Hamlet

Betrayed and Gone Mad Old Hamlet’s passing created a downhill domino effect in Hamlet’s life. His life turned into major turmoil and he was mentally and emotionally lost in the midst of everything that was going on. Throughout the play, Hamlet unravels what was thought to be a natural death of his father turn into a murder and since then he has faced trials where the betrayal that Hamlet perceived ignited his madness. Betrayal is portrayed in Hamlet as one of the main themes. Hamlet’s first experience of betrayal was instantaneous. Shortly after his father’s death, Queen Gertrude and the newly reigning King, Claudius, married while Hamlet was still in mourning. “But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two. So excellent a king…so loving to my mother that he might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her face too roughly,” (1.2.139-142). This boiled up Hamlet’s blood because his mother, who he thought was just as much in love with his father as he was with her, moved on so quickly and as though she was not a widow. Nothing hurt him more than knowing that his mother did not care about his beloved father anymore. But thus far the biggest betrayal that Hamlet has experienced in the play was the murder of his father by his own uncle who is now married to his mother. When the Ghost first appeared and spoke to Hamlet, he confesses the truth about his death and tells Hamlet, “But know, thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown…Let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest,” (1.5.38-40,82-83). As soon as the Ghost informed Hamlet about the murder, he promised to take revenge for his father’s death. And that promise drove him off the edge. Hamlet’s madness was driven by the actions of those around him. To take into consideration that Hamlet was already emotionally unstable about his father’s death, the unveiling of the murder and the break up added onto it. His promise to the ghost to give his father’s death justice and revenge drove Hamlet to go mad; not only did he have to pretend that he knew nothing of the murder, but he had to deal with seeing his father’s murderer seduce his own mother from day in and day out. While Hamlet was going through all of that, the woman who he gave his heart to broke it. Ophelia’s rejection of his love caused him so much hurt. As shown in the play, Hamlet walks in Ophelia’s room “as if he had been loosed out of hell,” acting in such a strange and abnormal way that it frightened her (2.1.83). At Hamlet’s most vulnerable point, he did not know how to take it all in, and all his problems piled up to the point where they clouded his mental ability to think normally. The rejection, commotion, and anger that Hamlet was internally struggling with drove his madness.
The betrayal that Hamlet has experienced had a great effect on the cause of his madness. There have been many incidents where those of whom Hamlet held so close and dear to his heart backstabbed him. His mistrust of those that he thought were trustworthy pushed Hamlet to be, more so, mentally and emotionally unstable. Mad. Throughout the play, the betrayal and madness that chokes Hamlet’s life is consistently seen and go hand in hand with each other.
The characters in Hamlet all played a role as to how and why Hamlet is betrayed and gone mad. The pressure and trials that Hamlet faced caused him to be mentally and emotionally unstable.