The line between illusion and madness is a fine one?

Question

The line between illusion and madness is a fine one.

This is a prompt in which I must expand upon for my Year 12 English essay. You may have seen my other prompts, this one however, is the big one, in which i have to write a narrative and link the quote to the piece of writing somehow.

What are the themes of this prompt and what does it mean? What should i discuss?

Note: All pieces are based on madness and illnesses that make people go mad. Maybe they don't realise they are mad.

It would be helpful if you also answered my similar questions:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080623034256AAcijlr&r=w

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080623034336AA3ZBim&r=w

Answer 1

I'm assuming you've read Hamlet, in which case your essay can be entirely on that play. In it, Hamlet tells his friends at the beginning that he is going to act insane in order to get revenge for his father's death. However, as the play progresses and we understand what Hamlet is thinking through soliliquys, the audience begins to think that Hamlet is indeed insane and is no longer faking it. You can use his hasty killing of Polonius to support this. Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius while praying even though he just talked a blue moon about how much he wants to kill Claudius, then he hastily stabs the person behind the tapestry without finding out who it is. He claims that he thought it was Claudius, but it was in fact Polonius, so he kills someone who did nothing to hurt him. Thus, he begins to seem truly insane.