Hamlet
Hamlet, the son of the Old King Hamlet and Gertrude, is clearly the hardest character in the play to understand. This is because Hamlet is shown in the play to go through different phases: madness, and sanity. However, it is not easy to differentiate between those two phases.
Firstly, Hamlet ,at the beginning of the play, finds out who killed his father through an apparition that appears before him. This apparition claims to be the spirit of his father, the Old King Hamlet, and he charges Hamlet with the task of killing Claudius. |
Claudius being the person that killed the Old King, however the he also mentions to Hamlet not to involve Gertrude into this mess as he does not want her to be punished even though she remarried.
Although as soon as the apparition leaves, Hamlet says that he is ready to take revenge on both Claudius and Gertrude, which was against the wishes of the spirit of the Old King.
Also at this point in the play Hamlet plans to put on a façade of madness in order to fool the King and Queen into thinking that he has gone crazy which will give him enough protection to carry out his plan for revenge.
Although as soon as the apparition leaves, Hamlet says that he is ready to take revenge on both Claudius and Gertrude, which was against the wishes of the spirit of the Old King.
Also at this point in the play Hamlet plans to put on a façade of madness in order to fool the King and Queen into thinking that he has gone crazy which will give him enough protection to carry out his plan for revenge.
Hamlet's plan may have been a good idea, however to the readers it may be hard to actually recognise if he is acting or if he genuinely insane.
From what was being shown it seemed that in between Acts 1 and 2 he was able to act out his madness pretty well, but in Act 4 and 5 he lost control over himself. Evidence of this is that he lost his ambition to kill Claudius until Act 5, maybe because his mind had wondered off elsewhere due to his insanity. Moreover, he clearly loses himself when he finds out that Ophelia suicides. |