The Realization Of Hamlet's Insane In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

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The second example that Hamlet was still firmly sane, and that he was only feigning madness, while he clumsily conspired against his uncle Claudius, is that Hamlet – after stabbing and killing Polonius through an arras during his heated confrontation with his mother Gertrude – is immediately able to recognize the immorality of his action and repents of it (Bowers 82-83). Had Hamlet truly been insane, he would have either felt no guilt or not realized what he had done at all. Of course, Hamlet’s stabbing through the arras after Polonius – who had been eavesdropping on Hamlet’s conversation with Gertrude – had revealed himself in panic and fear that Hamlet would kill Gertrude was admittedly quite rash and impulsive. However, Hamlet is soon able to, after calming down a bit after a visit from his father’s ghost, which reminds him of his true task of taking revenge against Claudius, repent of and take full responsibility for his misdeed – “I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so, / To punish me with this and this with me, / That I must be their scourge and …show more content…

/ I will bestow him, and will answer well / The death I gave him.” (3.4.170-174) – despite his contempt of Polonius and his incessant nosiness – even after killing Polonius, Hamlet stills refers to him as a “wretched, rash, intruding fool” (3.4.31). To Bowers, Hamlet’s repentance shows that Hamlet is able to prevent his personal hatred of Polonius from barring himself from realizing that Polonius (however nosy) was still an innocent man and that therefore his murder was unjust, and that Hamlet is willing to accept any necessary punishment for his misdeed from God (Bowers 83). Through his repentance, Hamlet shows clear and rational thinking, and is totally unlike what a truly insane individual

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