I really like Act 2. It is this act that Hamlet puts his plan into motion and comes up with the idea for the play. In particular, I enjoy how crazy Hamlet acts around some of the other characters in the story, hes off his rocker. Its kind of hard to relate this act to real life, although when I was in Junior High we had a renaissance day and Hamlet was the play that we did. This part of the play stuck in my mind, for whatever reason I always remembered the scene where Hamlet is talking with the players about putting on the play.
For my character analysis I decided to do Polonius, the father of Laertes and Ophelia. I would describe Polonius as an instigator. Shortly after Laertes leaves for France, Polonius warns Ophelia that she should stay away from Hamlet, which she does. Polonius thinks that Ophelias rejection is the reason for Hamlets madness, even though Hamlet is just acting. It is also Polonius that conspires with the king to use Ophelia to spy on Hamlet.
For the theme of Act 2 I chose madness. I think the act that because Hamlet acts so mad, it adds a really intriguing part of the play. He could have just as easily gone through with the play anyway, but by acting insane he keeps his mother, step-father, and Polonius guessing as to what is going on.
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I think your analysis of Hamlet's ruse of madness is correct. He purposefully acts insane so that he can discover the truth about his father's death. He deceives everyone so that he can pursue his obsession of revenge.
ReplyDeleteHamlet's show of madness was an inspired bit of work to keep everyone else around him on their toes. However, I think in act II it begins to get to him, becoming less of an act and more a reality.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Patrick is right at one point Hamlet could not see straight, all the acting of "madness" he actually was insane and mad.
ReplyDeleteMad for revenge of his fathers death and insane that he is seeing ghost. I think I would go crazy if I saw ghost..
Everyone seems to be on the same track here, at the point where Hamlet's feigned madness actually evolves into something a little more than acting. The stress of the situation seems to overtake him. But who knows, maybe Hamlet has fooled us all! Dun dun dunnnn...
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you called Hamlet going through "madness". I think it describes him perfectly for this act. I felt like he was acting insain, but madness describes it so much better since he seems to know what he is doing.
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