In the beginning of “Hamlet”, the ghost of Hamlet's father appears on the scene, and asks Hamlet to avenge his death. By that he is put in a position where he had to accomplish that task, but in secrecy, so he decides to fake his madness. His behavior and moods throughout the play frequently change. So, Shakespeare basically leaves the audience to decide whether Hamlet is truly mad or not. Throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet's questionable madness is explored through his real madness, actions, and the reactions of others towards his behavior.
The writer of this tragic play; William Shakespeare leaves the audience to conclude whether Hamlet is just putting on an act of antic disposition or not just truly mad. Throughout the play Hamlet’s madness is question and explored through his actions of real madness, feigned madness and the reactions and opinions others have towards his madness. For instance, Hamlet’s madness can be viewed as acts of feigned antic disposition. For examples in the exchange of words that Hamlet had with Polonius he is extremely sarcastic. In one in particular Hamlet goes on to ridicule Polonius while taking advantage of his antic disposition.
There are many different reasons for a major theme of Hamlet to be considered that of madness. Seeking revenge for his father’s death Hamlet acts with passion to give off the perception that he is indeed mad. This leads to the question many people ask: is Hamlet truly insane, or is he just acting? As D.J. Snider writes in his article entitled “Hamlet” in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, “[physicians] carefully reckon up the symptoms and show the various stages, evidently regarding Hamlet as a treatise on insanity” (73).
The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, looks at the issue of madness and how it effects the characters of the play. Madness can be looked at from very different perspectives, such as strong and uncontrollable emotions, a person’s desires, and also a persons mental stability. Throughout the play, the audience is questioning the sanity of the main character, Hamlet, as he goes on his quest for revenge. The people around him also show signs of madness, such as Ophelia and Claudius, but in different forms. Existentialist philosopher Friedrich Nietzche says, “There is always some madness in love.
Madness is a state-of-mind were a person loses their sanity, they are mentally ill. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet meets his deceased father in a ghost form only to inform him of who caused his death and wants revenge. Now Hamlet must avenge his father's death, and the only way he can do it in a less obvious approach is by acting mad. But as the play continues, it becomes a lot harder to tell if Hamlet is still sane due to his actions. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare makes Hamlet's madness appear real but only to prove that he was only acting as if he were mad.
The Validity of Hamlet's Insanity in William Shakespeare's Hamlet One of the most asked questions concerning Hamlet, is whether or not during the play he was actually insane or merely acting. This issue is confusing because Hamlet states that he will act insane to exact revenge upon Claudius after he has met his father's supposed ghost. However, there are many times during the play where it seems Hamlet could not possibly be acting. But while it is possible to be sane and act insane, by definition it is impossible to be insane and act sane because an insane person lacks the ability to reason and tell the difference between right and wrong. Since Hamlet exhibited both these characteristics throughout the play, it is obvious that he was sane.
Hamlet even claims that he is “mad north-north west” (Act II, Scene II, line 378). He is essentially saying that he is only crazy sometimes; other times he knows what’s what. When madness benefits him he will put on an “antic disposition” (Act I, Scene V, line 173) but when sanity proves worthy, he will regress back to being logical. If one truly analyzes the play one will notice that Hamlet’s madness only manifests itself when he is around certain characters. Hamlet’s behavior differs when he is around people he trusts versus people he does not trust.
All is not well; I doubt some foul play:” (I, iii,253-254). The next night he meets with the ghost and it tells Hamlet that he was murdered and “ The serpent that did sting thy fathers life Now wears his crown,” (I, v, 37-38), then he asked Hamlet “ Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxery and damned incest,“ (I. v. 82- 83). Hamlet agreed at once to avenge his father and country. From this point on Hamlet l... ... middle of paper ... ...ter achieving his goals Hamlet dies. Hamlet seemed to be a sane man with the knowledge to make everyone think he was insane.
Hamlet’s Insanity…is it real? In William Shakespeare’s Play Hamlet, many issues have been raised about Hamlet’s over all sanity. He has experienced many things that might make one think he has gone crazy, for example, his father’s murder, killing Polonius accidentally, and his mother’s abrupt remarriage. Hamlet begins to act shady towards the middle to the end of the play while talking to others. In several scenes it appears that Hamlet has gone crazy.
By the time Hamlet was written, “madness” was already a popular element within revenge tragedies in the Elizabethan period. But, the role of madness in Hamlet was deeply ambiguous, which set it apart from the other revenge tragedies in its time. Whereas other revenge tragedy protagonists were the complete opposite and just simply insane. Hamlet fiddles with the idea of being insane, which is where it all began. Hamlet states, “How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, / As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on” (1.5.58-60) but his sane mental state began to decay over time leaving him actually insane.