It is or is it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity? I’m not saying Hamlet was faking the whole thing. The meaning for insanity on Dictionary.com is “a permanent disorder of the mind.” I don't think Hamlet had a permanent disorder of the mind he knew what he was doing and even planned the majority of the events that happened. Most of the time anyway.
Having your father die is bad enough, but to have your mother marry your uncle, within a few weeks of your father’s death? Then to see the ghost of your dead father. That would drive anyone a little insane, but maybe not to the extent that everyone thought Hamlet was acting. Hamlet is torn between acting sane and letting everyone else see him as insane.
Hamlet is so grieved by his father's death that he begins to think of suicide. “O,tht this too too soid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itelf into a dew!” (Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 129-130). Hamlet's next thought to be mad when he begins to follow the ghost. Horatio attempts to tell Hamlet not to follow the ghost, Horatio questions him to about what might happen if the ghost “assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignth of reason. And draw you into madness”(Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 72-74)?
Throughout the play Hamlet seems to act insane then sane again. His comment to his friends best describes his madness when he says, “I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from handsaw” (Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 378-379). Hamlet is insane only when he thinks it is best for him to be insane. He uses his insanity as a way to vent his feelings toward others in the play.
Hamlet’s display of insanity allows him to prove that Claudius did in face murder his father. After seein...
... middle of paper ...
...s 319-326). Hamlet leaves his final words to Horatio. He tells him that he leaves behind a story unknown, and that he would like him to give up his happiness until the pain is gone and the story is told.
In summary, I do not think that hamlet was insane. I think he had every right to be mad and upset at everyone who done him wrong. He should not have held all of his feelings inside. If I had been Hamlet, I had been mad and wanted to avenge my father's death also. If he had been insane he would not have done all the things that he'd managed to do. It was a pretty smart plan that Hamlet had created, and it almost work, if everyone didn't die at the end.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print
He is mentally disturbed by the thought of his uncle killing his father to the point where he loses touch with sanity. Hamlet is a tragedy that will never have a straightforward answer as to if he faked being crazy or not. My belief is that Hamlet had in fact lost touch with reality. The slow decline of his mental health throughout lead me to believe he did go crazy, even if he might have been faking it at first. After seeing his father’s ghost, I believe he started acting like he had lost his mind to blame his future actions on the fact that he was crazy. I also believe he truly did lose his mind shortly after when he found out about Claudius murdering his
If Hamlet were truly mad, he would not have been able to give such a guileless and processed response.... ... middle of paper ... ... Hamlet’s feigned insanity was all part of his overall scheme to avenge his father, King Hamlet.
After the death of King Hamlet, Hamlet proclaims that he saw his father’s ghost when he, Horatio and Bernardo were in the forest. The ghost spoke to the trio and apparently told them that Lord Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, now the King, was behind the murder of his father. This troubled Hamlet and at that point he came up with a plan to see whether the ghost’s prophecy was true. A huge part of his plan included him acting insane. “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put on an antic disposition on” (I,I,191). This statement is significant as Hamlet himself ...
Hamlet's sanity can be recognized when mourning for his dead father at the beginning of the play. Including the fact his mother married her dead husbands brother, Hamlets uncle, builds Hamlet sickness. Shakespeare’s purpose in this scene is to utilize Hamlet.
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...
Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.
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
First of all, I’m not saying that Hamlet was faking the whole thing. I mean obviously, having your father die is bad enough, but to have your mother within a month, marry your uncle. What’s more is to see the ghost of your dead father! Obviously, that will make you a little crazy, but not to the extent that everyone thought Hamlet was experiencing.
In Hamlet, he seems to be mad, but there is a question that everyone asks when reading or watching this play “was it, or was it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity, really suffering, or maybe even both.” First, this is what insanity is: insanity is acting crazy, but not knowing that they’re acting crazy. Also, it’s going through a lot of stress at the same time causing you to act stranger then a normal person. Hamlet was not totally insane. It doesn’t fit.
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.
According to the article “9 Signs You Might Be Going Insane” by Mamapedia, Hamlet falls into several categories of mental illness ( Mamapedia). One of the mental ilness's that show Hamlet is insane schizophrenia. Hamlet can be considered to be schizophrenic due to his paranoia that everyone is on claudious's side and his his hallucination of his father's ghost in his mother's chambers as well as his delusion for revenge of his father's murder. In act 3, scene 4 Hamlet talks to his father's ghost in front of his mother but the ghost is completely imaginary to his mother Gertrude and she even calls him mad because hamlet seem to be talking to some kind of a hallucination (3, 4, 105-7).Therefore, this supports the argument that Hamlet is actually insane in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
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 himself 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. This is further proven by the fact that when he is around Horatio he shows no signs of mental illness. He speaks calmly and everything he says makes sense.
Hamlet throughout the play seems insane but in reality it is only an act to achieve his goal of killing his father's murderer. Hamlet chooses to go mad so he has an advantage over his opponent and since he is the Prince of Denmark certain behavior is unacceptable, so by faking madness he is able to get away with inappropriate sayings and actions. We can see this when he talks to Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia and his mother. When Hamlet talks to Horatio in the first act he says how he is going to "feign madness" and that:
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.