Ophelia’s madness is a lot more heart felt, although it was also because of her father Polonius death, she had no intentions to cause anyone distress. It was her own distress that brought upon her own insanity. The early signs of her madness are when she sings at the most inopportune moments. [Singing] “He is dead and gone lady, he is dead and gone,” For her character the audience delivers a much more sympathetic appeal, and so do the rest of the characters. “Poor Ophelia divided from herself and her fair judgment.” Ophelia does not have a choice between choosing her behavior patterns, as the absence of her father drove her mad it was truly genuine. This proves that she is a victim of her own madness, unlike Hamlet himself who has a choice to be mad. He chose this path so he could cause distress to his mother and pin down Claudius on the murder of King Hamlet.
Up until Act four scene five, Ophelia had been very calm and obedient. “No my good lord, but as you did command, I did repel his letters, and denied his access to me.
But as for Hamlet he was always bitter and grey clouds always hung over him, it’s almost like his misery and madness could have been expected from him that is possibly the reason why the characters that surround him do not feel too sympathetic towards him. “A little more than kin, and less than .kind.” Unlike Hamlet Ophelia was a victim of her own madness and she brought everyone down because of it. Although Hamlet’s intentions where to cause distress to the rest of the people around him Ophelia’s unintentional behavior did a better job of this.
As the play progresses on with Hamlets madness, his speech starts to blur and he speaks non-sense to everyone causing confusion and more distress. Hamlet is probably the most unsympathetic character out of the whole play because of his complete disregard for everyone and his malevolent actions. “Do you know me my lord?”
“Excellent well, you are a fishmonger.”
Also in his soliloquy in Act two scene two he constantly repeats himself.
Ophelia’s speech changed as well but she sang what she felt, but like Hamlet too she would ramble on and create a repetitive pattern of dialogue.
Ophelia caused distress to only herself, but Hamlet’s antic-disposition was put on to because distress to everyone else around, he was more violent towards his loved ones. Hamlet engaged himself in several murders, Such as Polonius’s, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and potentially did nothing about his mother’s death when she drank the poisoned drink. He loved Ophelia greatly but he didn’t even spare her any remorse when it came to his violent disposition. As in act three scene two “Lady shall I lie in your lap?”
But Ophelia’s death all proved too much as he challenges Laertes to a duel to prove his love for Ophelia. “I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum – what whit thou do for her?
“O he is mad, Laertes,” Yet another case of Hamlets distress and how no one will cast any light upon him.
In a discussion between Hamlet and Polonius Hamlet questions Polonius by asking him “have you a daughter.” Act two scene two in this discussion Hamlet shows antic behavior towards Polonius by mocking him when Hamlet would usually show great respect for him because of his age and his high position, also because he is the father of Ophelia the woman he once loved. This sudden question to Polonius has caused him to believe that Hamlet has a form of love-sickness and that Polonius is sure to tell Claudius of his condition.
He also accuses Polonius of being the “Jephthah, judge of Israel,” Act two scene meaning that Polonius would put his country in front of his daughter. Hamlet has at this point convinced Polonius that he is in a state of madness because he
Knows that Polonius cares for his daughter a great deal and would never put her second of anything. By convincing Polonius that he has no consideration for the well-being of others, Hamlet is then hoping that Polonius will tell the court of his emotional madness.
Ophelia’s madness drove her to commit suicide. This states that her madness truly did only affect her but does pay a big toll on the others. Ophelia’s madness is brought on by her lack of being able to demonstrate any maturity in trying to cope with her losses, and in return can only inflict her madness on everyone else. She demonstrates this in Act four scene 5 She wasn’t given the proper burial because of the fact that suicide is a huge sin, the fear of death and that there could be something other than just ‘eternal slumber’ behind it haunted Hamlet too much for him to ever commit suicide. This is just another stepping stone to prove the cowardliness of his personality.
In Act three scene one, Hamlets most famous speech “To be, or not to be” proves his fear of death. It represents how he constantly contemplates suicide but cannot die because his father is proof of the horrid after life, Because king Hamlet did not purge away his sins he is “Doomed for certain term to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away.” This helps keep Hamlet from committing but he still contemplates his death constantly.
In comparison, Hamlets madness is more theatrical than true madness. Even with the possibility that he could of drove himself to complete madness; he still has the understanding of others despair. His mind is traced along one line only, which consists of Claudius death. As when Hamlet presents himself he always likes to put on a show, he loves to cause offence and misguide minds. As for when he is confronted with Polonius in Act two scene two he makes him believe that he is mad with love. “One fair daughter and no more. The which he loved passing well”.
“Still on my daughter,”
Again when he knows that Claudius and Polonius are watching he acts violently towards Ophelia portraying the true colours of his madness “to a nunnery go, and quickly too. Farewell.” Hamlet does not show any guilt for mistreating her in this way until her death and even then his actions are irrational as he challenges Laertes to prove his love with a duel.
Since Ophelia is a potentially frail character her grievance over takes her. “We must be patient, but I cannot choose but weep to think they should lay him I’ th’ cold ground.”
She brings no theatrics into her own representation and she has no other concerns for anything else. She too did love Hamlet, for even his rejection towards her love concern her . In Act two scene One. “Mad for thy love?”
“My lord I do not know, but truly I do fear it.”
Ophelia’s love for her father was genuine, she loved him deeply and that is why her madness was deeper and much more realistic than Hamlets. His madness was based around revenge and jealousy, possibly his childish side felt like he was being mistreated and he wanted to backlash on his abusers. Also the fact that Ophelia did not stick around long after her father’s death proves how intense her insanity was after all. Her distress that led to her suicide is all the proof everyone needs to see that her madness was truly genuine. No one knew Ophelia’s mental state inside, everyone around her believed that her distress was due to her looses and than when she is done mourning she will return to her normal state, the didn’t not know she was mentally disintegrating.
Hamlet also goes to great extents to prove his madness and goes to great extents to prove how genuine it is. In the mouse trap he observes Claudius’s reactions for any signs of despair or guilt, but this play was just a step too far and again proves how Hamlet portrays his madness as theatrical more then grievance. This was shown in Act three scene two. Ophelia was disheartened by Hamlets madness but never in her own insanity did she play with others emotions. In her own insanity she seems to loosen up a lot, she is more comfortable with everything as before Act four scene five she was very obedient and almost antsy around everyone, especially when she spoke and presented herself amongst people. The most obvious connection between Hamlet and Ophelia’s madness are because of their father’s death, Hamlet realizes that Claudius had murdered King Hamlet but he spends 5 scenes plotting against him and to get revenge. This proves that his madness was not as genuine as Ophelia’s where she almost instantly commits suicide.
It could also be thought as homage to the dead, because if we look at Ophelia we see a weak lady who is unable to cope with her father’s terrible death. But when we look at Hamlet we see a revengeful character, there is definitely more than meets the eyes when we read about Hamlet, so possibly his madness could be homage as well…maybe he did not feel like he was doing enough to show his compassion towards his father since his mother was always ignoring him and is always beside the King.
Other types of madness that is not so direct could be Laertes unlike Hamlet or Ophelia Laertes has developed a different kind of madness, a madness that is controlled by revenge. When Laertes is talking to Claudius, he is broken the news of his fathers death and also wound up about how Hamlet had committed this act. Induced with this information Laertes builds up his anger though hatred and revenge to the point where he now wants to “cut his throat,” reference to Hamlet in Act 4, scene 7. Laertes madness is also built up during the end when a ceremony has not been produced for Polonius’s death and his sister that has been driven mad due to Hamlet’s infliction on Polonius. His madness grows even stronger when Claudius promises “no wind of blame” Claudius agrees that Laertes deserves to be revenged upon Hamlet, and he is disposed to encourage Laertes to kill Hamlet. This makes it easier for Laertes because he now has motivation to seek revenge on Hamlet which he is capable of, this causes his madness to escalate.
Act five scene one is where the audience sees signs of Hamlets true side, this antic disposition and guard is let down and he is informed that the body in the casket is Ophelia’s. As everyone gathers for her burial which is done in secret because of being her being driven to death by suicide, Hamlet jumps into her grave during confrontation with Laertes screaming “A thousand brothers couldn’t lover her more,” Leartes challenges Hamlet to a duel to prove their love to Ophelia and also this is the perfect opportunity to seek revenge. During their heated argument Claudius repeats in the back “He’s mad laertes he’s mad,” This is done with a great deal of spite, firstly he wants to wind Hamlet up and also giving Laertes more motivation to slash out on Hamlet. This is all done because maybe Claudius knows that Hamlet has discovered how he murdered King Hamlet and could possibly jeopardize his position at the throne.
Hamlet was the true cause of Ophelia’s madness, without his selfishness his true love wouldn’t be enduring such agony. She too loved her father and surely Hamlet of all people knows what it is like to have a loved ones life taken away from them through cold hearted murder. I think there are a lot of negative points about both Ophelia’s and hamlets madness, but hamlets was more of an act to prove his disapproval of Claudius’s air to the throne . If Hamlet was truly scared of committing suicide and the consequences that are withheld for it in the after life, Should Hamlet not also worries about the punishment on numerous cold blooded murders? Also Laertes’s madness is driven by Hamlets careless actions; he subconsciously kills a whole family when all he wanted to do himself was seek revenge for King Hamlet.
