Hamlet and the nature of madness in Shakespeare's tragedy

Hamlet: A Critical Analysis

The objective of this work is to critically analyze some element of Hamlet with three secondary references incorporated into the work.

Hamlet was written somewhere around the year of 1600 and was one of Shakespeare's most mature and talented works. Hamlet is believed by many to be the greatest tragedy of Shakespeare. This work of Shakespeare is believed to be a popular play that was remade and was based on historical fiction. The historical Hamlet was son of a Danish "King of the Jutes" who lived during the period known as the dark ages. In the historical tale the murder of one brother by another brother took place and was not actually a murder but was a coup. In superstition of that time the individual who murdered someone who was insane came under a risk of becoming insane themselves. This critical analysis will focus on Act V of the Shakespearean play entitled: "Hamlet." In Scene I of this play the setting is in the churchyard.

HAMLET: SCENE V: ACT I (THE CHURCHYARD)

In Act 5 and Scene 1 of Hamlet two gravediggers, or 'clowns' are digging the grave of Ophelia. In a sing-song discussion the two clowns interact in a discussion surrounding the circumstances of Ophelia's death which was through drowning herself. The church of this time period and probably even still today doesn't allow for Christian burial and this is the focus of the discussion between these two clown-gravediggers. While this discussion ensues Horatio and Hamlet enter the church graveyard scene and one clown-gravedigger exits. The remaining clown-gravedigger continues to dig and goes about his work singing merrily. Hamlet questions this stating:

Has this fellow no feeling of his business that he sings at grave-making? (William Shakespeare)

Hamlet is answered by Horatio who states:

Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. (William Shakespeare)

In other words stating that the clown-gravedigger having grown accustomed to digging graves was no longer affected by it as one would be having only just begun digging graves or only digging a grave once or twice in a lifetime. At this point in this scene the clown throws up a skull out of the earth in the place where Ophelia will lay. Hamlet expresses what he is experiencing as he states the fact that the skull tossed up by the clown-grave-digger once had life within it.

The clown-grave-digger continues to dig and tosses up a second skull. Hamlet contemplates that perhaps the second skull belonged to a lawyer and then steps forward to speak to the clown-gravedigger asking who the grave belongs to. As the discussion ensues the clown begins to speak 'of' Hamlet 'to' Hamlet unknowingly doing so and relates to Hamlet the following:

Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that: it was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that is mad, and sent into England." (William Shakespeare)

The discussion goes forth and Hamlet learns that the second skull belonged to the court-jester of his youth who he remembers entertaining him in court. Hamlet holds the skull of Yorick, the court jester in his hands and for the first time faces the stark reality between the imagined and the real. During this scene action takes place and this action seems to be spurred by Hamlet's experiential knowledge gained through holding Yorick's skull in his hands.

II. THE FUNERAL PROCESSION

Hamlet and Horatio hide as the funeral procession enter with Ophelia's body however, as she is laid in the ground Laertes leaps into the grave and Hamlet declares himself to be:

Hamlet the Dane" (William Shakespeare)

It is at this point the character of Hamlet changes from one of reflection focusing on the metaphysical to a character of action focusing on the material and present reality in which he exists. At this point the insanity flees from him because it seems he has lost all that he loves and all that held him back from action, all the restraints and barriers due to the feelings and effects upon others are no longer barring Hamlet from decisive action in the 'here-and-now' of his life. Hamlet at this point seems to break free from the tortures of his mind.

III. ACT V CONTINUES

Much is revealed in this act of the play "Hamlet" and as well this act culminates in a dual between Hamlet and Laertes who has challenged Hamlet to defend his Father's honor. This act is one in which all of the 'poison' that existed in the relationships that interact in "Hamlet" is revealed and acted upon and in which the results are a scene of utter carnage resembling a battlefield, and one in which all of the major actors of this play are dead...and that by poison. In the work of Ed Friedlander, M.D. entitled: "Enjoying 'Hamlet' by Williams Shakespeare" it is stated:

Hamlet's "revenge" isn't so much simply the killing of the king, as it is the purging of all the rottenness in the Danish court. And although it costs him his life, he succeeds. At some time, we all consider how much wrong there is in the world. "Hamlet" gives us a chance to watch an ordinary person consciously choose to say "No!" To the world's wrongness and phoniness, and to strike back with intelligence and power. From the bare-bones of an old revenge story, Shakespeare has held up the mirror to something in us that is precious. I hear Hamlet saying, "So many people put so much effort into doing things that are not worthwhile. It's a bad world, and I am far from a perfect human being. And we all end up dead in the end. But I am going to do something worthwhile, and do it right." (Friedlander, 2005)

In this scene there is the introduction of a different type of weapon, the rapier which by tradition of the time was used in games instead of in war or battle. This reveals how death has merely become a game between the individuals in this play and only left is Horatio to explain the events that have occurred to the court. It appears that although Hamlet did come through in the end, that indeed it was the end of the story and of the life of Hamlet. The death of Hamlet does appear to be heroic in the end but tragic as well.

The work of Johnston (nd) states:

the dilemma of Hamlet the Prince and Man" is "to disentangle himself from the temptation to wreak justice for the wrong reasons and in evil passion, and to do what he must do at last for the pure sake of justice.... From that dilemma of wrong feelings and right actions, he ultimately emerges, solving the problem by attaining a proper state of mind." Hamlet endures as the object of universal identification because his central moral dilemma transcends the Elizabethan period, making him a man for all ages. In his difficult struggle to somehow act within a corrupt world and yet maintain his moral integrity, Hamlet ultimately reflects the fate of all human beings." (E-notes, accessed 07-28-2006)