Madness and Insanity in Shakespeares Hamlet - Insanity in Hamlet Essay

Insanity in small town A consideration of the derangement of the hero Hamlet within the Shakespearean drama of the same name, shows that his belie madness sometimes borders on real madness, but probably only coincidentally. Hamlets conversation with Claudius is insane to the latter. Lawrence Danson in Tragic Alphabet describes how Hamlets use of the syllogism is pure madness to the king What Hamlet shows by his use of the syllogism is that nonhing secure can rest on the falsehood that masquerades as the royal order of Denmark. From Claudiuss point of view, however, the syllogism is simply mad its logic is part of Hamlets antic disposition. Sane men know, after all, that earthly concern and wife is one flesh only in a metaphoric or symbolic sense they know that only a madman would reflexion for literal truth in linguistic conventions. And Claudius is right that such madness in great ones must not unwatched go (III.i.end). For the madman, precisely because he does not accept societys compromises and because he explores its conventions for meanings they cannot bear, exposes the flaws which normal society keeps hidden (70). Phyllis Abrahms and Alan Brody in Hamlet and the Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy Formula consider the madness of the hero to be completely feigned and not real Hamlet is a masterpiece not because it conforms to a set of conventions but because it takes those conventions and transmutes them into the pure aureate of vital, relevant meaning. Hamlets feigned madness, for instance, becomes the touchstone for an illumination of the mysterious nature of sanity itself (44-45). Hamlets first words in the spell say that Claudius is A little more than kin and less ... ...y Martin). On Some of Shakespeares Female Characters. 6th ed. London William Blackwood and Sons, 1899. Felperin, Howard. Oerdoing Termagant. Modern critical Interpretations Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House, 1986. Rpt. of Oerdoing Termagant An Approach to Shak espearean Mimesis. The Yale Review 63, no.3 (Spring 1974). Foakes, R.A.. The Plays Courtly Setting. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of Hamlet and the Court of Elsinore. Shakespeare Survey An yearbook Survey of Shakespearean Study and Production. No. 9. Ed. Allardyce Nicoll. Cambridge, Eng. Cambridge University Press, 1956. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.