Feigned Insanity in Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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True insanity cannot be controlled but feigned insanity is easily controlled in order to manipulate other people. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet pretends that he is insane to trick King Claudius and his company while in fact, he is not at all mad. Hamlet admits his trick that he trying to pull as well as both Polonius and Claudius, whom he is trying to deceive, admit that at some points, it seems as though Hamlet is simply pretending to be mad. While Hamlet tricks many people, it is often evident that he is clearly not mad but instead completely of sane mind that he is using to trick the king and his company.
Hamlet refers to his madness in multiple scenes; in two scenes, he admits that he is just pretending to be insane. In Act one, scene five, Hamlet admits in front of the ghost that his is going to “put an antic disposition on” so that he can trick Claudius and eventually murder him. Later in the play when Hamlet is talking to Gertrude in the closet scene in Act three, scene four, he tells his mother that "I [Hamlet] essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft”. He ...

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