Andy Karalekas
Ms. McInnis
English 12
1/18/19
In the play “Hamlet” William Shakespeare blurs the lines between putting on a cunning act and becoming truly what they wanted others to see. Hamlet was the one who entered this grey area, after his father was poisoned, he supposedly put on an act to make it seem as though he was going insane. However, as the play progressed, and more tragedy occurred it became unclear whether he had gone mad or had just kept up his act. Due to the progressing death and emotional tension occurring within Hamlet’s life it clear that at a certain point he was no longer putting on an act. Throughout the story Hamlet’s mental state progressively becomes more unstable; as revealed through the ghost of his father, the death of his close friends, and the fight that takes place at Ophelia’s funeral.
As Hamlet began to experience more emotional turmoil during the play, he started to make some questionable decisions. He decided to interrupt a play in which King Claudius was in attendance and metaphorically accuse him of killing his father through the act in front of an entire audience, this rash and reckless decision making shows the first signs of his mental decline. After this his mental state begins to snowball into a downward spiral which leads him to make truly incredible decisions. Which because further anguish caused by worse deskins, eventually this toxic cycle leads to the plays infamous tragic ending. During this first mental shift one way of dealing with this is by taking advice from others, especially ones who are experts one their current situation. His father, stuck in purgatory because he was not allowed to pray before he passed, informs his son that he was in fact murdered. While hamlet is going through this time of extreme emotional turmoil, he sees a ghost which tells him what to do next. “Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away” (1.5.17-18). With this new-found source, Hamlets suspicions were confirmed, his father was in fact murdered and the killer is currently in possession of the crown. Hamlet realizes that it is on him and him alone to prove that King Claudius is in fact the murderer. This realization put a lot of emotional tension and heartbreak on the shoulders of Hamlet. Heartbreak since he now knows his own uncle killed his father. This realization was Hamlet’s first break, he is becoming more unstable, he is consumed by the desire for revenge. This begins to affect his relationship between his friends and family, especially Ophelia. This desire is slowly leading him down the path to insanity because he has no way of achieving this without killing him causing an extreme moral dilemma for Hamlet. It appears Hamlet has already decided what he was going to do, Hamlet unstable at the time began to question his own mortality, even considering taking his own life. When hamlet was at one of his lowest points the thought of this entered his mind “To be or not to be that is ...
