Hamlet's Insanity in Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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Hamlet's Insanity in Hamlet by William Shakespeare

While Hamlet was being in his "antic disposition" stage it allowed him to do several things that he otherwise would not be able to do if everyone thought he was in a normal state. The purpose of Hamlet feigning madness is in order to be undercover and see for certain if what has been told to him by the ghost is true. By not revealing the fact that he is not insane, he is able to get more information about the death of his father. Did his uncle kill his father and how can he get his mother away from his uncle are what Hamlet is set out to find.

Looking at Ophelia, Hamlet would like to express his intense, anger towards her without arising suspicion in her or in others that he is in a mental state. Hamlet says "Get thee to a nunnery" because this way she can avoid being a 'breeder of sinners.' Hamlet feels that life is unlivable and he comes up with a solution to this problem. To my understanding his solution is no more marriages and no more children. This view of Hamlet shows his reasoning and obviously his decisioning is impaired because of his insanity. This helped prevent others in the family from thinking that Hamlet was planning harsh actions such as killing Claudius.

With Gertrude, Hamlet would also like to express his anger towards her, as well as possibly kill her or make her go insane, without arising suspicion in others that he is not insane. In addition, he would like to confront Gertrude with the grounds of Claudius' crime, without her thinking that he actually believes in them, so that she might somehow think about them and realize that Claudius is guilty. Now, she will no longer love Claudius and she will not believe that Hamlet thinks that Claudius is guilty. If she believes this, she might pass on this fact to others, leading to Hamlet's downfall. Also, Hamlet does not want to confront Gertrude with the crime in a sane condition, which then will be forcing her to make a difficult choice between Hamlet and Claudius, with disastrous psychological results for Hamlet if she chooses against him.

While up at his mothers room Hamlet had originally planned to punish her with 'verbal daggers' for her being unfaithful , her unwillingness to listen to him so he releases his murderous impulse against her.

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