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Recommended: Hamlet as a tragic hero

In Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, there is much debate over whether Prince Hamlet is truly mad or feigning madness. Based on his actions and context clues, one can see that Hamlet is perfectly sane, if not a prodigy. His intellect, philosophical ideas, quick wit, and clever strategies makes it clear to readers that his "madness" is merely a masquerade.
Horatio is the most trustworthy man in the royal court, which is highly significant because he is a witness of everything that happens with Hamlet, and therefore can be trusted to tell the entirely true story of what brought about the demise of Hamlet and the entire royal court, seeing as though they were all massacred in one day. He is introduced early in the play in Act I, Scene i, and is one of the first to see the spirit of the fallen King Hamlet. Alas, he knows that there was, in fact, a ghost of the king haunting Denmark, and that Hamlet spoke with him. After Hamlet speaks with the ghost he literally tells Horatio, verbatim, "Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, how strange or odd some'er I bear myself (As i perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on." (I. ii. 189-192). So, ahead of time Hamlet warns Horatio that he is going to be putting on a show of madness but it is not real. This is noteworthy because as the play develops, other characters perceive Hamlet to become progressively more deranged, however he is always perfectly coherent and rational when speaking to Horatio, seeing as though he is the only one who knows of Hamlet's act and stability.
During the incestuous wedding ceremony between Claudius and Gertrude, Hamlet still seems to be mourning his father's death, as he is wearing black and standing further away from his mother and new...

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...ely ponder the ideas presented because they would believe the speaker to be a lunatic. Shakespeare's sheer erudition would go unnoticed and underappreciated if Hamlet was undoubtedly mad.
Through Hamlet's judgement and intellect, brilliant schemes, shrewdness, and profound notions, the reader can discern that Hamlet was not unhinged, but simply putting on a facade of madness. If Hamlet was insane, the great William Shakespeare would not have been able to lucidly get his points across to his audience. Hamlet should be displayed as a genius or a virtuoso with his acting ability, not a loon. Hamlet's exceptional wits is enough to prove his sanity. But in the long run, what is truly considered to be madness? And what is genius, if it is not madness? As the renowned Greek philosopher, Aristotle, once said, "No great mind has ever existed without some touch of madness."

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