Hamlet

duality of madness in "Hamlet"

Certainly the different degrees of madness in "Hamlet" also contain varying and corresponding levels of insight.

Ophelia, the most clearly and completely insane of the dramatis personae, has a terrible understanding of the secrets and ultimate fates of the other characters; she can sum up their peril easily, with a single flower given them!

Our Prince of Denmark, however, has far more fickle bouts of insanity; he is "but mad north, northwest." His monologues show us that he is more than commonly insightful; he struggles alongside a select paramount of humanity with his questions of life and death and purpose and meaning. Half-sane, however, he remains grounded by confusion, remorse, conscience, and as a result, flounders in indecision. He can never achieve such complete abandon as Ophelia's madness allows; he can never drown in it, as she dis, figuratively and literally.

In "Hamlet," madness affords a certain clarity; becomes like a second sanity--often sees a lot more than the conventional-sanity of the other characters. Consider the sheer ridiculousness of Polonius's "sage advice;" think of ordinary Osric, obtuse and comic. Their sanity is like a madness, blind to all the things which really matter, such as their ultimate fate in the play! Those mad, characters, however, can catch a glimpse of their significance, perhaps even foresee the fates of others.

I've been warned against making "Hamlet" into a play about the duality of madness--any thoughts?

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If you were to approach the "madness" in Hamlet, you'd have to start with the difference between feigned or imagined madness and true madness. Hamlet described himself as mad on more than once; Ophelia never claimed to be anything of the sort, and of course that's what she was.

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Hamlet