Madness in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear - Term Paper Example

Task Introduction Some of Shakespeare’s works have portrayed his unique writing styles that lace various issues together in thequest to bring out certain social issues to the eyes of his audience. The issue of Madness in society has been highlighted well in both Hamlet and King Lear as expounded in the body text of this paper. In this paper, I will demonstrate how Shakespeare portrays madness in hamlet and King Lear. Body In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, is seen as brave, daring, intelligent and loyal, but falls hard because of his thoughts. His inability to internalize the murder of his father, and then his mother's abrupt marriage contribute heavily to his mental instability. In addition, his uncle taking over the throne contributes to his mental situation/insanity, and cannot comprehend what path his life is taking. Shakespeare employs literary styles like imagery and metaphors, to expound Hamlet's madness. In a scenario where Hamlet encounters a ghost, the line "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder," is conversed. Hamlet's uncle murdering his (Hamlet’s) father leaves a bad mark and experience on him. He is utterly confused with the whole event. Though Hamlet’s instincts tell of something bad in Denmark, he questions whether there exists truth in the ghost’s revelations to him. Hamlet brushes off the necessary remedies in an attempt to rethink about his personal problems. For instance, Hamlet holds a dagger to the head of Claudius intending to kill, but hesitates afterwards. In replacing the intended murder, Hamlet ends up creating a play where the ghost’s conversation with Hamlet is replayed with Claudius watching, in a show meant to prove that he, Claudius, murdered King Hamlet. Performance of the play makes Hamlet realize/prove Claudius’ guilt but ends up not doing anything about it. This was the perfect opportunity for Hamlet to revenge on his Father’s murder, but he ends up pursuing credit for the creation of the play. His earlier behavioral trait regarding the ghost's version of the tale was to react swiftly by avenging his father’s murder. Hamlet says, "Haste me to know't that I with wings as swift ... May sweep to my revenge." However, at the climax of the scene, we see that he is reluctant to kill Claudius. He says, “This time is out of joint, O cursed spite, that I was ever born to set it right." Thereafter, we see him stating that he wishes not to see Claudius being sent to heaven; yet we do not see him planning thereafter to end the Claudius’ life. The play also portrays Hamlet as being deeply affected by the abrupt remarriage of his mother Gertrude, and this happens for two crucial reasons. The first crucial reason is that Hamlet is deeply and affectionately attracted to his mother, an attraction that is far beyond the normal love a young man has for his mother. The second crucial reason is that Gertrude, his mother, did not take some time before remarriage to mourn/grieve her husband’s death. The play expounds that King Hamlet had died 3 months before his widow Gertrude remarried. Based on this reason, Hamlet firmly believes that his mother’s relationship to Claudius had initially blossomed long before King Hamlet passed on, a marriage regarded as unlawful and therefore a sin. Hamlets knowledge of the sin his mother had indulged in deepened his levels of insanity to higher levels. Hamlet also takes issue with incest between Gertrude, his mother, and his uncle Claudius. In act 1, scene 2, we see a very disturbed person in Prince Hamlet. This has to do with Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius. Hamlet displeasure with his mother’s marriage emanates from the thought of his father, King Hamlet, treating Gertrude with maximum respect, whereas her new husband, Claudius, is disrespecting her by subjecting her to doing various chores for him. It is not elaborate how respectful King Hamlet treated Gertrude: nevertheless, when Hamlet first ‘spoke’ to the ghost, it demanded to leave Gertrude out of the conversation. This clearly shows that Hamlet’s father had much respect for Gertrude, his widow. Hamlet tries to inhibit these kinds of feelings burning inside him, but this increases his level of insanity/madness: Claudius’ murderous nature and his act of marrying Hamlet’s mother only make the prince increase hatred for him. Before his father’s death, Hamlet was heir-apparent to the title of king and since King Hamlet’s death, Claudius has jus but been pushing Hamlet aside. Claudius being the new king means that Hamlet should be careful of his behavior or else Claudius’ wrath would befall him. He faces the daunting task of changing his actions given that he is full of hatred for Claudius out of which he must work extra hard to inhibit his hatred and avenge his Father’s death without his queen mother getting involved. Hamlet must also watch his steps such that his plan remains out of the limelight so that he is not nabbed with the plan to kill Claudius the king. Hamlet’s loss of the throne may have not been the crucial reason for his mental instability; however it was linked to a larger reason: that of his father's murder. Many characters also contributed Hamlet’s madness. Polonius told his daughter, Ophelia, "...From this time forth have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with lord Hamlet." When Ophelia, girlfriend to Hamlet began to neglect Hamlet, his boyfriend, his insanity levels grew dramatically. At this point Hamlet started to talk and think about committing suicide. Other characters that contributed to addition of Hamlet’s insanity were Guilderstern and Rosencrantz. Hamlet realized that the two were on a mission sent to cater for him in his hour of need. He told them that he had no energy within him. By using literary styles, Shakespeare showed that Hamlet was truly mentally unstable. Hamlet first discussed his mental situation with the two helpers where he described Denmark a "prison" where he is confined. This is metaphorical. Hamlet believed that Denmark would not accord him space that he needed to think fully about anything or advance him in reaching his potential. He felt that his thoughts and ambitions were confined in Denmark land like a jail prisoner. Hamlet's thoughts were focusing on the territory king in which he was confined. The literal style of imagery was used by Shakespeare in developing Hamlet's emotions and kind of behavior. Hamlet saw the world as nothing "...But a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors." The world appeared as a barren and ugly world, in spite of it being fully stocked with “golden fire." Hamlet's view was disturbed as regards his environments and surroundings showing that his feelings were characterized by madness. Hamlet said that he "lost all mirth" and felt there was no escape route to run from his true natural feelings. He also implied that a "doomsday" was nearing. This prophesies Hamlet's course of action, leading to the play ending in a dramatic way. Hamlet's emotional instability in the play showed this madness. Without these emotions, many lives may have been saved. His procrastination leads to his tragic downfall. His madness affected the people around him as well. Hamlet’s madness was seen in the play’s events such as his father's killing, his mother's abrupt marriage, and Claudius becoming the king. King Lear is a description of the one man’s decisions and subsequent consequences. This man is Lear, England king whose decisions altered his life and that of people around him. As Lear bears the status of King, he is, as one expects, a man of great power but sinfully he surrenders all of this power to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him. This untimely abdication of his throne results in a chain reaction of events that send him through a journey of hell. King Lear is a metaphorical description of one man's journey through hell in order to expiate his sin. As the play opens, one can almost immediately see that Lear begins to make mistakes that will eventually result in his downfall. The very first words that he speaks in the play are - "...Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom, and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths while we Unburdened crawl to death...” (Act I, Sc i, Ln 38-41) Insanity occupies a central place in the play and is associated with both disorder and hidden wisdom. The Fool, who offers Lear insight in the early sections of the play, offers his counsel in a seemingly mad babble. Later, when Lear himself goes mad, the turmoil in his mind mirrors the chaos that has descended upon his kingdom. At the same time, however, it also provides him with important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity, stripped of all royal pretensions. Lear thus learns humility. He is joined in his real madness by Edgar’s feigned insanity, which also contains nuggets of wisdom for the king to mine. Meanwhile, Edgar’s time as a supposedly insane beggar hardens him and prepares him to defeat Edmund at the close of the play. Throughout the play of Shakespeare’s King Lear, the reader notices how insane Lear becomes. After he found out Goneril and Regan did not love him, he became angry and upset. His insanity starts to reveal itself in Act 3. In Act 3 Scene 4, Lear relates his situation to Edgar saying, “Didst thou give all to thy daughters, and art thou come to this?” (Shakespeare 139). When in reality, Edgar’s situation had nothing to do with daughters betraying their father. Lear cannot see anyone’s pain but his own. His emotions lashed out in an unusual manner, making one assume he was insane. Lear was mentally stable. He used characters such as King Lear to bring out the theme, which he acted perfectly, well and enabled the public to understand the concept. He has many characters that portrait the theme, madness, in his plays that he composed and wrote. King Lear used to give royal speeches to the public on various topics affecting the populace directly or indirectly. His speeches did not make the people happy, since they failed to give the proper concept and meaning to the public. Shakespeare uses the king’s speech to highlight the madness, since it touched on issues in irrelevant issues. His speeches were commonly branded as ‘mad speech’ because they failed to highlight the main issues and the best way of solving problems, the kingdom was facing. William Shakespeare explains King Lear’s way of speaking, talking, and reasoning ability to depict the theme. The madness aspect majorly influences the traits he gives his characters. Examples of the speeches king Lear addressed his people included the following words ‘Your loop'd and window'd rag-gedness’ and ‘Poor naked wretches’ The insanity of King Lear developed drastically and finally, became completely mad (Muir). His emotions conflicted with each other as his situation continued to deteriorate. The theme of madness is shown by the plight of the king when his insanity became worse in future. The Shakespeare works of literature have assisted in the study of madness in the previous century. King Lear was the main masterpiece player of Shakespeare whom he uses mainly to describe the madness. He makes crazy decisions like giving away the entire kingdom and one of his precious treasures. Her daughter was the king’s treasure who he came to value and love with his heart. William Shakespeare idea of writing the creativity artwork was one of the amazing piece of work. The king’s decisions show the level of insanity that he had reached. As the story begins, King Lear calls her three daughters and gathers them to his sitting place. He then announces to people that he has the intention of giving up the kingdom, and share it to his daughters according the level of love the daughters loved him. One of the king’s daughters, Cordelia refuses to be involved in the sycophantic, but the rest of the daughters Goneril and Reagen, proclaim their love to their father. He chases Cordelia out of the kingdom and gives the other two remaining daughters the kingdom (Mc Donald, 25). Later, he comes to regret from the decision he made, since the two daughters he gave his kingdom, harass him together with their husbands. He then recalls her daughter whom she chased and abandoned. The king had longer the monarchial powers, therefore, was harmless and an ordinary person in the kingdom. He was not capable of revenging or punishing her two daughters because of the betrayal they showed him (Ioppolo, 75). The king faces a serious plight, which makes his insanity level to worsen since, he had nowhere to go or sleep. After many days of suffering and torture, the old king meets with her daughter Cordelia whom she had chased out of the kingdom (Mc Donald, 25). The king madness was triggered by the difficult and harsh experiences he went through after being chased away from the kingdom. The entire kingdom was wasted because of the madness of the king who failed to make good decisions that would protect and guide the kingdom. The type of madness the king was suffering was lack of purpose of living on the earth, since everything turned in the unexpected direction. His life can be described as empty; since he loses everything, he admired and made him happy and comfortable. His monarch powers, kingdom, daughters, and the good life he enjoyed as king had all vanished, and forced to start from scratch. The king lacks the good judgmental skills that make him regret in future. His mental health is negatively affected because of the stress he goes through. He begins to behave strangely and loses his common senses, hence people perceive him as a mad man. Madness plays a central aspect in the play because of disorderliness and lack of intelligence by some of the characters such as King Lear. The king also had an advisor who was a fool and did not know anything about giving credible advice to the king. The fool negatively influenced the king’s decision-making on the kingdom. The local people of the kingdom perceive the decisions the king orders to be done as madness. They lacked basis and failed to bring progress in the kingdom. William Shakespeare play shows the insanity of the king in the first part of the when he disown his daughter, because she did not approve her love to him. The insanity of the king is questionable at that point of view, since a normal person cannot come up with such crazy decisions making. Therefore, the theme madness is clearly shown by the character, King Lear in the Shakespeare’s play. Conclusion Shakespeare has employed a number of writing styles in both Hamlet and King Lear that include Imagery and metaphors in bringing out some vital issues that made the plays unique and interesting. Through some of these styles and mode of delivery, the audience is better placed to understand the behavioral traits of the characters involved in addition to comprehending the plot of the two tragic plays by Shakespeare. Works Cited Christopher Alan. Shakespearean Tragedy, 1st Edition New York: Macmillian, Coleridge 1904. Ioppolo, Grace. A Routledge literary sourcebook on William Shakespeare's King Lear. New York; Routledge, 2003. Pp 75. Johnson, Samuel. The Plays of William Shakespeare Volume 8. London J"R, 1976 McDonald, Mark. Shakespeare's King Lear with The tempest. Lanham; University Press of America, 2004. Pp 25. Muir, Kenneth. Madness in King Lear. Cambridge Collection Online. 2011. Vol. (13) DOI:10.1017/CCOL0521064260.004. Samuel, Taylor. Hamlet Volume 2 Edition. Henry Nelson Coleridge, London: William Pickering, 1836. Tunson, Derrick, Shakespeare, William Hamlet Edition. Alan Durban U.S. Edition: Barrons Educational Series, Inc. 1986. Read More