what i've done

I do think that Claudius is crazy. First, he realizes the mistakes he has made, which is a result of his obsession for power and incest. As seen, in his speech: "'Forgive me my foul murder' That cannot be, since I am stilled possessed of those effects for which I did the murder." From my perspective, Claudius realizes he has done crazy things and wants Hamlet as far away from him as possible because he sees a correlation between their actions. Claudius could think that Hamlet will go completely crazy and do just as him- murder the king.

Overall, I would argue that Claudius believes his nephew is indeed crazy. We see this in when Claudius is calling for help from "angels." You could argue that he is calling for repentence for his sins, but I am going to put it out there that he is crying for help to angels for protection from Hamlet because he knows his secret.

Questions

Why can't Gertrude see the ghost?

Why does Claudius all of a sudden decide to send Hamlet away?

Why is Hamlet so eager to kill, when he does not even know the person behind the tapestry?

Blissful love

Honestly, I do not think that Hamlet ever truly loved Ophelia. At times, he was probably thinking she good looking or this relationship has potential, but his actions do not reflect a genuine love. We see this in Hamlet's love letter:
" Doubt thou the stars are fire
Doubt that the sun doth move
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt love
O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon
my groans. but that love thee best O most best, believe it. Adieu.
Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is him Hamlet."

First, this letter has terrible poetic flow; it starts ourt good, but then it's almost like Hamlet says indirectly I really do not care that much about the letter so I just going to do an okay job rather than try to impress you, Ophelia. When he breaks rhyme scheme, I almost think that he saying you know what I really do not care that much about you and Hamlet says that he does not care about impressing Ophelia. That would be equivelant to a guy walking up to his girlfriend and saying yeah you look decent. This tells me that he really does not care about love, but rather just the experience of life. Essentially, Hamlet also uses the word "beautified" in one of his letters, and thus I would say that he could not find a word to describe Ophelia; so inturn, he decided he was to lazy to look for a word, and then he just made one up. This shows that Hamlet once again does not value the relationship with Ophelia because he does not put any effort into the relationship.

Scene i and ii response

Philosophy is key within these scenes. Hamlet debates why someone would avoid suicide and concludes we are afraid of the unknown. Also, when Claudius leaves the players's presentation, I would conclude that this ghost hamlet saw was not a hallucination. If it is, Hamlet is truly going crazy and it would point to that it was coincidence that Claudius just walked out. It just does not make sense that Claudius would have stomach flu at the exact same that the potential murder he committed appeared on stage in front of his whole kingdom. Also, what is Hamlet doing to Ophelia? Does he totally want her? I think he might be insane. Have a good weekend MJ.