Luke wheeler 02/05/07
Hamlet essay
Madness was considered a seriously bad thing in the 17th century, but the meaning for madness now compared to then has changed dramatically. Hamlet in the 17th century plays may have seem mad by Shakespeare’s audience then but not now in the 21st century. In the 21st century a madman means an insane person, which is quite an offensive word. But in the 17th century a madman was just a person acting a bit out of character.
Hamlet’s behaviour throughout the play changes from a high to a low quite a lot. Although we do never find out if hamlet is sane or not, his first line I find is a little bit confusing, “a little more than kin, and less than kind” I don’t really know what it means and sounds like a sign of madness. As we progress through the play then hamlet is slowly and slowly becoming more and more mad, unlike Ophelia’s madness, which is very sudden and is spurred by a certain event, the death of her father. The play begins with guards, whose main significance in the play is to give credibility to the ghost. If Hamlet were to see his father’s ghost in private, the argument for his madness would greatly improve. Yet, not one, but three men together witness the ghost before even thinking to notify Hamlet.
