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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that discusses Hamlet's ruse of insanity and the purpose it fulfilled within the overall structure of the play. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KL9_khhamcrazy.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
or not Hamlet has actually seen a supernatural apparition or if his tortured mind has succeeded in driving him into insanity. The structure of the first act is built around
establishing this issue, as well as other dichotomies that haunt Hamlet. By the end of Act I, Scene 5, as Hamlet extracts promises from Horatio and Marcellus never to say
anything about what they seen that night, or react when he begins to act crazy, there is the definite possibility that Hamlet could actually be losing his mind. Earlier
in Act I, with his first speech, Hamlet indicates that he is deeply depressed. "I have that within passeth show,/ These but the trappings and the suits of woe" (I.ii.89-90).
Certainly, he has ample reason to be depressed. His father has passed died suddenly and his mother, whom he thought loved his father dearly, grieved briefly and then married his
uncle, her brother-in-law, which by Elizabethan sensibilities is a relationship associated with incest (I.ii.161). Furthermore, she married almost immediately. Hamlet comments that the marriage took place just a month after
his fathers death (I.ii.151). In Act I, scene v, the ghost of Hamlets father lays upon him a mission, "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (I.v.31). If the
ghost is the specter of his father, condemned to suffer "sulphurous and tormenting flames" (I.v.7) because he died without having the opportunity to repent and receive the last rites, then
Hamlets filial duty is clear and he must do as the ghost demands. On the other hand, Hamlet is Christian, and, therefore, has already considered the possibility that the
ghost may be a demon, trying to lure him into committing a sinful act. On seeing the ghost, Hamlets first reaction is to call on "Angels and minister of grace"
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