Discuss Shakespeare’s portrayal of madness and the feigning

Shakespeare portrays madness and the pretence of madness through its use, cause and consequences that affect the plot and relationships of this tragedy. Hamlet incorporates the pretence of madness to complete his revenge, but it is a delay in the course of action. Hamlet’s use of madness shapes the drama but equally it is his relationship with Gertrude and Ophelia that moulds the direction of Hamlet’s pretence and inadvertently shapes the path to revenge and ultimately the play, resulting in tragedy.

Hamlet employs madness as a tool, but also as a double-edged sword. Hamlet’s insanity is a disguise for his true intent for revenge, but also a hindrance. Schlegel affirms that Shakespeare presents a Hamlet who, ‘has no firm belief in himself or in anything else’, and that, ‘his far-fetched scruples are often mere pretexts to cover his want of determination’ (2). A strong case indeed, as it is Hamlet’s uneasy conscience, acute sense of duty, and lack of self-confidence that turn him towards the pretence of madness.

Shakespeare probes madness through several different methods; however through his use of Gertrude and Ophelia he encompasses the spectrum and course of Hamlet’s mad pretence, Gertrude as the impetus, and Ophelia’s suicide, as it’s the end. His relationship with these central characters creates, and concludes his delay. Even though madness caused tragedy, and delayed the course of Hamlets filial duty, Shakespeare shows that it, inadvertently, through a chain of reactions is the slow crucible which results in the in the sacrificing of the protagonists lives in the completion of Hamlet’s revenge.

Why Shakespeare focuses on madness is not often clear, but the path of the play, the effect Hamlet’s madness has on people and the events it activates leads towards the final act of the play, wherein all the main protagonists die. It could be that Shakespeare uses madness to excuse or create sympathy for his eponymous hero, his actions and the effect they have on others and the play as a whole. He illustrates madness in all its forms to present the tragedy that insanity, and the pretence of insanity results in. Shakespeare effectively shows through the characters and actions in ‘Hamlet’ that madness takes and does not give. That action without thought of consequence ends in disaster.

Most of Hamlet’s soliloquies are, ‘transactions between himself and his moral sense…effusions of his solitary musings’ (1) that are often believed to be mad ramblings. During Hamlet’s soliloquies, Shakespeare creates the illusion of insanity through structure, with spontaneous, erratic speech. This is achieved through short sentences and rapid changes of topic and views from Hamlet, ‘But two months dead, nay, not so much, not two! / So excellent a King; that was to this / Hyperion to a satyr’. [I.ii.138-140] This reveals the depth of emotion and turmoil within Hamlet’s mind. This is also shown further at the end of Hamlet’s soliloquies. Most Shakespearean characters that, through their speech, reach a firm decision will conclude on a Shakespearean rhyming couplet. Hamlet, when in great tension, does not, which is indicative of his instability of mind and decision.

Within Shakespeare’s era madness was perceived as a lack of faith, or even the work of Satan. The reason

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