“Though this be madness, yet there
is method in’t”. This line, spoken by
Polonious, is one of the most important lines spoken in Shakespears’ Hamlet. This line illustrates the
central theme of the play. From the time of Hamlet senior’s death to the final
scene, the entire plot is chaotic. Every character has secrets and devises a
plot at some point in the play. Hamlet, the character that this quote was directed
to, was the master of hiding his true intentions behind a false representation
of himself. When this line was spoken,
it gave not only the characters but also the audience, a critical understanding
of the innerworkings into the mind of the main characters of the play.
Hamlet is the most complex
character in the play. From the opening
scene, we see him being misrepresented by Claudius. He is constantly being described as a
depressed, horny, dramatic teenager. It wasn;t until this line was spoken that
the first accurate repsrentation was presented of Hamlet. It was Hamlet’s
objective to make everyone think he had gone mad over the death of his father
so that they would not view him as a threat.
