Why does Claudius care about why Hamlet is mad? (1 Viewer)

[fatassmcfat]

Is the only explanation because he feels guilty/ suspicious that Hamlet knows the truth? It couldn't really be parental concern cause then he would deal with it differently AKA not spying right?

What was the Elizabethan perception of madness anyway (e.g. did you see a counsellor or was it seen as a 'disease' like physical disease, were you just abandoned by people etc)

 

[Crobat]

because Hamlet was Claudius and Gertrude's love child and he's actually just being a good dad

 

[fatassmcfat]

DAMN thats good i just became mindblown. BTW critical study means we need to know critics quotes, or will it focus more on our own opinions?

 

[NFmusic1995]

DAMN thats good i just became mindblown. BTW critical study means we need to know critics quotes, or will it focus more on our own opinions?

I used no quotes from critics and in the HSC received a 19/20

 

[superesse]

Is the only explanation because he feels guilty/ suspicious that Hamlet knows the truth? It couldn't really be parental concern cause then he would deal with it differently AKA not spying right?

What was the Elizabethan perception of madness anyway (e.g. did you see a counsellor or was it seen as a 'disease' like physical disease, were you just abandoned by people etc)

It is because he feels suspicious about Hamlet's motives. Personally, I do not believe Claudius ever thought that Hamlet was truly mad, because he was always plotting ways to counteract Hamlet's own revenge against him. This implies that perhaps Claudius was aware of Hamlet using madness as a guise. And the Elizabethan perception of madness was one of seeing it like a disease to be pitied upon, hence the characters' reactions to Ophelia.

 

[skillstriker]

DAMN thats good i just became mindblown. BTW critical study means we need to know critics quotes, or will it focus more on our own opinions?

The markers are looking for a personal response to the play. Critic quotes aren't necessary to achieve full marks but both my teacher and tutor recommended that we should include 1-2 quotes from a well renowned critic e.g. Coleridge, TS Eliot, Hazlitt, Nietzsche etc. For instance, you could say "I agree with Coleridge's interpretation that..." or "I disagree with Freud's psychoanalytic interpretation and instead believe that..." It shows you've done a bit of extra research as well.

 

[Mdyeow]

I used no quotes from critics and in the HSC received a 19/20

+1

Also see Claudius' soliloquy (3, iii): "My offence is rank..."

My take is that Claudius is (in quite a similar way to Macbeth, that other ambitious chap) entirely cognisant of the sin that he's committed, and fears that divine intervention will pay him back for this. And he sees Hamlet as the vector of this destruction, yet is torn between eliminating him and accepting his fate. So his interest in Hamlet's madness stems from that binary opposition, within him, as to what to do with Hamlet: he's paying attention to the madness because, in a sense, it hath also made him mad (or at least torn in two minds).

But there is no definitive "because" (I pay Crobat's explanation, also mindful of the theory that Hamlet and Horatio are gay lovers), and if you can come up with a theory/reason and back it with strong analysis then do that. Cf. Skillstriker, personal responses are key.