One of William Shakespeare’s greatest works is a play entitled Hamlet. This play is about Prince Hamlet whose father, the king, was killed by his Uncle, Claudius, who then took the throne. Shortly after the death of his father, Gertrude, his mother, married Claudius. His father comes back as a ghost and tells him about the murder and asks him to seek revenge on Claudius. This is when a great controversy arises that is debatable to this day. Hamlet begins to act mad to set up his revenge on Claudius. The question is, does Hamlet still truly possess his sanity, or is he really mad? At the beginning of the play Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost who asks Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius. Hamlet then states: "How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on..." (Crowther 1:5) From this we learn that his madness is only part of his plan to kill Claudius. Only a sane man could devise such a thought-out, rational plan. Hamlet's act of feigning madness allows him to speak his mind while everyone believes it is truly out of insanity. This allows Hamlet to vent some of his true feelings in relative safety without fear of suspicion. On the other hand, Hamlet acts sane when acting insane is unnecessary. When he talks to Horatio about watching Claudius for signs of guilt during the play, he says "Give him heedful note, for I mine eyes will rivet his face, and, after, we will both our judgments join in censure of his seeming." (Crowther ) If he was truly mad he wouldn’t think in such an organized manner. Hamlet did not act insane with Horatio because he had no reason to, since it was his close friend whom he trusts. Also, when he is explaining to the players how ... ... middle of paper ... ...ind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles...With this regard, their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action (Act III, Scene I, 58-89)." The difficulty and the amount of issues addressed within this soliloquy give us a good look within his mind. This shows that Hamlet is sane in his thinking. He measures the good and bad of his situation, and although at this point he appears mad to most everyone, he is most definitely sane in thought. Finally, further evidence of Hamlet's insanity is shown when one compares him with someone who is truly mad, such as Ophelia became after her father died. She began to sing and speak nonsensically, with only "half sense: her speech is nothing"(IV, v, 7). Whereas Ophelia has become unstable, Hamlet carries on a rational progression throughout all of his actions and words.
When we first meet Hamlet, he is a sad, dark, loathsome figure; the loss of his father and the whoring of his mother have upset him indefinitely. Like a ticking time bomb, Hamlet’s noticeable temper reflects the storm of emotions and thoughts brewing in his head, and then like a catalyst, his meeting with the Ghost of King Hamlet brings his anger to a boil. With revenge in mind, Hamlet plans to fake his madness so that he may be free to pursue his father’s killer. Everyone, except his close friend Horatio, seems convinced that he is mad. Claudius however, fearful that someone will discover his evil deed, has also had his perceptions heightened by his guilt and he experiences chronic paranoia throughout the play as a result. He is doubtful as to whether Hamlet is really mad, as we find him telling Polonius, “...what he spake ...Was not like madness. There's something in his soul O'er which his melancholy sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger” (3, 1, 157-161). On the contrary, I believe that Hamlet, lost in his soliloquies and vengeful thoughts, actually becomes mad. Ironically, his form of madness is paranoia.
Moreover, Hamlet is mad or so he seems to be. By looking at Hamlet and all his actions everyone is convinced he has gone mad. His mood changes a lot throughout the play, he speaks "wild and whirling words" (I.v.127-134) when he found our about his father’s death, has violet outbursts towards his mothe...
Is Hamlet sane or insane that is the question. There are many sections in the play which show portray him as being insane but there are such as the when he hears of his fathers death. On the other hand Shakespeare illustrates Hamlet as a sane person when ever he is with a non guilty party. Hamlet is clearly sane though because he acknowledges that he is putting on an act whenever he is acting crazy.
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.
There is a great controversy amongst those who have read and studied Hamlet by Shakespeare. People argue whether or not Hamlet had gone mad or not. Many people believe that Hamlet had actually lost his mind, while others believe that it was all just an act. Since Hamlet is the most widely published book in the world, besides the Bible, this question has been asked and analyzed many times to little avail. The answer is open to whatever one wants to believe, which may intrigue some and bother others. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s personality changed after certain events. The play starts with him very upset over his father’s death. Then, after he saw his father’s ghost, he became full of vengeance. He seemed to have completely
Hamlet’s madness whether actual or simulated, shows through his actions toward other main characters who threaten his revenge against Claudius. In proof of his diminished state Hamlet says, “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt / that and resolve itself into a dew! / Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d / his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! / How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, / seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2. 129–158). From the very beginning Hamlet is already reacting to the deaths of his father and his parents’ marriage. Hamlet registers some clear suicidal and or mental (emotional) depression. Hamlet’s madness starts out inconspicuous, with the soiling of his parents’ marriage apparent and the death of his father, he continues throughout the whole story to grief.
A couple of experts say Hamlet isn’t fully insane. However, looking into act one on his first soliloquy showing his madness and some parts from The Tragedy of Hamlet’s World View by Richard A. Levine, an English Professor. Also Tenney L. Davis has some good points in his The Sanity of Hamlet. However, act three has the best proof of hamlet’s psychological state as it becomes unstable.
Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.
Throughout the Shakespearian play, Hamlet, the main character is given the overwhelming responsibility of avenging his father’s "foul and most unnatural murder" (I.iv.36). Such a burden can slowly drive a man off the deep end psychologically. Because of this, Hamlet’s disposition is extremely inconsistent and erratic throughout the play. At times he shows signs of uncontrollable insanity. Whenever he interacts with the characters he is wild, crazy, and plays a fool. At other times, he exemplifies intelligence and method in his madness. In instances when he is alone or with Horatio, he is civilized and sane. Hamlet goes through different stages of insanity throughout the story, but his neurotic and skeptical personality amplifies his persona of seeming insane to the other characters. Hamlet comes up with the idea to fake madness in the beginning of the play in order to confuse his enemies. However, for Hamlet to fulfill his duty of getting revenge, he must be totally sane. Hamlet’s intellectual brilliance make it seem too impossible for him to actually be mad, for to be insane means that one is irrational and without any sense. When one is irrational, one is not governed by or according to reason. So, Hamlet is only acting mad in order to plan his revenge on Claudius.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, must seek revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to murder Claudius. Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes more and more believable in his act, even convincing his mother that he is crazy. However, through his thoughts, and actions, the reader can see that he is in fact putting up an act, he is simply simulating insanity to help fulfil his fathers duty of revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet shows that he understands real from fake, right from wrong and his enemies from his friends. Even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what if going on around him. Most importantly, Hamlet does not think like that of a person who is mad. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to seek revenge for his fathers murder.
‘ “To be or not to be” -- “that is the...” soliloquy. “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to...” agree, the question that no one knows. To think, to know, to know perchance to understand, the truth behind it all... ’ Was it, or was it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity, really suffering, or perhaps even both. First, this is what insanity is; insanity is acting peculiar, but not knowing that they are. Also, it is going through a lot of stresses at the same time causing you to not think straight. Hamlet was not completely suffering from insanity. It wouldn’t make sense.
In the midst of Hamlet’s apparent madness, he is able to talk about his deep underlying thoughts about the world and his life. He is feeling depressed and annoyed with the world to a point where nothing brings him joy anymore. Hamlet, having the ability to express his emotions clearly and his ability to switch into this state of mind so quickly shows that Hamlet has still retained his mental sanity, despite the way he has acted in all the previous scenes.
His madness also acted as a cover so that he could execute his plan to take revenge and kill Claudius. In many instances in the play, Hamlet is seen as mad by many and even Hamlet himself confesses of being “mad north-north-west” (2.2). His madness infected others such as Ophelia, Laertes, and Claudius with madness. In the end, it was his madness that led to the death of himself and everyone else except Horatio who lives to tell his crazy
Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare Hamlet is sane but acts insane to fulfill his destiny of getting vengeance on his father's murderer.
In one of William Shakespeare's tragedy plays, Hamlet, the main character Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, was seen and described as both as a sane prince and an insane madman. For example, one of Hamlet’s soliloquy that he recites to himself, “To be or not to be, that is the question:” (3.1.57). This is an example, where Hamlet takes a moment and thinks aloud and questions if he is noble kind or has he gone mad and lost touch in reality. This then creates the question, is Hamlet just going through an emotional state which causes him to pretend to be mad, or is he, in fact mad? To exemplify, according to Merriam- Webster, the definition of madness is being in, “a state of severe mental illness,” and “behaving or thinking that is very foolish or dangerous.” Therefore by definition Hamlet cannot be considered mad or insane.