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Traces of Madness in HamletSome pour scorn upon me thinking I am extremely mad, however, as for me, I somewhat laugh at them for few of them are able to understand me, indeed. This is a classic soliloquy of a well-known comedian called Zhou Xingchi in his drama of “the Story of Tang Bohu and Qiuxiang, (Tang Bohu Dian Qiuxiang).” And the original utterance refers to people thought I was mad. But I know there are things they do not know. (Bie ren xiao wo tai feng dian, wo xiao bie ren kan bu chuan.) Such two brief sentences imply a fact that what really lies behind an implicit madness, to some extent, could hardly be made out. Indeed, there is no exception to the works of William Shakespeare. He was a giant in the period of Renaissance in Europe, and the most famous playwright in the history of drama art in the world. Throughout his life full of legends, he created a great number of astonishing classic literary works. According to the chronological order ,Shakespeare s career as a dramatist may be divided into four major phases which represent respectively his early ,mature ,flourishing, and late periods so that scholars are able to discern a process of development in his work. The first period of Shakespeares dramatic composition (1590-1594) was the period of his apprenticeship in play-writing, during which he, as a newcomer to London, made experiments in a number of dramatic forms: the historical play, varieties of comedy, the revenge tragedy, and the romantic tragedy. (刘炳善，1992：68)During these years ,he also wrote 2 narrative poems ,and his historical play HenryVI in three parts which represented the history of the Wars of the Roses on the stage marked his first theatrical success. The second period of Shakespeares work was his mature period (1595-1600), mainly a period of great comedies and mature historical plays. It included 6 comedies, 5 historical plays and a Roman tragedy. His Sonnets were also thought to be written in this period. Shakespeare made an advance in every way on the basis of the achievements of the first period, in knowledge, in wisdom, in political insight, in dramatic skill, in creative power, in characterization, and in versification. The third period (1601-1607) of Shakespeares dramatic career was mainly the period of “great tragedies and dark comedies”. It included three comedies : Troilus and Cressida , Alls Well That Ends Well , Measure for Measure; two Roman tragedies : Antony and Cleopatra , Coriolanus ; and five tragedies: Hamlet , Othello , King Lear ,Macbeth ,Timon of Athens. In this period, the tragic note is aggravated. The sunshine and laughter of the second period has faded away and turned into clouds and storms. The cause of such a change should be sought from Shakespeares change of moods as influenced by the social upheavals at the turn of the century. The fourth period of Shakespeares work was the period of romantic drama. With this period we turned from the storm, the gloom, and the whirlwind of the third period when the greatest four tragedies were born, including Hamlet and King Lear and so forth, to a great peacefulness of light, and a harmony of earth and heaven. Just in 1601, the third period of Shakespeares work, the origin of madness in his works came to make its first appearance and welcomed the prelude of tragedies. Admittedly, Hamlet stood up, first of all, and made the turning point apparent .Hamlet was accomplished in such a social circumstance when England was ill at ease, and the Crown tended to be absolutist. The House of Commons protested against the Queens policies and royal privileges. There were plots against Elizabeth. In 1602 the Earl of Essex, a former favorite of Elizabeth, started a rising, which cost him death. There rose the undermasters in London , who were being converted into wage laborers (刘炳善，1992：74) .In 1604, the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeares patron, was arrested by James I, the new king, on charges of treason. It was amid this atmosphere of general unrest that Shakespeare wrote his great tragedies and dark comedies, in which complicated social contradictions are mercilessly exposed. Lust, murder, treachery, ingratitude and crime all conspired to creep into this social period. In addition, William Shakespeare was born in the period of European Renaissance, and his inspiration and intuition of composing works were inevitably affected by the core of Renaissance and thus circled the essence. Undoubtedly, humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance. In this case, the creating process as well as its spirit of Hamlet was penetrated by this essence. Renaissance period refers to 1500-1604, deriving from Italian renascenia which means for those who took part in it was the rebirth of classical Greek and Latin literature. The term renaissance is commonly applied to the historical period which follows the Middle Ages. A long-accepted view is that the Renaissance began in the later half of the 14th century. And it continued throughout the 15th and 16th century and perhaps even later. Broadly speaking, it may be said that between the 12th century and 13th century, peoples opinions about the nature and the structure of universe brought about profound and far-reaching change. Besides, Renaissance is keenly interested in the activities of humanity. People stopped to look upon themselves as living only for God and a future world. Thinkers ,artist and poets arose ,who gave expression ,sometimes in an old guise , thought , to the new feeling of admiration for human beauty and human achievement , a feeling in sharp contrast with theology(刘炳善，1992：34). Gradually came the thought of humanism which mirrored the new outlook of the rising bourgeois class, which witnessed the world opening before it. Man could mould the world according to his desires, and attain happiness by removing all external checks by the exercise of reason. In other words, humanism, and European phenomenon, was progressive trend of thought of the Renaissance period. It was a philosophical outlook of the humanists. Humanism was anthropocentric. It sought to dignify and enable men and regarded man as the crown of the creature. It helped to civilize man to make himself realize his potential power and gifts. It turns out to be a form of philosophy, which concentrated on the perfection of worldly life rather than on the preparation for eternal and spiritual life. Hamlet is ranked as the summit of Shakespeares art. The story comes from an old Danish legend. Before Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd had written a play on the same subject. It was a tragedy of blood and thunder(罗经国，2004：138) . Yet beneath the pen of Shakespeare, the medieval story assumed a new meaning. In Hamlet, it tells a story of princes revenge. It happens in Denmark that Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark, widowed by the sudden death of the King, within two months marries the late kings brother Claudius, who thus becomes the new king. Prince Hamlet, son of the late king, returns home from the University of Wittenberg. He suspects foul play on the part of Claudius, his uncle. Then his fathers ghost appears to him at the castle of Ellsinore, and confirms Hamlets suspicion. He begins to avenge the murder. In order to numb Claudius vigilance, Hamlet pretends to go mad. However, his madness is taken by Polonius, an old courtier, to be an emotional disturbance due to his affection for Ophelia, daughter of Polonius. At the moment, a company of players pays a visit to the castle, and Hamlet has a play acted, which resembles the late kings murder. The guilty of Claudius starts up in fear before the play ends, and goes out. Gertrude sends Hamlet to her chamber, where he reveals Claudiuss baseness and expresses his indignation at her hasty marriage, which poses the queen heart-broken. Then Hamlet becomes aware that he is being overheard in the conversation. Thinking it is Claudius that is in hiding; he runs his sword through the arras but finds the eavesdropper thus killed to be Polonius. The king now determines to destroy hamlet. He sends Hamlet to England, intending to have him killed there. But pirates capture Hamlet and send him back to Denmark again. Owing to blow of the sudden death of her father, Ophelia goes mad and later is drowned in a river. Hamlet comes back just at the moment of her funeral. And he meets Ophelias brother, Laertes. Laertes decides to avenge the death of his sister and father. With him Claudius conspires to get rid of Hamlet. The king arranges that Laertes is to challenge Hamlet to a friendly duel and kill him with a poisoned sword. In the duel, Laertes wounds Hamlet but is himself struck with the same poisoned weapon. Before the death, the plot is exposed by Laertes . The Queen is poisoned by the cup of wine prepared for Hamlet. In the end, Hamlet kills the king, and then dies, endowing Fortinbra of Norway with the election to the crown. In Hamlet we see the bright and happy life of the young prince darkened by the lust and ingratitude of his mother and by the revelation of his uncles foul murder of his father, and, after long hesitations and melancholy, the Danish prince in his own death fulfils the task of revenge, while the pure, weak Ophelia shares the same fate with him. The greatness of the play lies in the fact that in it Shakespeare expressed his praise of the noble quality of Prince Hamlet as a representative of humanist thinkers and his disillusionment with the corrupt and degenerated society in which he lived. To the point, a question may arise, namely why Shakespeare employs the way of the madness to mould the character of Hamlet? State of being insane, insane behavior, extreme foolishness” this is the definition of Madness extracted from the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary (AS Hornby, 2002:890). And how Shakespeare defined Hamlets madness? The reasons are various and perhaps the main one is to achieve a stage effect of some special kind to appeal to the audience and fun them so that the audience is apt to fuse with plot intimately. Besides, the essence of the play and that of Hamlet character is able to be fathomed well. This is external reason, although, the internal one has penetrated into the character of Hamlet, his hesitation and his melancholy. He feigns mad for the following reasons. First, the reality runs counter to his ideal. As a prince, he would lead a joyful life without any distress; however, the sudden change brings him into the dark abyss. The world for Hamlet is not perfect and wonderful any more. He cannot help suspecting and guessing everything towards him including all his emotion, his affection for his mother and uncle, his love for Ophelia and his friendship. His revenge is not only a personal matter. What trouble him most are the injustice, conspiracy, and betrayal in the society. His father is murdered by his uncle and his mother is married to his uncle right after his fathers death. The marriage of his mother is the first blow to him as he had regarded her as a virtuous woman. Then his former friends Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are dispatched by the king to spy on him. This is a second blow, for as a humanist he sets great store by friendship. Then his girl friend Ophelia is sent as a tool to find out whether or not he is really mad. This is something he can no longer endure. One incident after another seems to reveal to him that the time is Out of joint And man is not so good as he had imagined .Via the cruelty of reality, Hamlet comes to be aware that he has no access to perusing his ideal and dream once cherishing in him for long, and all the glory and brilliance once he possess has vanished all of a sudden into the air（谷孙，2005：146）. Still, it becomes very tough and hard for him to acquire what he wants. He does not has the faintest idea what is the proper moment to revenge , and the people around him turn to be ignorant and blind , and there is no room for reality and then his life turns out that tedious. He wavers in the conflict between the ideal and reality, on the brink of the question TO BE OR NOT TO BE . He, in the most front of his time, accepted the most advanced education, yet, lives in the backward feudal society. And all the inequality and contrast leads him to the feigning “madness. Life teases him, and his madness teases his foes. Secondly, his belief in humanism fails him. His father is killed by his uncle whom his mother hastily gets married to, and this runs counter to the ethics so that he begins to be shaken by the ideals of humanism. Humanism has strongly advocated love, friendship, morality, whereas there is no place for reality and his acceptance of Humanistic Education is now fading its color and becoming ridiculous and funny. He feels as if he was fooled and the faith he has kept for more than 20 years is destroyed by a series of change in one night. He sees evil not only lingering in others spirit, but also in his spirit. He feels confused by the distortion of human nature and his whole outlook toward life has changed. Meanwhile, a tremendous suffering incompatible with his time attacks him constantly and his suffering stems from both the unhappiness of his family and even the cruel sadness of all human beings. Therefore, the ideal and faith of humanism collapses in his heart, and he finds no faith to resist the following unexpected storm falling on him. Gradually, under great depression, Hamlet has no choice but to carries his body pretending mad to fight against the foe. Finally, he is on the way to despair. Additionally, under the consideration of the power of his foe, Hamlet chooses to feign madness, which is a need as well as a strategy for him to struggle with the reality. In this way, he creates an invisible gap in reality and through his madness”, he disguises his secret action of revenge. His mad words release him so that his confusion and indignation inside are able to flow out. The image of a mad person saves his independence when evidence of his uncles is collected. Apparently, as it may speak, Hamlets madness is a must in the process of the fighting with his foe. In this way, under the great pressure of multiple contradictions, Hamlet chooses a wise way of becoming mad but seemingly also an undignified one. His following performance is beyond appreciation; especially he has made several decisions to give up stabbing his uncle, which makes him different from many other avengers, basically for his faith and sublime spirit has saved the souls that are almost lost in the sea of revenge. Having experienced so much struggling, the traces of hatred inside Hamlet have been defeated by his willpower of revenge. Spontaneously, his soul has sublimated to a superior level. I. The salvation of humanism In order to protect himself from the attack of his foes and attain some intelligence, Hamlet feigns madness. He clearly realizes that the world now is extremely dark and unjust, whereas he has no idea so as to solve these troubles and eliminate all the devils. The power of his foes he is faced with is so strong that it is impossible for Hamlet to overwhelm it on his own, and he has to adopt the best strategy of pretending mad. To a larger degree , Hamlet accepts the education of humanism , and he believes the kind aspect of human nature in man （张冲，2004：87）. He still deeply believes that all of them will convert to be kind no matter how evil they used to. As far as his uncle is concerned, Hamlet remains keeping the same attitude toward him. Consequently, even though a great deal of chance to kill his uncle, Hamlet hesitates and gives up for his conscience. II .The hesitation of life and death To be , or not to be , that is the question, whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune , or to take arms against a sea of troubles , and by opposing , end them . To die, to sleep, no more.（Shakespeare, 朱生豪译，1944：135） this is Hamlet contemplation of life and death. To be “means continuing to suffer a lot, however,” not to be does not really mean ending all the pains in his heart. Basically, there lies the root of his hesitation. Disaster at that typical moment for him becomes a long-term suffering. His desperate wail is profoundly true degeneration of his thought in his own world filled with loneliness. Still, he endures all as a humanist, inside him, an implicit distress and embarrassment tortures him. And what he can do is just a fierce battle that renders him to express himself in mad words on the one hand to embody his dissatisfaction and indignation, on the other to protect himself. Naturally, his mad words are gifted with a profound allusion to explain his increasing pain of revenge. The significance of his mad words is an all-round insight and dissection of the world as well as an expression of the truth. We can sense the soul-stirring colour full of humanism from his mad words. Beneath the coat of madness, Hamlet abandons his dignity, desserts his majesty, confronted with loneliness alone. It is not until the moment when he finds his uncle cruel to the top