Hamlet Pleads Sane

There is a distinct division of opinion among the other characters of the play about Hamlet's sanity and the split is along gender lines. Ophelia and Gertrude both state that Hamlet has gone mad, but the major male characters, on the other hand, like Polonius think that there is "method" in Hamlet's "madness," that his insanity is a surface mask to shield him as he plans the darker purpose of revenge. Since Hamlet is disturbed by the sudden death of his father and his mother's marriage to his uncle, King Claudius, the abnormality of his behavior to some extent is also understandable. Hamlet is naturally withdrawn, dark, and passive in the wake of those traumatic events. He also shows this when he constantly releases his anger with lines like "How (weary), stale, flat, and unprofitable seems to me all the uses of this world!" His self-exile and his self-reproach are essentially normal reactions to a series of events that he must avenge at his dead father's command but without further direction against a powerful chain of power within the guilty King.

While it is true that Hamlet was merely playing the role of someone who had gone mad, many people may say that Hamlet’s madness was brought upon himself simply by the fact that he was trying to fulfill the orders from his dead father yet couldn’t because of his lack of acting upon a plan. It is strongly possible that Hamlet became extremely frustrated because every chance he got to expose Claudius and capture him in this enormous secret, he failed to do so. Therefore, Hamlet’s madness could be judged as reasonable but most likely for different reasons than one may think. Rather than going mad over the concrete facts that his father died and his mother remarried his uncle less than two months afterwards, he drove himself mad over his own flaws. Hamlet’s tragic flaw absolutely led to his tragic downfall as a

Hamlet’s plan from the beginning is to act insane to draw attention to the royal family, and his plan eventually works. “Something have you heard of Hamlet’s transformation” ( 2.2.3-4). When people start to notice that Hamlet was going insane, more attention is focused on the king and queen than before the incident. Also, even Ophelia believes that he is mad: this leads to her being watched over by her father, and eventually leads to her suicide when she drowns herself. He is such a good actor that even his mother thinks that he is insane. “O, he is mad, Laertes” (5.1.272). Gertrude is more in love with Claudius than she is with Hamlet. This is proven when she jumps to Claudius’s side when he was accused of murder and immediately rats out Hamlet. Hamlet could be accused of being insane, but in the end his plan works out which proves that he is sane and in his right

The beginning of the play sets the stage for everything to unfold. Hamlet is weak in the mind due to his father’s unnatural death. In Act 1, Hamlet speaks to the Ghost and learns how his father died. Without Hamlet interaction with the Ghost, he would not have created a desire for revenging his father’s death. Now knowing that Claudius killed his father in order to take his place as king, it only makes sense that Hamlet desires the truth to be revealed as to what happened to his father.

Hamlet is as much a story of emotional conflict, paranoia, and self-doubt as it is one of revenge and tragedy. The protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, is instructed by his slain father’s ghost to enact vengeance upon his uncle Claudius, whose treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father gave way to his rise to power. Overcome by anguish and obligation to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet ultimately commits a number of killings throughout the story. However, we are not to view the character Hamlet as a sick individual, but rather one who has been victimized by his own circumstances.

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.

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

Hamlet is far too on top of things to be mad. Hamlet’s intellectual brilliance is first brought out in Act I, scene V when he plans on acting mad to confuse his enemies. Hamlet is also quick to figure out who his enemies and who are his real friends. “I know the good King and Queen have sent for you” (I.iv.37). Hamlet instantly knows that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not paying a social visit to Hamlet, but were in fact sent as spies for the former King of Denmark to find out the cause of his sudden madness. Hamlet immediately knows that he cannot trust his former school friends, and that he must take caution in what he says when is around the both of them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern talk with Hamlet, but "with a crafty madness [Hamlet] keeps aloof" (I.iv.37), and they are unable to find the cause for his odd behavior. Hamlet’s true intellect is brought out in Act III, scene II when he plans on putting on a play. "If his occulted guilt do not itself unkennel in one speech, / it is a damned ghost that we have seen, and my /imaginations are as foul as Vulcan’s stithy" (III.ii.84). When Hamlet comes up with a brilliant plan to put on a play about someone killing a King, he determines whether or not Claudius is guilty of murder, or if the ghost is really his dead father or an evil spirit whose setting him up to kill an innocent man. Hamlet coming up with a successful plan to prove

Hamlet’s absurd actions began when he got a visit from his father’s ghost. As he was conversing matters with the ghost, he acknowledged that he may need to disguise himself with strange behavior (antic disposition) in order to not give himself away. He wanted to ensure that he wouldn’t make it conspicuous that he was planning to kill Claudius in order to achieve his own equanimity. Hamlet mentioned to Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost, “How strange or odd some’er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on)... ” (Pg. Act I Scene V Lines 175-177). He needed to surreptitiously act in a strange manner in order to convey the idea to the culpable King that he didn’t have a plan, although he did. Hamlet would not have given them the caveat that he would act mad if he actually was crazy. One who is mad will most likely not admit it, but Hamlet certainly admitted that he would be acting this way to communicate a certain impression. At the climax of the play, the queen claimed that Hamlet was mad when he interacted with his father’s ghost after he murdered Polonius. She vehemently claimed, “Alas, he’s mad” (Pg. 177 Act III Scene IV Line 109). She declared

William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet relays Hamlet’s quest to avenge the murder of his father, the king of Denmark. The late King Hamlet was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who took the throne and Hamlet’s mother Gertrude for himself. Hamlet is beseeched by the ghost of his father to take vengeance upon Claudius; while he swears to do so, the prince inexplicably delays killing Claudius for months on end. Hamlet’s feeble attempt to first confirm his uncle’s guilt with a play that recounts the murder and his botched excuses for not killing Claudius when the opportunity arises serve as testimony to Hamlet’s true self. Hamlet is riddled with doubt towards the validity of the ghost and his own ability to carry out the act necessary to

     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

In Hamlet, he seems to be mad, but there is a question that everyone asks when reading or watching this play “was it, or was it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity, really suffering, or maybe even both.” First, this is what insanity is: insanity is acting crazy, but not knowing that they’re acting crazy. Also, it’s going through a lot of stress at the same time causing you to act stranger then a normal person. Hamlet was not totally insane. It doesn’t fit.

By understanding that social taboos do not apply to the insane, perhaps Hamlet concludes that the insane are not treated as full human beings due to their mental state. If he reaches that conclusion, then he would have reason to believe that Claudius might let his guard down in front of Hamlet. After all, Claudius does not know that Hamlet is out to kill him, which, added to Claudius' thinking that Hamlet does not have the mental capacity to understand his speech, makes the possibility of Claudius slipping up and admitting his guilt far greater. Greater, that is, than if Hamlet had not acted insanely. For those same reasons, Claudius might let down his guard physically, giving Hamlet an opportunity to strike him dead, thereby avenging his father.

As demonstrated throughout the play, Hamlet’s madness is evident whether real or fake. In his own words, “I am mad but north-north-west: / When the wind southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw” (II. ii. 377-78). Hamlet is claiming that he is frequently seen as crazy. However, he claims that he can choose the moments to be mad. Hamlet is speaking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern stating that Hamlet knows what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern plan to do. The reader is again asked to consider whether Hamlet is faking his madness or whether he is, in fact, mad. In a monologue, he says, “How strange or odd some’er I bear / myself / As I perchance hereafter shall think / meet / To pit an antic disposition on” (I. V. 190- 92). The death of Hamlet’s father is something Hamlet cannot

Many critics question Hamlet’s sanity, and the question still remains unanswered. Is his personal search for revenge driving him crazy, or the fact that he has to put up a different façade for numerous occasions to conceal his own doubt? Hamlet’s motives throughout the play seem uncertain, is he driven by anger to seek revenge, or is it a part of his mixed emotions in result of his fathers death and the corruption of Denmark? Shakespeare seems to suggest that Hamlet is intending to act on his impulse to avenge his fathers murder by killing Claudius, yet he also seems to be combatting some sort of bigger confusion within himself.