One of William Shakespeare’s greatest works is a play entitled Hamlet. This play is about Prince Hamlet whose father, the king, was killed by his Uncle, Claudius, who then took the throne. Shortly after the death of his father, Gertrude, his mother, married Claudius. His father comes back as a ghost and tells him about the murder and asks him to seek revenge on Claudius. This is when a great controversy arises that is debatable to this day. Hamlet begins to act mad to set up his revenge on Claudius. The question is, does Hamlet still truly possess his sanity, or is he really mad? At the beginning of the play Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost who asks Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius. Hamlet then states: "How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on..." (Crowther 1:5) From this we learn that his madness is only part of his plan to kill Claudius. Only a sane man could devise such a thought-out, rational plan. Hamlet's act of feigning madness allows him to speak his mind while everyone believes it is truly out of insanity. This allows Hamlet to vent some of his true feelings in relative safety without fear of suspicion. On the other hand, Hamlet acts sane when acting insane is unnecessary. When he talks to Horatio about watching Claudius for signs of guilt during the play, he says "Give him heedful note, for I mine eyes will rivet his face, and, after, we will both our judgments join in censure of his seeming." (Crowther ) If he was truly mad he wouldn’t think in such an organized manner. Hamlet did not act insane with Horatio because he had no reason to, since it was his close friend whom he trusts. Also, when he is explaining to the players how ... ... middle of paper ... ...ind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles...With this regard, their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action (Act III, Scene I, 58-89)." The difficulty and the amount of issues addressed within this soliloquy give us a good look within his mind. This shows that Hamlet is sane in his thinking. He measures the good and bad of his situation, and although at this point he appears mad to most everyone, he is most definitely sane in thought. Finally, further evidence of Hamlet's insanity is shown when one compares him with someone who is truly mad, such as Ophelia became after her father died. She began to sing and speak nonsensically, with only "half sense: her speech is nothing"(IV, v, 7). Whereas Ophelia has become unstable, Hamlet carries on a rational progression throughout all of his actions and words.
Moreover, Hamlet is mad or so he seems to be. By looking at Hamlet and all his actions everyone is convinced he has gone mad. His mood changes a lot throughout the play, he speaks "wild and whirling words" (I.v.127-134) when he found our about his father’s death, has violet outbursts towards his mothe...
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, there are two characters that display qualities of insanity. Specifically, Hamlet and Ophelia, although they both appear to be mad at times, their downfall (or supposed downfall) is quite different. Ophelia's madness seems complete while Hamlet's is questionable throughout the play. Hamlet's madness comes and goes; Ophelia's does not. Ophelia tells no one that she is "mad"; on the other hand, Hamlet shows everyone about his madness. Hamlet turns his madness on and off depending on the company he keeps. Ophelia on the other hand, cannot handle the loss of Hamlet's love, her brother's absence, and her father's death. It is all too much for her and she snaps. Hamlet and Ophelia’s position in society, along with the actions of all the adults caused the deaths and insanity of Hamlet and Ophelia.
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.
As the play progresses, the reader may start to believe Hamlet “insane” act, but throughout the scenes, Hamlet shows that he knows right from wrong, good from bad, and his friends from his enemies. Hamlet shows that he still has power and control over his actions. As Elliot says “Hamlets madness is less than madness and more feigned”. Hamlet is portraying that of a mad man, in order to be free from questioning, thus allowing him have an easier path towards revenge. You can see this when Hamlet says “ I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw” (2.2.368-369) . This is an example of the “wing and whirling words” which Hamlet uses a few times throughout the play, with which Hamlet hopes to persuade people he is crazy. These words sh...
A couple of experts say Hamlet isn’t fully insane. However, looking into act one on his first soliloquy showing his madness and some parts from The Tragedy of Hamlet’s World View by Richard A. Levine, an English Professor. Also Tenney L. Davis has some good points in his The Sanity of Hamlet. However, act three has the best proof of hamlet’s psychological state as it becomes unstable.
‘ “To be or not to be” -- “that is the...” soliloquy. “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to...” agree, the question that no one knows. To think, to know, to know perchance to understand, the truth behind it all... ’ Was it, or was it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity, really suffering, or perhaps even both. First, this is what insanity is; insanity is acting peculiar, but not knowing that they are. Also, it is going through a lot of stresses at the same time causing you to not think straight. Hamlet was not completely suffering from insanity. It wouldn’t make sense.
In the midst of Hamlet’s apparent madness, he is able to talk about his deep underlying thoughts about the world and his life. He is feeling depressed and annoyed with the world to a point where nothing brings him joy anymore. Hamlet, having the ability to express his emotions clearly and his ability to switch into this state of mind so quickly shows that Hamlet has still retained his mental sanity, despite the way he has acted in all the previous scenes.
His madness also acted as a cover so that he could execute his plan to take revenge and kill Claudius. In many instances in the play, Hamlet is seen as mad by many and even Hamlet himself confesses of being “mad north-north-west” (2.2). His madness infected others such as Ophelia, Laertes, and Claudius with madness. In the end, it was his madness that led to the death of himself and everyone else except Horatio who lives to tell his crazy
Hamlet is still in mourning of his father’s death but feels that most of the people have moved on much quickly with the death of his father. And after a couple months his mother is remarried and a twist of turned events to find out that it is his uncle, Claudius which is his new step Father. Filled with anger he does not know how to digest this news. To top it off is visit buy the Ghost of Hamlet (hamlets father) to tell Prince Hamlet that his uncle Claudius is the murderer. And demand that he takes revenge upon him and kill Claudius. “To be or not to be,’ (3.1.56) true to himself or carry on bloody traditions of his war like father. But being visited by his father’s warlike spirit triggered him to be lunatic and he is lunatic because he was compared to the moon shining with the bloody borrow sheen of his warlike father (2.2.52). However, before he had even spoken to the Ghost of Hamlet he had been warned by Haratio...
Hamlet is without a doubt one of the most complex pieces to interpret for many different scholars and people. The question of the truth behind his madness has become a debate among anyone who lays eyes on the play. In fact, madness becomes a large role within the play that will cause many situations as well as effect them. I believe Hamlet unintentionally went mad attempting to act as a mad man.
Perhaps Hamlet truly is sane and has little fits of hysteria as the world seems to stack up against him. His anger and feelings of betrayal overload to explosive outbursts that can be interpreted as real madness. Upon learning that Ophelia has allied herself with Polonius and Claudius, he loses his head and has an incredibly dramatic episode. He is initially honest and open with Ophelia, but his mood quickly changes when he learns they are being spied on. He question Ophelia’s motives by asking whether she is honest and fair. He...
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 Shakespeare Hamlet is sane but acts insane to fulfill his destiny of getting vengeance on his father's murderer.
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!
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 play as a result. He is doubtful as to whether Hamlet is really mad, as we find him telling Polonius, “...what he spake ...Was not like madness. There's something in his soul O'er which his melancholy sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger” (3, 1, 157-161). On the contrary, I believe that Hamlet, lost in his soliloquies and vengeful thoughts, actually becomes mad. Ironically, his form of madness is paranoia.
In one of William Shakespeare's tragedy plays, Hamlet, the main character Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, was seen and described as both as a sane prince and an insane madman. For example, one of Hamlet’s soliloquy that he recites to himself, “To be or not to be, that is the question:” (3.1.57). This is an example, where Hamlet takes a moment and thinks aloud and questions if he is noble kind or has he gone mad and lost touch in reality. This then creates the question, is Hamlet just going through an emotional state which causes him to pretend to be mad, or is he, in fact mad? To exemplify, according to Merriam- Webster, the definition of madness is being in, “a state of severe mental illness,” and “behaving or thinking that is very foolish or dangerous.” Therefore by definition Hamlet cannot be considered mad or insane.