Hamlet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hamlet - Essay Example Hamlet’s madness leads him to commit revenge for the death of the King who was his father. Hamlet’s crafts a scheme to force his uncle to accept that he murdered the King. In Act I scene V of the play, Hamlet’s father’s ghost encourages him to murder the current King who is his uncle as revenge for poisoning his father (Shakespeare 35). As part of his aim to make his uncle confess to the crime, he feigns madness. His first characteristics of madness appear when he encounters Ophelia, a woman who he had made countless presentations of his affection. He acts insane towards her before the opening of the tale. He acts mad by grabbing her hands, caressing her face, and by staring at her closely as he exits the room. Ophelia’s father Polonius attributes Hamlet’s madness as a result of his love for her. Through his madness, Hamlet alienates Ophelia by making it known that he never loved her at all. Hamlet further confuses her when he decides to sit next to her during the play within a play in Act III. Ophelia is unsure of his melancholy to ecstatic attitude change. Hamlet almost avenges his father’s death when he finds the king kneeling down in prayer. He contemplates upon this by questioning the morality of killing him when he is in prayer. In Act III scene IV, his father’s ghost visits him again to remind him that he has not avenged his murder (Shakespeare 95). In Act V scene II, he ultimately kills the king before he dies too. Hamlet’s feigned madness leads to him becoming obsessed with revenge for his father. In the play, Ophelia is daughter to Polonius, and Hamlet’s love interest. She gets trapped between Polonius and Hamlet’s world as she gets confused as to whether to become obedient towards his father or fall in love with Hamlet. This confusion results to her tragic end. Ophelia as demanded by society at the time is obedient towards his father. He lives by his father’s rules an d gets used by him as a catch to spy on Hamlet. Ophelia’s obedience towards men also leaves her at the mercies of Hamlet’s constant abuse of her. Hamlet accuses Ophelia of being a breeder of sinners and if she were to marry she would turn her husband into a monster as she would cheat on him. The constant barrage of criticism directed towards her by Hamlet crushes her. She gets crashed when Hamlet declares that he never loved her (Shakespeare 30). As a young woman, Ophelia is under too much pressure from both her father and Hamlet. She eventually cracks and goes mad. She sings of a girl who gets tricked into losing her virginity for a false promise on marriage. Her madness leads her to commit suicide by drowning. Her mental breakdown is real and as a result of the patriarchal pressure and abuse he receives from his father and Hamlet. Ophelia’s madness gets contributed by the overall state of confusion existent in the entire play. She gets confused as to whether t o surrender to Hamlet or her father. She gets caught in both worlds. It is this confusion that leads her to breakdown mentally. Ophelia’s madness can also get attributed to the misogynistic and gender themes existent in the play. As demanded by society at the time, women were to be obedient to every move by their male counterparts in society. Ophelia gets forced to obey the men in her lives. It is this submission to both her father and Hamlet that contribute to her state of confusion and apparent mental breakdown. She complies with his father’