Is Hamlet Mad Or Insane

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.

In an excerpt An excerpt from A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: Hamlet written by Thomas Kenny, he states that, “Hamlet is not only in reality agitated and bewildered, but he is led to adopt the disguise of a feigned madness.” For example, having Hamlet’s father die, then shortly within a few months Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude remarries Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, and then Hamlet ends up seeing the ghost of his father. However, Ruth Perry justifies that Hamlet lived in a broken home and lived in, “a world in which people cannot trust each other, in which there are deceptions and plots and counterplots.” In other words, Hamlet had lost his trust in others which led him to be distant and misunderstood by others. Hence, throughout the play, Hamlet was pretending to be insane. In reason, that will make anyone who experience it a little crazy, but not to the extent that everyone thought Hamlet was