Shakespeare. Usually, the women of the time went from daughter to wife in one day. There was never a time where they had to be alone and self-supporting. This is why she is so distraught by her father's death... as well as Hamlet not marrying her. She cannot ever be a daughter again, and yet she will not be a wife. (St. valentine's day song, "Young men will do't, if they come to't; / By <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont>, they are to blame. / Quoth she, before you tumbled me, / You promised me to wed. / So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, / An (if) thou hadst not come to my bed." Act 4 Scene 5) Hamlet has taken the milk without paying for the cow, if you take my meaning.

So, the question that needs answering is not Yes or No, but rather Why. Why do they preform the actions of insanity? What is the motivation behind it? Based on those motivations, which one seems the likely sane person, if any?

Hope this helps!

[Dae Jinn]

I've only read King Lear, so.....good luck Xazor :D ;)

[Navaria Tarkin]

ah Hamlet ... personally, I think Hamlet was quite sane. I think it was seeing her father's ghost that actually made him sane and give him a purpose to overthrown his uncle and get his revenge.

But, that's just me :p

[Figrin D'an]

When I first read the play, it was clear to me that, initially, Hamlet purposely feigned insanity to confuse his 'enemies.' However, it appeared to me that, as the play progressed, and things began to backfire on Hamlet, or unexpected things began to happen, that he began to embody the insanity that he was attempting to act out. Really, by the time of Ophelia's death, Hamlet had lost so much of his true self that he really reached a point of no return. The events up to that point, and the lust to avenge his father's murder, ultimately drove him mad. But, because he has been feigning his "antic disposition' for so long, he didn't see what was happening to him. And, of course, no one else could see it either, since they either thought he was insane to begin with, or that it was all still an act. Just another level of depth to Hamlet's status as a tragic hero.

Of course, this is all my opinion.

[Emma Harvan]

np, I had to write a 10 page dissection on it:) You might also want to bring up how when people pretend to be something else it slowly integrates until often they just adapt into their act. Hamlet was aware of things but he loses his integrity and moral standings. Which brings forth his weird Edipus (sp?) complex:)

[Ryla Relvinian]

Oedipus. And you're right, Emma. Hamlet effectively becomes his father as the play progresses. He showes interest in his mother's sex life, commanding her not to return to her husband/his uncle. He also calls himself by his father's title, and uses his father's signet ring. Talk about your dysfunctional families, eh?

[Estelle Russard]

I love Hamlet.

I think he was teetering on insanity, and only in the clarity of death he sort of came back from the edge. Course, too late to do him good.

(Hamlet and Richard III, are my favs.)

[Xazor Elessar]

Thanks for all of your help guys! I wrote a pretty cool paper now! :D Hehehehe.....*skips off* :D

[Salem Ave]

All I have is a paper I wrote on the opening scene of Hamlet. We didn't do any further than that ^_^;

[Zasz Grimm]

Was Hamlet insane you ask, or was he sane? I believe that he truly had a grasp on sanity. But, to a limit, he is also insane.

#1. Your uncle murders your father and lies to you about it.
#2. Your uncle marries your mother, then says death is usual, move on.
#3. Your mother loves your uncle who murdered your father.
#4. You see Ghosts. (Hello there!)
#5. You act insane to throw everyone off. But yet, maybe part of you wants to be insane because you've lost almost everything. A father, the love of your father, and through that the love of the woman you loved, Ophelia. For she commited suicide!
#6. You plan to kill your uncle for what he's done. You wind up killing 4+ men in the process. But you get back at him at the cost of your own life.

Is Hamlet insane?

Yes and no. Look at his circumstances. Yes and No is an appropriate answer.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

GET THEE TO A NUNNERY!

:D

[Ryla Relvinian]

...with a hey nonny nonny!

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Ryla Relvinian
...with a hey nonny nonny!

LMAO!

:p

[Marcus Telcontar]

I cant get into Shakesphere. Tho, Midsummer's Night Dream is a favorite, I cant really go much futher than that

[Silus Xilarian]

Macbeth was awesome and I did enjoy Hamlet also...other than that, I havent really ever gotten into Shakespeare...

[Live Wire]

"Oh that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace!"



sorry I couldn't resist...its my fav quote. Not to mention I got to play Beatrice in my shakespeare class this past semester. *hee hee*

[Tel'Mah]

My coursework last year was on Hamlet's sanity. I even took the liberty of changing the coursework title to "Hamlet: A Madness to his method or a method to his madness?" - luckily I submitted the Othello piece so didn't get crucified for doing so :)

As for Hamlet - this is my favourite play by Will Shakespeare! I absolutely loved it - and I must say Mel Gibson played the part really well. As far as I'm concerned, Hamlet does innitially "pretend" to be insane, but as he acts in this way he gradually falls into insanity (though not totally). He takes some kind of sadistic pleasure in the sly remarks he makes here and there. I think his mother says something like "Tis false...", to which Hamlet replies "As woman's love!" with regards to her sexual relations with his uncle in his fathers (the kings) absence. That's just one example - there's also the Yurick scene ("Alas poor Yurick, I knew him well!") and the debate of Hamlets incestuous feelings towards his mother. I'd have to read the text again to give a good answer.

On a different note - I'm currently studying Measure for Measure, which is classed as one of Shakespeare's comedies (in the sense that none of the major characters die - there are still loads of problems in the play).

[Ryla Relvinian]

Ohhh Measure for Measure is goood. Lots of interesting discussions about that one.

[Emma Harvan]

Shakespeare is fascinating, I find. Though, I was kicked out of my Shakespeare class for questionion the authorship. I'm Oxfordian and the teacher... well she wasn't. But I enjoyed it while it lasted:)

[Pilot Akito]

I'm waiting for the MST3K Verson of Hamlet....

[Live Wire]

measure for measure is actually a problem comedy. its comedy because everything resolves to a happy ending with out any death but it has serious problems. Unlike much ado about nothing and midsummers nights dream where you really know that its going to end up okay. Measure for Measure has that element of uncertanty until you realize that the duke really does have everything under control. Its interesting because it has elements of each genre.

If you like that I recommend The Winters Tale. Its classified as a Tragicomedy. It has even more elements of both in it. Its one of the few shakespeare plays that really balance beautifully on the fence between tragedy and comedy.


I loved my shakespeare class it was way more fun then the studying of skakespeare we did in high school. We got in depth as to why people question that shakespeare could have written it and its interesting that theres more evidence that he lived and wrote the plays then there are of many other major authors. And when you really look into it its interesteing and especially when you take into the account the time in which he lived. The general education that students got back then was what we would consider very high education today. It showed how shakespeare would have gotten into play writing and also showed how plays would have changed slightly due to the company once he wrote it. Its all quite fascinating. And not to argue with anyone but the evidence really does point to shakespeare writing the plays.

And its also interesting to see where the first doubts about his authorship came from. When you look at that it explains a lot. You get to see the ego's of the upperclass which is really what started that off. They didn't want to accept that someone not from the inner sanctum of royalty could write about them with such accuracy and popularity not only among common folks but with the ruling class as well.