Consider, bearing in mind contemporary beliefs about madness, Shakespeare’s use of madness in “Hamlet”. What responses do you as part of a modern audience have to the depiction of madness? Hamlet is a tragedy written in the late sixteenth century. Webster’s dictionary describes madness as: the quality or state of being mad: as a: rage b: insanity c: extreme folly d: ecstasy, enthusiasm. In this essay I will be exploring Hamlet’s madness …showed first 75 words of 1311 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1311 total…had very strong views about suicide. Suicide was seen as the biggest sin - more of a sin than murder - so theatregoers would not have been sympathetic towards the character Ophelia. People who committed suicide would not have had Christian burial rites; they would have been taken by churchmen and their naked corpses would have been thrown into a pit. People believed that the person committing suicide would go straight to hell. Word count 1286