Hamlet's Madness Flashcards
“assume some other horrible form, / Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason / And draw you into madness” (1.4.72-74)
Pleading with Hamlet not to follow the Ghost, Horatio asks him to think about what might happen if the Ghost
Horatio believes that the Ghost is not Hamlet’s father in the form of a ghost, but a spirit in the form of Hamlet’s father. That spirit could instantly take on another shape or lure Hamlet to the edge of a cliff, where the sight of the depth “so many fathoms to the sea” puts “toys of desperation . . . into every brain.”
“I could a tale unfold whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul” (1.5.15-16).
The Ghost is telling Hamlet why he cannot reveal the secrets of his “prison-house”–purgatory. It is implied that the story of the Ghost’s punishments would drive mere humans mad
“These are but wild and whirling words, my lord” (1.5.133),
says Horatio when Hamlet appears about to tell him what the Ghost said, but suddenly changes course.
“I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on” (1.5.171-172),
Hamlet warns Horatio and Marcellus. In the course of swearing them to secrecy about the Ghost, Hamlet adds that they can’t so much as hint that they know anything, even if he should act “strange or odd.”
Hamlet never says why he might act strange, but pretended madness was a widely-used plot device in the revenge tragedy of Shakespeare’s time. In those plays, the revenger acted crazy so that his targets wouldn’t know what he was up to until the minute before he killed them. Shakespeare wrote such a tragedy; its name is Titus Andronicus.
“Mad for thy love?” (2.1.82)
Polonius asks Ophelia, when she tells him about Hamlet’s strange visit to her closet. It isn’t really a question, because Polonius jumps to his conclusion and then sticks with it. For the rest of the play he is sure that Hamlet has been driven over the edge because Ophelia (on her father’s orders) won’t see him anymore. Polonius’ idea has its roots in a popular idea of the time, which was that frustrated love brings on a melancholy that is a near neighbor to madness. Compare Ophelia’s description of Hamlet with Benvolio’s description of Romeo, in the first scene of Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo was in love with the never-seen Rosaline. Romeo, too, was melancholy, and sighed, and generally acted strange.
“Something have you heard / Of Hamlet’s transformation” (2.2.3-4).
The King, when he is telling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out what’s wrong with Hamlet, says that Hamlet has been “put . . . from th’ understanding of himself.” The King may be just saying this as an excuse to see what he can find out about what Hamlet may know about his father’s murder, but Gertrude describes Hamlet as “My too much changed son” (2.2.36), and she probably has Hamlet’s best interests at heart
Polonius says to the King and Queen, “your noble son is mad: / Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, / What is’t but to be nothing else but mad? (2.2.92-94).
Thus begins Polonius’ windy explanation of Hamlet’s madness, which Polonius attributes to disappointed love for Ophelia.
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t” (2.2.205-206),
says Polonius to himself as he is in the midst of seeing for himself just how crazy the prince really is.
“I have of late–but wherefore I know not–lost all my mirth” (2.2.295-296),
says Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. After discovering that they are spying on him, he says he’ll tell them what’s wrong with him, to save them the trouble of finding out for themselves. Because of this, it’s hard to tell how to take the famous speech. When he says “man delights not me” (2.2.308-309) is he sincere, or is he playing the melancholy Dane for the benefit of his false friends?
“I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw” (2.2.378-379),
says Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the conclusion of their attempt to find out what’s wrong with him.
“O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!” (3.1.150),
exclaims Ophelia after Hamlet verbally abuses her. But the King says, “what he spake, though it lack’d form a little, / Was not like madness (3.1.163-164). Nevertheless, the scene ends with the King’s comment that “Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go.”
Hamlet declares, “my wit’s diseased” (3.2.321)
as he mocks Guildenstern’s attempts to make him give a straight answer about whether or not he’ll go speak with his mother.
“I like him not, nor stands it safe with us / To let his madness range” (3.3.1-2)
says the King to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, just before he tells them that they are to take Hamlet to England. Two scenes earlier the King commented to Polonius that “what he spake, though it lack’d form a little, / Was not like madness (3.1.163-164), but now the situation is different. He has good reason to think that Hamlet knows that he killed King Hamlet. He wants to get rid of Hamlet, and Hamlet’s “madness” provides a good excuse.
“Make you to ravel all this matter out, / That I essentially am not in madness, / But mad in craft” (3.4.186-188).
“Alas, he’s mad!” (3.4.105), says the Queen when Hamlet speaks to the Ghost, whom she cannot see. Later in the scene Hamlet denies that he is mad and sarcastically urges his mother to let the King do this
“Make you to ravel all this matter out, / That I essentially am not in madness, / But mad in craft” (3.4.186-188).
“Alas, he’s mad!” (3.4.105), says the Queen when Hamlet speaks to the Ghost, whom she cannot see. Later in the scene Hamlet denies that he is mad and sarcastically urges his mother to let the King do this
