Essay: Exploring Madness in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Irony and Symbolism

Hamlet is a tragedy written after 1599 by William Shakespeare that revolves around Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, and centers on his revenge plan against his father’s murderer. In this play, Hamlet is grieving the loss of a father and is perceived to go mad. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet depicts insanity as an intensification of “typical” grief through the characters of Ophelia and Hamlet using irony and botanical symbolism.
Hamlet’father is murdered by his uncle, Claudius, who then marries Hamlet’s mother to become the king of Denmark. The ghost of his dead father informs Hamlet of the murder. Hamlet, after hearing this, resolves to murder Claudius as revenge for his father. At the beginning of the play, there is a funeral being held for King Hamlet where Claudius speaks to the nobles who have gathered. After giving his speech. Claudius speaks to Hamlet in the presence of Gertrude, his mother. Claudius extends a greeting to Hamlet where he calls him cousin and son to which Hamlet responds, to the audience, “A little more than kin, and less than / kind.” Hamlet’s response suggests that the idea that they are a family upsets him. Following Hamlet’s snarky reply to Claudius, Claudius, and his mother proceeded to tell him to get over the death of his father and that his prolonged grief is unmanly.
Once everyone has left the room, Hamlet’s first soliloquy begins in which he states how he is depressed due to his father’s death and is still grieving the loss. He compares life to an unweeded garden(why is this important). He also expressed his disgust and resentment towards his mother for marrying his father’s brother so quickly after his father’s death. (we know he is disgusted because he calls the union incestuous). He speaks of his disdain for his uncle and how he holds his father in high regard but not Claudius. He clearly is going through a lot emotionally and does not have anyone to talk to.
Later on, Horatio takes him to see the ghost. Hamlet spots it and begins to follow it. The ghost reveals itself as King Hamlet and tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius while he slept and he wants Hamlet to revenge for his death. Hamlet makes an oath with his father’s ghost to avenge his death. Horatio and Marcellus find Hamlet and are informed of what just took place. He makes them swear to not tell another soul what has taken place. They swear the oath and after doing so, Hamlet says
“How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself / As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on / That you at such time seeing me never shall, / With arms encumbered thus, or thus head shaked, / Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase/ As, “Well, we know” or “We could anan if we would,”/ Or if we list to speak,” or “There be an if they might,”/ Or such ambiguous giving out note / That you know aught of me.”
By telling Horatio and Marcellus that he will put on an antic disposition, it is clear to the reader that in the future of the play his madness will be feigned. The fact that Hamlet sees the ghost could also mean he is also in a state of madness. In a state of psychosis, people will see, hear and believe things that are not actually happening. Hamlet may be experiencing hallucination and delusion, but because Horatio and Marcellus also see the ghost, this lends credibility to Hamlet’s account. Horatio is depicted as the rational character in the play, which also backs up the claim that the ghost is visible.
Polonius walks into a room where Hamlet is reading. He asks if he is well, and Hamlet’s response makes it seem like he just recognized him. Polonius asks if he does and Hamlet responds “Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.” Fishmonger, which has a double meaning, means a man who sells fish but is also slang for a pimp. Hamlet is calling Polonius a pimp. Just like a pimp controls prostitutes for material gain, Polonius uses Ophelia for his gain. He then proceeds to, after subtly calling him the lowest of the low, interpret Polonius’s “what the matter” as him asking what’s wrong and not what the subject matter of the book to give the appearance of madness.
When talking to Guildenstern he responds with “I am but mad north-north-west: when the/ wind / is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.” He is implying that he is mad but sometimes he is aware of what’s happening. This would make sense because with a mad psychosis, the person affected would have bouts of clarity.
At the start of the play, it is obvious that Hamlet has hit a rough patch in his life. His father has just died and now his father’s brother is married to his mother. He is depressed and experiencing intense grief where he feels like life is not worth living. He has found one reason for living though and that is to murder Claduis to get his father’s revenge. After his discovery that Claudius murdered his dad, he informs Horatio and Marcellus that he will put on an antic disposition to through off while he plots Claudius’ death. This makes it very clear to the reader that in the future of the play his madness will be feigned.
In scene one act 2, Ophelia goes to tell Polonius that Hamlet burst into her “closet” in a state of disarray with a look “so piteous in purpose / as if he had been lost out of hell.” She continues on and tells her father that he grabbed her arm. The use of dramatic irony in this scene is for Hamlet to appear mad even though the reader knows that he went into her room in such a state to give the appearance of madness when Ophelia thinks he’s mad and Polonius thinks he is mad because of his love for Ophelia.
In scene 2 act 2, Polonius walks into a room where Hamlet is reading. He asks if he is well, and Hamlet’s response makes it seem like he just recognized him. Polonius asks if he does and Hamlet responds “Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.” Fishmonger, which has a double meaning, means a man who sells fish but is also slang for a pimp. Hamlet is calling Polonius a pimp. Just like a pimp controls prostitutes for his material gain, Polonius uses Ophelia for his gain to figure out what is going on with Hamlet. He then proceeds to, after subtly calling him the lowest of the low, interpret Polonius’s “what the matter” as him asking what’s wrong and not what the subject matter of the book to give the appearance of madness.
In act 3, scene 4, Hamlet is asked to go talk to his mother. Little does he know Polonius is hidden behind a curtain. They start talking and Hamlet cannot contain his rage any longer and starts to yell at his mother. When she says “what wilt thou do? Thou wilt not / murder me? / Help, help, ho!”Polonius responded “What, ho! Help, help, help!” Hamlet hears this and in rage believes it is Claudius spying on him so he stabs the Polonius who is behind the curtain.
(When in the room with his mother he also sees the ghost and hears it as well but his mother does not hear it at all. While she may be lying or Hamlet is experiencing hallucinations and delusion due to his madness or rage.)
In act two scene two, after Polonius and Hamlet watch the lead actor act out a couple of lines from a play, he, when it is just him and the actor, asks if they could add in a couple of lines to reenact his father’s death. He does this to figure out if Claudius is guilty. This is ironic because only the readers, the actors, and Hamlet know about it.
Although he is seeming mad in the eyes of those around him through the interaction with Ophelia and Polonius, and his murder of Polonius, the reader knows that he is not due to his interaction with Horatio and Marsellus, and the play. His madness is used to throw everyone off the idea that he is going to kill Claudius and could stem from his mental illness like his depression.
Ophelia, Hamlet’s perceived lover, is introduced as (plagued with madness) mad. She is perceived to go mad due to the overwhelming grift of her father’s death. Her madness seems more genuine as —-. She does have bouts of clarity just like Hamlet supposes bouts of clarity. In act 4 scene 5, Horatio tells the queen about how Ophelia has been talking about her father and how she stammers, gets upset, takes offense easily, and makes sense only half the time. The queen asks for her to be brought in so that Ophelia may speak to someone. Ophelia comes in and greets the queen, then proceeds to sing a song. The song is about a man who died, this may be a reference to Ophelia’s father or Gertrude’s late husband. She continues to sing about a woman before sleeping with a man who says that before this man is to sleep with her but the man replied that he would have done so if she had not come to his bed. This could be a jab at the hamlet because they may have slept together. She hands out rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, rue, and a daisy. These flowers are symbols and have more than one meaning. Rosemary, she tells the company, is for remembrance, the pansies are for thought, the fennel is for flattery, columbines signify adultery, rue is for adultery, everlasting suffering, genuine repentance of all transgression for women. She gave rue to herself and Gertrude. This could represent Gertrude’s infidelity, her suffering after her husband died, and her repentance for marrying Claudius. For Ophelia, it could represent her suffering due to the death of her father and the hamlet’s treatment. Violets represent faithfulness and not having any may mean that the faithfulness is gone from the area. Ophelia choosing flowers that have a symbolic meaning allows her to express how she feels indirectly. In act 4, scene 7, as Laertes and Claudius are talking, Gertrude enters the room and informs Laertes that Ophelia has drowned. She describes how Ophelia drowned. Ophelia was climbing a willow tree to hang a wreath she had made with flowers and the tree branch broke. She fell into a river and was kept afloat by her clothes. While in the river she sang but her clothes got too heavy and she was pulled under the water where she drowned. Her death could have been a suicide where she simply had lost too much like her father and hamlet and had nothing left to live for. It could have also been an accident where she was not aware that she was in any danger.
Hamlet and Ophelia’s cause for madness, real or feigned, is the death of a father figure. While Ophelia’s grief is genuine and she has moments of expression in which she uses symbols to indirectly express her feeling that she would not be able to express due to her being a woman in a slow position in the social hierarchy. Hamlet’s madness covers the underlying meanings in his replies to other characters. Hamlet depicts insanity as an exaggerated intensification of typical grief too…