The lingering question that a reader is left with after reading William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is if Hamlet is insane or not. In the first act of the the play Hamlet decides he is going to act insane, because he is bothered by his mother, Gertrude, marrying his uncle, the King, after the death of his father. Hamlet says “Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, /How strange or odd some’er I beat myself /(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet /To put an antic disposition on)” (Shakespeare 1.5.189). Tenney L. Davis discusses the Catch 22 behind believing Hamlet’s claims that he is merely feigning madness. An insane person would not realize he or she is insane, but a sane person would not claim to be insane. So the audience cannot use Hamlet’s …show more content…
He says, “His madness, whether real or feigned, was an excess of sanity” (Davis 630). Hamlet is too self aware for his own good. His knowledge of his situation and tendency to act justly causes his slow spiral into insanity (Davis 632). But is he insane if he is constantly alert throughout the play? He always is in understanding of what is happening to him and other characters in the play. But, most characters who Hamlet encounters are sure of his insanity. Mary E. Cardwill urges consumers of Hamlet to not set that fact aside. She discusses how humans perceive each other. Humans judge others by the impression left on them. The actions and words that one outwardly expresses should be taken into account (Cardwill 227). So Gertrude believing Hamlet is insane is a solid argument to prove that Hamlet is insane. But then Horatio’s belief that Hamlet is insane would strike that argument. So how can one read Hamlet and decipher if Hamlet is sane or …show more content…
Dir. Gregory Doran). In the same scene that Plummer convinces the audience of Hamlet’s sanity Tennant’s eyes leave no doubt that Hamlet is insane. Tennant gallivants into his mother’s chambers and kills Polonius without a second thought. Even when he discovers he murdered Polonius instead of the King, he shows no remorse. His mother, portrayed by, Penny Downie, is clearly terrified to be alone with Hamlet. Hamlet is trying to reason with his mother by being aggressive, he is disheveled and he pulls apart the coverings on his mother’s bed while pleading with her. The insanity of the scene is heightened with the entrance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Tennant falls to the floor when he sees his father, who is angry with Hamlet. Hamlet is no longer in a rage, but is now terrified. His mother asks him, “Whereon do you look?” To which Hamlet replies, “On him, on him!” (Shakespeare 3.4.142). Tennant’s deliverance of the line is full of terror and pleading. Hamlet is mad. Gertrude knows it, the audience knows it, and Hamlet himself knows
To begin with, Hamlet portrays himself as sane. Hamlet sanity can be recognized when mourning for his dead father
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.
Riddled with ambiguity by its very nature, the text of William Shakespeare's Hamlet has been a commonly debated subject in literary circles since its first performance. The character Hamlet undergoes intense physical and emotional hardship in his quest for revenge against his despicable uncle. This hardship, some argue, leads to an emotional breakdown and, ultimately, Hamlet's insanity. While this assessment may be suitable in some cases, it falls short in others. Since Hamlet is a play, the ultimate motivation of each of the characters borrows not only from the text, but also from the motivations of the actors playing the parts. In most respects, these motivations are more apt at discerning the emotional condition of a character than their dialogue ever could. Thus, the question is derived: In Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Hamlet, does the character Hamlet suffer from insanity? Giving halt to the response, this paper will first endeavor to establish what insanity is and will then provide sufficient examples both from the text, film, and Branagh's own musings on his motivations as proof that Hamlet's character, at least in Branagh's version of the play, is not insane.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, must seek revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to murder Claudius. Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes more and more believable in his act, even convincing his mother that he is crazy. However, through his thoughts, and actions, the reader can see that he is in fact putting up an act, he is simply simulating insanity to help fulfil his fathers duty of revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet shows that he understands real from fake, right from wrong and his enemies from his friends. Even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what if going on around him. Most importantly, Hamlet does not think like that of a person who is mad. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to seek revenge for his fathers murder.
He was truly a victim of a fatal situation that led him to his insanity. People who suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder are “considerably more likely to the victim of violence, including rape and other crimes,” (“What is BPD?”1). Although Hamlet is a casualty if the disorder, it is completely justified by the occurrences in his life. The traumatic event of losing his father really did affect the way he will live on throughout the play. In conclusion, Hamlet may not be completely psychotic, but he does suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder, that he exhibits when interacting with other
Logan Gaertner Mrs. Amon English IV 1 March 2014 Is Hamlet’s Insanity Real? Is Hamlet truly insane? While the play is not extremely clear on the matter and often contradicts itself, many of Hamlet’s wild ramblings and words of nonsense seem to be not the true words of a madman. Hamlet says that he is merely “putting on an antic disposition” (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 181). He admits very early on in the play that his insanity will be nothing more than a ruse to fool those around him.
...sane because he is fully aware of his surroundings and before acting he always rationalizes everything. He fakes madness so he can say and do things that a mad man would do, but internally he is aware of what he is doing and we know he is not insane but he acts crazy in front of certain people. His way of thinking is like a normal individual's, if an individual was crazy they would not be thinking everything through and if someone were crazy they would definitely not have the capabilities of outsmarting someone, like how Hamlet outsmarted Claudius. All these reasons and much more are why Hamlet is not insane, he is as sane of an individual as any other, but unlike others he had to go through a lot of emotional pain and a sense of abandonment to reach a successful point in his life.
The question of Hamlet’s insanity is a question raised by many people, is Hamlet a great actor, or has he lost complete sense of what’s real? There is no right answer, there is no wrong answer, many readers have different perceptions on what really was going through Hamlet’s head. My perception is that hamlet comes full circle with his insanity, and at points lets it get the best of him, and brings him down to a extremely low point.
Throughout the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the unclear representation of the protagonist’s actions is present. The protagonist, Hamlet, conducts the idea that he is turning mad. Although, there are many indications which support that this so-called “madness” is part of an act that Hamlet portrays. The other characters within the play try to understand the reasoning behind Hamlet’s madness, but cannot figure out the truth behind it. The main cause of Hamlet’s madness is the realization of his father’s death and the numerous influences his father’s death has on his life. Hamlet can control his actions of madness and specifically acts differently around certain characters. The characters who are more concerned
As the reader, we are to know that Hamlet is only acting crazy so that when he kills Claudius his insanity can be to blame. Also, when Hamlet talks to the actors that will perform the play about his father's death, he acts completely crazy. He says bizarre things and acts not like himself when he is in front of everyone. To the characters they only see him being crazy, but as the reader we see Hamlet talking to Horatio making complete sense. We know that Hamlet was just pretending because he could act crazy then completely know what was going on around him with in the next minute.
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 persona of seeming insane to the other characters. Hamlet comes up with the idea to fake madness in the beginning of the play in order to confuse his enemies. However, for Hamlet to fulfill his duty of getting revenge, he must be totally sane. Hamlet’s intellectual brilliance make it seem too impossible for him to actually be mad, for to be insane means that one is irrational and without any sense. When one is irrational, one is not governed by or according to reason. So, Hamlet is only acting mad in order to plan his revenge on Claudius.
In scene i, Hamlet is deciding whether it is better, “To be, or not to be” which is to kill himself or not kill himself (III.i.57). Someone who is thinking of killing themselves would seek help to try and end the pain they are going through. Part of him wants to end all of the “heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” when he could try and talk to someone about what is going on (III.i.64-5). Therefore, Hamlet is insane. In scene ii, Hamlet is very rude to his mother in public by saying, “No, good mother.
Additionally, he contemplates killing multiple people. Later, Hamlet informs his mother that Claudius murdered his father. Gertrude becomes fearful and asks Hamlet what should they do. Hamlet says that Claudius deserves death, “I will bestow him and will answer well the death I gave him” (3.4.197-198). Hamlet’s willingness to murder Claudius as revenges supports the idea that he is going insane.
Madness is known to be a serious ill, or to be crazy. The play has many points where Hamlets’ madness is questioned, and many people do believe that he is mad; however, others are convinced it’s all for illusion. In the beginning of the play Hamlet puts on an act like he’s mad, but when his life takes a turn for the worst his fake madness turns into something a lot more real. In the opening of the play, Hamlet states that he must, “…perchance hereafter
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the main character, Hamlet, is often perceived by the other characters in the play as being mentally unbalanced because he acts in ways that drive them to think he is mad. Hamlet may very well be psychotic; however, there are times when he “feigns insanity” in order to unearth the truth surrounding his father's death. This plan seems to be going well until Hamlet's mental state slowly begins to deteriorate. What began as an act of insanity or antic disposition transitions from an act to a tragic reality. After studying Hamlet's actions, one will notice that as the play progresses, his feigned insanity becomes less and less intentional and devolves into true mental illness.