The Insanity Of Madness In Shakespeare's Hamlet

There has always been speculation as to whether Hamlet from Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was actually mad or if it was all a ruse. This doubt in Hamlet’s madness comes from the idea that a mad person would have never been able to formulate and carry out such a detailed plan as the one Hamlet used to prove the murder of his father. Hamlet’s madness is disproven over and over again as Hamlet and his friends say that it is a ruse, he formulates an elaborate plan to expose what really happened to his father, and he did not act like Ophelia, a character that actually went mad during the play. Though it is not always the best idea to trust what someone says, there are many times where characters in the play indicate that Hamlet’s madness may be feigned in order to get his desired outcome. Polonius is one of the

Hamlet did not lose his wit like Ophelia did, as she was truly mad. Had Hamlet also been mad, he would have spiraled just as Ophelia did. In the play, Ophelia is driven to madness after Polonius breaks her heart and kills her father. Her madness is blatantly obvious because she begins to sing incoherently ramblings, such as, “They bore him barefaced on the bier;/hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;/and in his grave rain’d many a tear:--/fare you well, my dove! (4.5.140-144)” in lieu of the news of her father’s murder. This madness eventually drives Ophelia to commit suicide, which she does hastily. The queen tells us how she died when she says, “So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes (4.7.160).” Hamlet’s life was taken; he was not driven to suicide, which also says something for his self-control. Hamlet, having suffered from suicidal thoughts throughout the play, could have at any time attempted to end his own life. Only someone with the self awareness of a sane person could keep themselves from committing their own