Essay Questions

Both Hamlet and Ophelia display signs of madness; what is the main difference between the two characters' insanity?

Hamlet and Ophelia are in love but Ophelia's family do not want her to continue with the relationship, forcing her to give back the love tokens that he has given her. This seems to both distress and enrage Hamlet; he rants and rails against her decision but it is difficult to tel if this is genuine because he is already feigning madness to divert Claudius' attention from his knowledge about the murder of his father. Although his distress seems genuine, it might be part of his act.

Subsequently, when Ophelia is buried, he puts himself in danger by revealing his hiding place, and throwing himself at the gravesite. This suggests that he was genuine in his feelings for her and equally genuine in his distress.

Ophelia is already grief-stricken because of the death of her father; having to return the love tokens to Hamlet, the love of her life, sends her spiraling out of control and her death is likely to have been a suicide, because of her extreme distress over the end of her relationship with Hamlet. This is a genuine condition, not a feigned one, and she becomes more and more insane as the events of the movie unravel.

Why does Hamlet convince Horatio not to kill himself?

Horatio is the only witness to the events that have occurred; everyone else who can bear witness to the deaths that Claudius has caused is already dead. Because he is a loyal servant and friend to Hamlet, his is distraught when first Gertrude, and then Hamlet, is killed by poisoning. He wants to drink the poisoned wine himself so that he can die with the rest of the court. Hamlet asks him not to do this, because he wants someone to tell the new King of Norway what has occurred. Without Horatio, the evil that Claudius has done will go undocumented, and nobody will know all the murder he has committed.