Part 13: Ophelia, Hamlet, and 13 ways of looking at madness
Often we speak of Ophelia as having really gone mad, while Hamlet only pretends. But in fact the play uses the word “mad” in many ways, as do critics.
So, with a nod to Wallace Stevens’ poem title [1], a list:
MADNESS AS DEMONIC POSSESSION: Horatio worries that the ghost is demonic and “might deprive [Hamlet] sovereignty of reason / And draw [him] into madness” (1.4.77-82).
MADNESS AS FEIGNED: After meeting with the ghost (1.5), Hamlet says he will “put on” “an antic disposition” (1.5.189-192), as did Odysseus, King David, and Amleth in the Saxo Grammaticus source; but Hamlet’s encounter with the ghost may actually be driving him insane…
[Edit 9/24/2023: In 3.1.7-10, Guildenstern also comments on Hamlet's feigned madness:
"Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state."]
MADNESS AS WHAT LOST LOVE CAN DO: Polonius believes Hamlet has been made insane by the loss of Ophelia’s affection (2.1.95).
MADNESS AS CONUNDRUM TO BE SOLVED: Claudius suspects Hamlet may know of his secret murder of Hamlet’s father; Polonius thinks Hamlet suffers from love-madness. Thereby they both think they caused Hamlet’s madness: Claudius by secret murder, Polonius by requiring Ophelia’s obedient rejection of Hamlet.
MADNESS AS AN ILLNESS IN HAMLET TO BE HEALED: Gertrude thinks that if Hamlet is mad due to the loss of Ophelia’s love, she may help restore him (3.1.42-46).
MADNESS AS FREUDIAN DIAGNOSIS OF HAMLET’S CRUELTY TO OPHELIA: In 3.1 & 3.2, after Ophelia gives back Hamlet’s love letters or tokens of affection, he becomes cruel with her; many critics blame unresolved Oedipal conflicts with his mother, projected onto all women.
MADNESS AS GERTRUDE’S DESCRIPTION OF HAMLET SPEAKING TO A GHOST SHE CANNOT SEE in her closet after stabbing Polonius: “Alas, he’s mad.” (3.4.121)
MADNESS AS DESCRIPTION OF PEOPLE WHO REVEAL DANGEROUS POLITICAL SECRETS: As her father’s insightful daughter, Ophelia may understand more of the conspiracies in Denmark than she reveals; Horatio views her as dangerous (4.5.5-20). See previous post, part 11. [2]
MADNESS AS REAL FOR OPHELIA - WHO ACTS LIKE A COURT FOOL (See previous post on Ophelia as court fool, Part 9 [3]), / OR / MADNESS AS UNCOMPREHENDING MALE DESCRIPTION OF OPHELIA when she acts too much like a queen, as if princes who make to women "almost all the holy vows of heaven" should be encouraged and allowed to keep their vows, and held to their word (see part 23 in this series).
MADNESS AS DESCRIPTION OF YORICK, COURT FOOL: “Whoreson mad fellow” (5.1.181) and “mad rogue!” (5.1.184).
MADNESS AS POINT OF DIFFERENCE: Elaine Showalter notes that some in Shakespeare’s time wrote about melancholy in men and hysteria in women, portraying female madness as unlike male madness (see previous post, Part 10, excerpts from Showalter). [4]
MADNESS AS POINT OF COMMONALITY: The gravedigger says that if “mad” Hamlet is in England, his madness won’t be noticed because they’re all mad there (5.1.159-160).
MADNESS AS METAPHOR FOR SIN: If Hamlet harmed Laertes, it was not Hamlet but the madness (sin) in him (5.2.246-253) (and as St Paul puts it in Romans 7:15-17 [5]). As metaphor for sin, Claudius’ murder of his brother, Polonius’ meddling, and Laertes’ passion for vengeance could all, also, be termed “mad.”
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Postscript 9/24/2023
After the player's Hecuba speech in 2.2, Hamlet says that if the actor had his motivation, given what his uncle did, he could "make mad the guilty":
What would he do
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears.
2.2.587-593
Catching the conscience of the king is not elsewhere defined as driving the guilty crazy, so this is an additional kind of madness not mentioned above.
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NOTES:
[1] Poet Wallace Stevens has a poem called “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45236/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blackbird
[2] See previous post, part 11: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/08/part-11-mad-ophelia-grasps-tricks-i-th.html
[3] See previous post, part 9: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/08/part-9-ophelia-mad-rogue-court-fool.html
[4] In a previous week, I considered excerpts from Elaine Showalter’s “Representing Ophelia,” in which she observed and stressed *difference* for Ophelia’s madness as compared to Hamlet’s.
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/08/part-10-ophelia-via-elaine-showalters.html
Showalter claimed that Ophelia’s madness is related to her female body and feminine nature, and that it was understood in this way in Shakespeare’s lifetime (“hysteria”). The play certainly offers differences between Hamlet’s madness and Ophelia’s.
- But is the difference between Hamlet’s (feigned?) madness and Ophelia’s (real?) madness truly representative of male and female madness and the different ways these present themselves?
- Or at least in Shakespeare’s play, is the difference in their madness in part because Hamlet is let in on the ghost’s secret, and charged with avenging his father’s death, while Ophelia is not?
- Certainly in other Shakespeare plays women know a secret and/or seek revenge (Beatrice in Much Ado asks Benedick for vengeance; Volumnia in Coriolanus, and Tamora in Titus Andronicus are vengeful).
- Laertes does not find Ophelia at all vengeful (4.5.192-193)....
[5] Romans 7:15-17 reads,
For I allow not that which I do: for what I would, that do I not: but what I hate, that do I.
If I do then that which I would not, I consent to the Law, that it is good.
Now then, it is no more I, that do it, but [d]sin that dwelleth in me.
OPENING COLLAGE IMAGES: By John Archibald Austen, 1922, “for an edition of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, published by Selwyn and Blount, London, 1922” (as cited by Folger) Images public domain via https://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/austen/z.htm
ADDITIONAL John Archibald Austen, 1922 images, public domain via Luna.Folger.edu
https://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/view/search;JSESSIONID=47f2acb5-3f5a-4269-9f72-53e8e15a8379?q==%22Hamlet%20%5Ba%20set%20of%20121%20original%20drawings%5D%20%5Bgraphic%5D%20%2F%20John%20Austen.%22&sort=Call_Number,Author,CD_Title,Imprint
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INDEX OF OPHELIA POSTS:
My 2023 series on Ophelia, and earlier Ophelia posts:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/index-of-ophelia-posts-2023-series-and.html
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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