The novel by William Shakespeare is a very famous piece of literature. There is a lot of controversy on whether or not Hamlet is truly insane. Everything he does throughout the whole play is well thought out in great detail. In my opinion I believe Hamlet is actually not insane but rather an intelligent person that thought everything through in great detail. Some of the things he does have good and reliable reasons to be done.
Hamlet has had to cope with a lot of different things way to fast. In the beginning of the play he sees the ghost of his dead father and is actually able to have a conversation with him. After his father was murdered everyone thought it was an accident but Hamlet knew the truth because the ghost told him it was
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Everything Hamlet does is a plot to make everyone around him think he is insane so he can still get revenge on Claudius and everyone who was part of the murder of King Hamlet. Everything that hinted towards him being insane, like thinking about suicide, was just a ploy to trick everyone into thinking he was crazy. He even stated to his best friend that he was going to fake his inanity to distract people. Hamlet tells Horatio “How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, To put an antic disposition on), That you, at such times seeing me, never shall— With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,” he is telling him that no matter what he cannot let anyone know that he is acting crazy. When Ophelia calls him crazy, he insures her that he is actually not crazy at all but smart.
When King Hamlet passes away everyone seemed to want to just forget about him and act like he never existed, including Queen Gertrude. That would explain why Hamlet really wants to get revenge on Claudius so bad. He wants his father to still have some sort of legacy and not just be thrown away like a piece of trash. Since Claudius became king he just shows his true self more and more which makes Hamlet angrier and his sense for revenge stronger.
When Ophelia commits suicide and Hamlet danced on her grave everyone thought he was truly insane but in
Additional proof that Hamlet must be sane is that even in his ?madness? he is clever in his retorts and speech, and has a full understanding of the situations around him. He plays his madman character almost too well, and each phrase he utters appears to be an attempt towards conveying his
The most interesting thing about all of the characters' guesses as to the logic behind Hamlet's insanity is that the majority of their opinions stem from the thing that most plagues or preoccupies them. Claudius believes that Hamlet is crazy because he has a secret. This was ironic because the secret that Hamlet does have is that he knows that Claudius is his father's murderer. The very secret that plagues Claudius is the same that plagues Hamlet. Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, is wrapped up in her guilt about marrying Claudius so soon after the death of her late husband. She thinks that this must be what makes Hamlet rant so incoherently. While spying on Hamlet for the King, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern decide that he is going crazy because he can no longer fulfill his potential. Their betrayal of their school chum is fueled by the same blind ambition that they believefuels Hamlets insanity. Polonius thinks that Hamlet must be mad
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’s sanity has made many people question him. “Hamlet certainly displays a high degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his “madness” is perhaps too purposeful and pointed
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.
After this scene Hamlet acts insane and he often criticizes his mother for remarrying and even insults her, but gets away with his actions because at this point those around him are starting to believe there is something wrong with Hamlet. Hamlet is not crazy but if he were truly crazy then he would not internally realize that he is mad, a crazy person usually doesn't realize they are going crazy, but it is others who realize because of his or her actions. In Hamlet's case, Hamlet knows he is "crazy" and his acting is beneficial for him because he is able to talk freely without having to hold anything back. If Hamlet were truly insane it would have caused him his own death, because usually when an individual is insane they are unaware of what they are saying and their actions are usually always made hastily, a quality that Hamlet does not seem to have.
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
Was Hamlet insane? Scholars have debated this question ever since Shakespeare presented this play to the public. Although I am not a scholar, I believe that there is enough evidence in the play to suggest Hamlet had been sane. He may have been depressed and angry however this was due to the treachery and betrayal contaminating Denmark. The insanity act had been an instrument to allow Hamlet the freedom to achieve his goal of revenge.
Hamlet’s insanity can be thought of as a tragedy or misconception of reality. The death of his father had shaped the first few impressions of his own persona as well as a new experience with his new aunt. As a result of his genius insanity prince Hamlet has devised a plan to make things more clear to the audience. “Hamlet’s behavior strikes the audience as abnormal on several occasions. For example, Hamlet seems to be really mad when he is in front of Ophelia in disordered clothes. He behaves as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of the horror”. As the progress of the play foreshadows a significant end to his insanity that he acts upon. As the play progresses throughout, Hamlet finds ways in order to give others the impression that he has lost his sanity from his “love” of Polonius’s daughter Ophelia. “(Ophelia)He grabbed me by the wrist and held me hard, then backed away an arm’s length and just looked at me, staring at me like an artist about to paint my
In Act I, Scene V, after hearing the ghost’s demand for revenge, Hamlet says in advance that he will consciously feign madness while seeking the opportune moment to kill Claudius. Therefore, it is hard to conclude that he coincidentally became insane after making such a vow. Hamlet’s supposed madness not only becomes his way of relating to the other characters during the majority of the play, but also that which develops his character as throughout the play. Still, the question remains: Is Hamlet really crazy or just pretending?
Secondly, if Hamlet saw the ghost, and went insane from that, don’t you think that Horatio, and the guards would have gone insane from seeing him as well? I really don’t think that Hamlet would become crazy out of seeing something that 3 other people did. Later on, Hamlet lets out to his friends and his mom his plan to pretend to act insane. He tells Horatio that he is going to "feign madness”, and that if Horatio notices any strange behaviour from Hamlet, it is because he is putting on an act. Some of the other people also come to notice that Hamlet is not crazy. Claudius says that Hamlet's "actions although strange, do not appear to stem from madness." Also Polonius says that Hamlet's actions and words have a "method" to them, there might be a reason behind them, and they make sense over all. Through the play Hamlet looks like he’s insane then sane again. What he says to his friends describes his madness "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw". This explains how he is mad only at the right time, when he’s around the people who betrayed others and himself. The people are: Ophelia and her betrayal to him, his mom's betrayal to his dad, his friends’ betrayal to him and his uncle's betrayal to his brother.
Hamlet shows that he is not crazy through his actions, even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what if going on around him, and through his conversation with Horatio, Ophelia and more. Soon after finding out about his fathers death, and in order to further develop his plan to murder Claudius, Hamlet talks to Horatio and tells him he will put on an act of antic disposition. You can see this when Hamlet says
There are many ways one could argue whether or not Hamlet is insane or that he really is a psycho killer. Along those lines, I believe that Hamlet did in fact go completely bonkers and everything that happened that was not in the presence of the king or queen was just a figment of his imagination. After contemplating this I've made up a conclusion why exactly I think he is insane.
At first, Hamlet only pretends to be insane to uncover the truth that Claudius killed his father. After contemplating suicide, and telling Ophelia he loved her once, is when he actually went crazy, I believe. When Hamlet is talking to Gertrude and the