Is Hamlet Sane or Insane...

Is Hamlet Sane or Insane...

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.

Hamlet is depicted as insane in many scenes during the play. One instance in I, v Hamlet appears to act mad when he hears of his father’s murder. At that time he speaks "wild and whirling words." He also behaves very erratically throughout the play, especially when he is around his love, Ophelia. On one hand he professes to be the only one who truly loves her, during the fight. However when Ophelia returns his letters and gifts he tells her that he never loved her and that she should "get thy self to a nunnery." This is just one example of how his mood changes abruptly throughout the play. One shroud example of his insanity is when he is in his mothers bedroom only he can see the ghost of Old Hamlet. However in the beginning of the play everyone can see the ghost including Hortio, Barnardo, and Marcellus. He is also has many violent outbursts towards his mother. One dialogue where Hamlet admits that he is mad is when he talks to Laertes before the duel. He say!

s "Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong; But pardon’t as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, And you must needs have heard, how I am punished with a sore distraction. What I have done that might your nature, honor, and exception roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet. And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes, then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it. Who does it, then? His madness. If’t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy. Sir, in this audience Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil free me so far in you r most generous thoughts that I have shot my arrow o’er the house and hurt my brother." [V, ii, 240-258]

In this quote he apologizes for his blunder and blames it on his uncontrollable madness. Furthermore when Polonius is killed Hamlet doesn’t tell anyone where the body is. On the other hand there are many reasons why Hamlet is sane.

Accordin...

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...encumbered thus, or this headshake, or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, as ‘Well, well, we know,’ or ‘We could an if we would,’ or ‘If we list to speak,’ or ‘There be an if they might,’ or such ambiguous giving-out, to note that you know aught of me-this do swear, so grac and mercy at your most need help you.". This quote is supported with Hamlet’s actions; when Hamlet is around he is in around certain characters. When he is around Polonius, Claudius! Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern he acts crazy. However when he is around his friends, Horatio, Bernardo, The Players and the Grave Diggers, he acts quite sane. Even King Claudius confesses that Hamlet’s is sane when he says "...His affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, was not like madness. There’s something in his soul...." [II, i, 176-178] Even though Polonius accuses Hamlet of being mad he also admits that Hamlet’s actions and words have a meaning this is shown when he says "Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t...."[II, ii, 222-224] Hamlet also admits that he is not mad to his mother he states "...That essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft."