Ophelia
- Is a naïve character which predisposes her to corruption as her brother and father contaminates her mind by saying how Hamlet is just trifling with her affections.
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The corruption of her character results in her insanity.
- Her madness has caused her to sing love songs when she learns that her father, Polonius has died.
- She commits suicide by drowning herself. This is confirmed as Queen Gertrude says “…As one incapable of her own distress/ or like a creature native and endued…” (IV.Vii.204-205)
Laertes
- Madness is influenced by his quest of vengeance.
- By trying to avenge his father’s death, he acts irrationally and assumes the murderer is King Claudius. “…O, thou vile king/ Give me my father” (IV.V. 126-128)
- When he finds out that Hamlet is the killer, he wants to slit Hamlet’s throat in church (IV.Vii. 144)
- Causes him to be treated as a puppet by King Claudius.
Imagery
- Imagery throughout the book is generally centred on corruption when Hamlet describes Claudius to his mother “like a mildew’d ear, blasting his wholesome brother” (3.4.74-75). Also when he says “'Tis an unweeded garden/ That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature/ Possess it merely.” (1.2.139-142). Imagery, however is also used throughout the play to develop the theme of madness.
- Horatio uses imagery to describe what may happen if the ghost of King Hamlet were to “draw [Hamlet] into madness”.
- He says Hamlet may kill himself if he “look so many fathoms to the sea and hear it roar beneath” (1.4.85-86), and that the edge of the sea makes people feel despair even at the best of times. Theme of madness is developed because Horatio is telling Hamlet to beware of the ghost, because it could make him commit bad deeds when insane, such as commit suicide.
- When Hamlet says “O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,/ Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!” (1.2.132-133) because Hamlet is so depressed and obsessed with the afterlife and death he could be described as mad.
- The largest source of imagery comes from Ophelia, who after going insane sings “At his head a grass-green turf” and “white his shroud as the mountain snow” (4.5). Ophelia is saying all of the beautiful images but it is contrasted by her madness. The images continue when she describes the imaginary flowers that she hands out.
- Queen Gertrude describes the place where Ophelia drowned by saying “There is a willow grows askant the brook/That shows his {hoar} leaves in the glassy stream” (4.7.190-191). Image of a serene beautiful location, with a leaning willow and calm water is ironically painted of the place where mad Ophelia committed suicide.
Dramatic Devices and Madness in Hamlet
Dramatic Irony
- Horatio believes that if Hamlet follows the ghost it will lead to madness (I.Iv). Shows that madness is affected by the supernatural
- Polonius believes that Hamlet is truly mad even though he may be acting that way
- Hamlet pretends to be mad and ends up becoming it because he wants revenge. This shows that revenge is not a good thing because it leads to Hamlet’s downfall. It also leads to the deaths of Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Gertrude and Claudius.
Play within a Play
- Proves Claudius’ guilt
- Shows that Hamlet may only be acting until then because he wanted to prove the guilt of Claudius
Soliloquy
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The speeches in which Hamlet outlines his reasons for being angry at Claudius
- Show that madness is really a choice in the mind and not a disorder.