Hamlet 's Sanity Is A Subject Of Much Debate

Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about uncertainty and about Hamlet's failure to act appropriately. It is very interesting to consider that the play shows many uncertainties that lives are built upon, or how many unknown quantities are taken for granted when people act or when they evaluate one another's actions. Hamlet is an especially intriguing production, both on the set and on the screen because of its uniqueness to be different from what most people expect to be in a revenge themed play. Hamlet's cynicism and insane like behavior cause him to seem indecisive, but in reality he is always judging and contemplating his actions in the back of his mind in order to seek revenge for the murder of

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is about a young prince who wants revenge when he learns about the murder of his father. As the play begins, Hamlet’s character appears to be a normal, sane person. Moving through the acts Hamlet’s personality changes from normal to depressed. There are hints of insanity that try to convince people Hamlet is “mad”. Others might say that Hamlet is faking madness to pursue his goal of revenge. First, he sees a “ghost” that tells Hamlet who killed his father and married his mother. Was this a dream or was this real? Second, Hamlet kills more than one person to avenge his father’s death. Where these accidents or intentional? “Insanity: a legal term for mental illness of such degree

This all sets the stage for Hamlet’s mental state prior to learning that he was killed by somebody in his family. These themes of death and betrayal lead into the end of the first act when Hamlet is tasked by the ghost of his father to seek revenge against Claudius for what he did. Hamlet believes that he was “born to set it right” (1.5.190). The extremes of this line reveal that Hamlet believes that the whole reason for his existence is to avenge his father. This need for revenge drives Hamlet for the rest of the play. He wants justice for his father, but he also wants to punish Claudius for his murder and marrying his mother. He gives in to human nature when he starts striving to avenge his father’s death.

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 is internally reflecting on the morality of revenge. In existentialism, it is believed that the best way to live is for man to accept disorder and nothingness because ignoring it would mean settling into a delusional security blanket. If this blanket is torn off, we are forced to face it abruptly. Hamlet becomes conflicted in this way during the play. His father’s death, learning about the murder and adultery, and facing the morality of revenge all quake his previous orderly life.Now, he must figure out what is right and wrong and what to do as he contemplates the noble idea of avenging his father’s death versus his own misanthropic view of human nature.

Throughout the play, Hamlet’s character is characterized both by periods of extreme caution and moments of impulsivity. One of the best examples of Hamlet’s heed can be found in Act 2, Scene 2 where he decides to have his theatre troupe perform his play, The Mousetrap. With this, Hamlet hopes that he will be able to “catch the conscience of the King,” by monitoring Claudius during the performance, that heavily mimics his murder of his brother, for signs of stress and guilt. While Hamlet was fully capable of bypassing this step by simply adhering to what he believes is the ghost of his father, Hamlet’s decision to unearth some sort of evidence that supports his father’s accusations is just one example of his cautious ways and need for certainty before action. However, such displays of caution find themselves juxtaposed with Hamlet’s bouts of impulsivity. One of the most telling illustrations of Hamlet’s rashness can be found in Act One, Scene Five, where he first conversing with the ghost of his father. Here, when the Ghost asks Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder,” Hamlet immediately agrees. In fact, within the next few lines Hamlet pledges he will “sweep to my revenge” with “wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love”. The fact that Hamlet coins this commitment to avenge his father’s murder without making much of any consideration of the possible repercussions of such an undertaking is one of the best representations of Hamlet’s impulsivity. This rash action, marked by a lack of extended over-analysis and internal debate, contrasts with the excessive caution Hamlet exhibits at many other points throughout the play. Ultimately, the interplay between Hamlet’s caution and impulsivity is one of the most notable juxtapositions of the play and serves to strongly steer the development, not only of

Hamlet’s sanity has made many people question him. “Hamlet certainly displays a high degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his “madness” is perhaps too purposeful and pointed

Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William

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

This shows that he is exploring the possibility that he may also be killed in his search for revenge. It almost sounds as if he is foreshadowing his own death because he says that ending the “heartache” is something he desires. Therefore, Hamlet seriously questions whether he should remain loyal to his father, because he takes

Beginning from the creation of Hamlet there has been debates between what exactly fiction is and what is non-fiction. The line between the two can so easily be blurred that is sometimes hard to decipher which side of the line the character or individual may stand on. Throughout the play Hamlet many question whether or not Hamlet is indeed sane or insane. Sanity plays a significant role throughout the entire piece, demonstrated through the snappy retorts that characters make-especially Hamlet- and the development of the piece overall.

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

Hamlet is a play about a man who has had a father killed by his uncle,

Hamlet’s inaction due to fear ultimately leads to the death of six characters, including himself. Hamlet’s outward conflict is the death of his father and consequently, his uncle becoming the King of Denmark. Hamlet expresses his distaste of his uncle becoming King when he says, “A little more than kin, and less than kind” (1.2.65). Hamlet implies that his uncle is too closely related to him after becoming his step-father. Moreover, during his soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2, Hamlet blames his mother for being weak and criticizes her decision to marry someone one month after her husband’s death when he says, “A beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourn’d longer” (1.2.146-7). Hamlet denotes that his mother is less reasonable than an animal as she marries one month after King Hamlet’s death, which is an insult to her intelligence. Furthermore, Hamlet compares the world to “an unweeded garden” (1.2.135) and this displays how he does not want to live in this corrupt world anymore. Hamlet’s inward conflict is his inaction after swearing to the ghost that he would exact revenge for his father’s murder.

To start with, it is important to acknowledge Hamlet’s mental state in the beginning of the play. It is clear that Hamlet is in great despair due to the death of his beloved father and his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle. This becomes evident in Hamlet’s first soliloquy when he expresses his desire to disappear by contemplating suicide; “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, / Or that the Everlasting has not fixed / His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (1.2.129-132). The death of Hamlet’s father was the first tragic event that Hamlet had to deal with and the fact that Hamlet thought so highly of his father (“So excellent a King...(1.2.139)) goes to show how greatly his death had impacted Hamlet.