Argumentative Essay: Comparing Madness in Hamlet and Modern Student life
The theme of Madness that is expressed in the play Hamlet, told a lot about Hamlet as a
human being. In my opinion madness in today’s high school society is broken down into three
main parts, over reacting, revenge, and confusion, each of these ideas has its own way of
connecting to madness. Each of which were also a part of Hamlet, therefore in my opinion I say
that Madness then and now are very similar to each other, and also is one of the reasons there
is conflict.
To begin, over reaction is probably the most common reason for someone to have gone mad or
upset over something. In both the play and movie, Hamlet had shown an overreaction to his
mother’s relationship with his uncle, King Claudius. In my opinion it wasn’t Hamlets business to
get involved in his mother’s personal life, just like in high school, I see a lot of students who
have issues being in each other’s company because of previous conflict, if they were able to not
get involved in what started the conflict there wouldn’t be anything to have issues over.
Another point in the play when an overreaction occurred is when Hamlet and Laertes were
summoned to duel one another to the death. Instead of clearing the tension by talking over the
problem they both had used violence instead of listening to each other. In a high school a lot of
students who have tension between each other are not willing to listen to each other to try and
work out the problem using words, the instant reaction is to start creating more tension by
insulting one another and potentially reaching a fighting point. Lastly and possibly the biggest
over reaction with a bit of humour were the two guards; Marcellus and Bernardo. They were
the two who first saw the ghost of Hamlet’s father, and had almost wet themselves. This is an
overreaction because instead of thinking of logical reasons or even asking someone else if they
have encountered this before, they ran as fast as they could. This relates in high school because
this is how rumors are started, someone sees something and instead of taking proper steps to
get the full information, they rush off and let others know. Therefore in my opinion Hamlet and
modern students are very similar when it comes to over reaction, and also potentially creates
conflict in both eras.
The next subject of matter is revenge; in my opinion revenge is the main reason why conflict
cannot be resolved, someone will always want to make things even. For example in Hamlet,
Polonius was killed by Hamlet, which then caused Laertes to seek revenge, in hopes of killing
Hamlet. This is very common in student life, not commonly to the extent of murder, but does
exist, for example students have been known to get revenge though the internet, known as
cyber-bullying or even through involving others. Revenge also came up in Hamlet when Hamlet
first spoke to his father’s ghost, where his father told him very bluntly to get revenge from
Claudius. Not per say by a ghost but students could possibly be confronted by someone and
told to do some vengeful for another. In the saying “what you don’t know, won’t hurt you” was
applied in these situations problems would have been avoided, since no one would have been
involved. Following the revenge plot, Claudius had planned on having Hamlet assassinated in
England after he had banished him. In relation to students, it is common for someone to have
calmly let go of a problem and then striking when least expected. Therefore revenge in Hamlet
and modern life are very similar, which argues that people then and now where not very
different when it came to seeking resolutions for conflict.
Lastly, the idea of confusion is probably the starting point of madness. Such as when Hamlet
first spoke to the ghost, Hamlet reacted as if he was hallucinating, and that is when it seemed
he had begun to lose his mind. This happens in high school for example, during a exams week, a
teacher could have stated that a classes exam will be on a certain day but accidentally had
given the wrong information, now that students will be confused when they walk into school on
a day unaware their exam is that day. This would be a starting point from where the students
would have started arguing with the teacher who had made a mistake. Another time in Hamlet,
were confusion between the characters occurred was at the time Claudius pressured Laertes
into killing Hamlet, Laertes had shown confusion such as “why Claudius was demanding this?”
but eventually was talked into it. Like in high school when a student is telling a story they had
heard from another person, and have mixed it up to make it more entertaining and possibly
exaggerated, the people listening would have mixed feelings on the likelihood. A final example
in Hamlet was when Ophelia had committed suicide and left the confusion of “what was her
motif to do so? The queen also Hamlet’s mother had described it by telling everyone that she
could not live with the stress of losing her father and her lover; Hamlet when he was banished,
this confusion affected everyone except Ophelia, the confusion that she had experienced
consisted of the loss of Polonius and the loss of Hamlet. What she experienced confused her to
a point of death because of too many negative actions happening at once, putting a heavy load
on her shoulders. This happens in modern society, not always to a point of losing two people in
close timing but even with work or school it is plausible to have the same end result. The load
from work and the load from having to pay bills could put a lot of stress on someone confusing
them and making a person ask “What to do?” Therefore confusion is essentially the reason that
any madness could appear in life.
To conclude, using examples from Hamlet and reality, in my opinion the theme madness in
Hamlet in comparison to young adults and students is very similar and even and also a possible
reason for conflict to occur between two or more groups.