An Analysis of Hamlets antic disposition Is Hamlet mad? A close analysis of the play reveals that Hamlet is straightforward and sane. His actions and thoughts are a logical response to the situation in which he finds himself. However, he assumes antic-disposition to undercover the truth of his fathers death. In the first act, Hamlet appears to be very straightforward in his actions and thoughts. When questioned by Gertrude about his melancholy appearance Hamlet says, Seems, madam? Nay it is know not seems (I, ii, 76). This is to say, I am what I appear to be. Later he makes a clear statement about his thoughts of mind when he commits himself to revenge. Hamlet says, Ill wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain (I, iv, 99-103). With this statement, the play makes a transition. Hamlet gives up the role of a student and mourning son, and commits himself to nothing else but the revenge of his fathers death. There is no confusion and certainly no sign of madness in Hamlets character. In Chapel Scene, when Claudius is praying alone for his guilt, Hamlet accidentally sees him. He realizes that this is the perfect opportunity to perform the revenge. Seeing the opportunity, Hamlet says, Now might I do it pat, now a is a-praying; And now Ill do it, and so he goes to heaven, And so am I revengd. That would be scannd; A villain kills my father, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. (III, iii, 73-79). This shows, Hamlet has a sound mind and is not mad. He knew that if he killed Claudius, he would go to heaven upon death whereas his fathers soul was unprepared for death and so went to purgatory. He has said earlier that he is what he appears to be, and there is no reason to doubt it. When Hamlet appears again in Act Two, it seems that he has lost the conviction and shows a puzzling duplicitous nature. He has yet to take up the part assigned to him by the ghost. He spends the act walking around, reading, talking with Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the players. It is not until the very end of the act that he even mentions vengeance. If he had any of the conviction shown earlier, he would be presently working on his vengeance. So instead of playing the part of vengeful son, or dropping the issue entirely, he hangs out in the middle, pretending to be mad. This is shown when he says to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I know not lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise (II, ii, 298-299). Later he tells them that he is just feigning madness when he says, I am but mad north-north-west, when the wind is southerly, and I know a hawk from a handsaw (II, ii, 380-381). Admitting so blatantly that he is only feigning madness would imply that he is comfortable with it. He also seems to be generally comfortable with acting. This is evidenced when he says, there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so (II, ii, 250-251). Hamlet is saying that thought shapes our perception of reality. It is puzzling that Hamlet is comfortable with his antic disposition at this point but not with the role that he said he would play earlier. Ever since the death of King Hamlet, young Hamlet has been in what has appeared to be in a state of melancholy. In a discussion with Polonius, Hamlet questions Polonius by asking him have you a daughter (II, ii, 182). In this discussion Hamlet mocks Polonius when Hamlet would usually show great respect for him because of he age and of his high position in court. This sudden question to Polonius has causes him to believe that Hamlet has a form of love-sickness sees as a form of madness. Hamlet knows Polonius is sure to tell Claudius of his condition. Hamlet also accuses Polonius of being the Jephthah, judge of Israel,(II, ii, 399) meaning that Polonius would put his country in front of his daughter. Hamlet has now convinced Polonius that he is in a state of madness because he knows that Polonius cares for his daughter very much. Hamlets above actions of pretended madness and thoughts are justified to the situation he finds himself. The purpose of Hamlet feigning madness is to undercover the truth about the events leading up to and involving the death of his father. Hamlet says to Horatio, How strange or odd soeer I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on (I, v, 169-171). This play-acting allows Hamlet to determine if his uncle has played any part in the scheme. By pretending he is insane, he is able to get more information about the death of his father. Play goers are shocked when Hamlet burst into his mothers bedroom. This action is generally interpreted as a sign of his discourteous nature. In the Queens closet scene, Hamlet also acts crazy in front of his mother imagining that there is a ghost in her room. He tries to make her feel guilty enough to confess her sins. He says to his mother, Why, look you there! Look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he livd! Look, where he goes, even now out at the portal! (III, iv, 132-136). I believe another reason for Hamlet to feign madness in front of Claudius is as for her mother, he wanted to drive Claudius to the breaking point of confession and he was successful. In Chapel Scene, Claudius gives way to the guilt which is beginning to torment him despite all his practical efforts to protect himself. He says, O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven. It hath the primal eldest curse upont, A brothers murder (III, iii, 36-38). From the foregoing analysis it can be concluded that Hamlet is quite a sane person. His depression, the hopeless note in his attitude towards others and towards the value of life, his reference to ghost, his self accusations, his desperate efforts to get away from the thoughts of his duty are just a logical response to the circumstances in which he finds himself. This ambiguity is demonstrated by his alleged madness for he does behave madly to become perfectly calm and rational and instant later. He assumes antic-disposition only to undercover the truth and events relating to the death of his father.
He is mentally disturbed by the thought of his uncle killing his father to the point where he loses touch with sanity. Hamlet is a tragedy that will never have a straightforward answer as to if he faked being crazy or not. My belief is that Hamlet had in fact lost touch with reality. The slow decline of his mental health throughout lead me to believe he did go crazy, even if he might have been faking it at first. After seeing his father’s ghost, I believe he started acting like he had lost his mind to blame his future actions on the fact that he was crazy. I also believe he truly did lose his mind shortly after when he found out about Claudius murdering his
In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the main character Hamlet experiences many different and puzzling emotions. He toys with the idea of killing himself and then plays with the idea of murdering others. Many people ask themselves who or what is this man and what is going on inside his head. The most common question asked about him is whether or not he is sane or insane. Although the door seems to swing both ways many see him as a sane person with one thought on his mind, and that is revenge. The first point of his sanity is while speaking with Horatio in the beginning of the play, secondly is the fact of his wittiness with the other characters and finally, his soliloquy.
Hamlet chooses to go mad so he has an advantage over his opponent and since he is the Prince of Denmark certain behavior is unacceptable, so by faking madness he is able to get away with inappropriate sayings and actions. We can see this when he talks to Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia and his mother. When Hamlet talks to Horatio in the first act he says how he is going to "feign madness" and that:
Hamlet’s intentions for appearing “mad” did have an advantage in the play, which automatically impacted it. He basically simulated madness as a strategy to direct the suspicion of his plotted revenge elsewhere. It does not sound very complex, but his performance of madness ended up slightly distracting him from his plot rather than benefitting him. Rather than focusing on the mission given by the ghost and believing Claudius was truly guilty by “The Mouse Trap,” he focused on his...
If you were to put yourself in his shoes you would probably go insane too. One piece of evidence that Hamlet is completely in sane is his famous “To be or not to be” speech where he contemplates suicide(3.2.57). This is a for sure sign that he is losing his mind. This shows that that the depression
Hamlet feigns madness so that he will be able to successfully get revenge on Claudius. In order for his plan not to be discovered, he has to fake madness in order to throw off his enemies. For his revenge plan to be a success, Hamlet will have to be perfectly sane so that he won’t sabotage his plan in anyway, and to keep himself alive long enough to carry it out. Hamlet’s plan on proving Claudius’ guilt and whether or not the ghost is his dead father shows that Hamlet is too intelligent to be mad. If Hamlet were indeed mad, he would be too dim-witted to come up with such a clever plan.
Duke's love for Olivia in Act 1 Scene 5. At the start of the scene
The character of Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play of the same name is one of the more complex and interesting characters in the Western canon – in attempting to take revenge on his uncle Claudius for his alleged murder of Hamlet’s father, the young prince feigns insanity in order to get the man’s guard down and keep him off balance until finding the right time to strike. However, the question remains – by the end of the play, just how much is Hamlet pretending to be insane? Is it really an act, or has Hamlet really taken on an “antic disposition” as Hamlet vows to put on (Iv.172)? While it can be confirmed that Hamlet’s insanity is more or less a ruse, his own dedication to his task, as well as the uncertainty he has about following through with it, lead to several moments of true insanity for the character of Hamlet. The character purports to put on a veneer of madness merely as a simulation, but his own grief and the weight of his intended plan leads him to go down a path that clouds his mind with sadness and into insanity at various points.
William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In the last act of the play the plot entanglements and confusions are not only sorted out but, also reach their climax. To do this all the plots that have been occurring throughout the play are brought together in one final conclusion. The various plot entanglements are sorted out in what is generally thought to be a happy ending, for instance:- Viola, who is under the mistaken identity of Caesario, finally reveals her true identity because Sebastian has appeared therefore everyone else thinks they are seeing two Ceasario's. By Viola doing this, she can finally reveal to Orsino that she loves him.
Only a few acts later, he murders Polonius in cold blood, and has no reaction, saying ‘I took thee for thy better’ (L.34) suggesting how he mistook Polonius for the King. In contrast Hamlet spends most of the time, thinking and not acting; it could be considered strange behaviour that he should suddenly react in this way. It can be argued that these, are not the actions of a sane person, and the question of to what extent is Hamlet’s madness is feigned. The OED defines ‘Mad’ as when ones actions are ‘uncontrolled by reason or judgement; foolish, unwise’ which can be argued to encompass Hamlets behaviour, and it might be thought that from Polonius’s murder,
...ing madness to sanity are reminiscent of a bi-polar disorder such as manic depression. It is possible that Hamlet put on his antic disposition to allow himself freedom from the usual constraints and etiquette of the court so that he could use different means to discover Claudius' guilt without being discovered himself. Or his feigned madness may have been a reaction to the stress of his predicament, because in doing so he frees himself from having to make decisions on courses of action and he effectively becomes a spectator in the running of his own life.
Sir Toby: “What a plague means my niece to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure cares an enemy of life”. (Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 1-2)
Hamlet’s madness is questionable through Hamlet’s actions of real madness, feigned actions, and the reactions and opinions others have towards his madness. Throughout the play Hamlet’s acts antic dispositions progressively lead his downfall from feigned actions to real madness and the reactions of others to his actions further prove his state of mind as being unstable. .His madness becomes his overall reality throughout his journey to avenge the death of his father.
Olivia. His servant goes to ask her wether or not she would like to go out with
All of these things amass a great deal of stress on Hamlet. Even if Hamlet is truly only pretending to be mad after his first encounter with the ghost he is most truly insane by the end of the play. The death of his father and loss of contact with his lover begin driving him to insanity. We can say with some certainty that the ghost is real on its visit to Hamlet because others witness it, but after the death of Polonius, Hamlet is its only witness. By this point Hamlet must surely be insane. He has been brooding for so l...