How Does Hamlet Act Insane

Throughout the play of Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy's the main character, Hamlet is faced with the responsibility of getting vengeance for his father's murder. He decides to pretend madness as part of his plan to get the opportunity to kill Claudius who was the suspected murderer. As the play goes on, his portrayal of a madman becomes believable, and the characters around him respond quite vividly. Through his inner thoughts and the obvious reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor faking insanity in order to complete the duty his father assigned him.

There is a distinct division of opinion among the other characters of the play about Hamlet's sanity and the split is along gender lines. Ophelia and Gertrude both state that Hamlet has gone mad, but the major male characters, on the other hand, like Polonius think that there is "method" in Hamlet's "madness," that his insanity is a surface mask to shield him as he plans the darker purpose of revenge. Since Hamlet is disturbed by the sudden death of his father and his mother's marriage to his uncle, King Claudius, the abnormality of his behavior to some extent is also understandable. Hamlet is naturally withdrawn, dark, and passive in the wake of those traumatic events. He also shows this when he constantly releases his anger with lines like "How (weary), stale, flat, and unprofitable seems to me all the uses of this world!" His self-exile and his self-reproach are essentially normal reactions to a series of events that he must avenge at his dead father's command but without further direction against a powerful chain of power within the guilty King.

Everything Hamlet does is a plot to make everyone around him think he is insane so he can still get revenge on Claudius and everyone who was part of the murder of King Hamlet. Everything that hinted towards him being insane, like thinking about suicide, was just a ploy to trick everyone into thinking he was crazy. He even stated to his best friend that he was going to fake his inanity to distract people. Hamlet tells Horatio “How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, To put an antic disposition on), That you, at such times seeing me, never shall— With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,” he is telling him that no matter what he cannot let anyone know that he is acting crazy. When Ophelia calls him crazy, he insures her that he is actually not crazy at all but smart.

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

      When one refers to madness in Hamlet, most would think of Hamlet's madness, or at least that that he was pretending to possess. Although Ophelia does go insane and ultimately commits suicide, the central lunacy of the play revolves around Hamlet himself. Hamlet's plan to act mad is completely unexplained. It is safe to

His madness was argued to be an act to confuse Claudius. He acted crazy to cover his plans of seeking revenge on Claudius, when talking to Polonius he acted completely mad, “For in the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion-Have you a daughter?”(Hamlet 2.2.95) Hamlet used much blabber, such as this, when talking to anyone close to Claudius. As the play went on his madness was more and more liable. He started becoming very irrational and distracted by his plans. When Ophelia gives Hamlets letters back he goes into a rage, yelling “Get thee to a nunnery.”(Hamlet (3.1.131) The most well known action Hamlet committed was when he stabbed Polonius in a rash decision, hoping it was Claudius, “O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!“(Hamlet 3.4.171) One thing that brought him one step closer to going mad was Ophelia’s death. Hamlet may have been acting in the beginning but by the end of his devious plan to avenge his father, he lost himself and actually caused himself to go mad.

Hamlet’s plan from the beginning is to act insane to draw attention to the royal family, and his plan eventually works. “Something have you heard of Hamlet’s transformation” ( 2.2.3-4). When people start to notice that Hamlet was going insane, more attention is focused on the king and queen than before the incident. Also, even Ophelia believes that he is mad: this leads to her being watched over by her father, and eventually leads to her suicide when she drowns herself. He is such a good actor that even his mother thinks that he is insane. “O, he is mad, Laertes” (5.1.272). Gertrude is more in love with Claudius than she is with Hamlet. This is proven when she jumps to Claudius’s side when he was accused of murder and immediately rats out Hamlet. Hamlet could be accused of being insane, but in the end his plan works out which proves that he is sane and in his right

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.

After this scene Hamlet acts insane and he often criticizes his mother for remarrying and even insults her, but gets away with his actions because at this point those around him are starting to believe there is something wrong with Hamlet. Hamlet is not crazy but if he were truly crazy then he would not internally realize that he is mad, a crazy person usually doesn't realize they are going crazy, but it is others who realize because of his or her actions. In Hamlet's case, Hamlet knows he is "crazy" and his acting is beneficial for him because he is able to talk freely without having to hold anything back. If Hamlet were truly insane it would have caused him his own death, because usually when an individual is insane they are unaware of what they are saying and their actions are usually always made hastily, a quality that Hamlet does not seem to have.

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

Hamlet’s insanity can be thought of as a tragedy or misconception of reality. The death of his father had shaped the first few impressions of his own persona as well as a new experience with his new aunt. As  a result of his genius insanity prince Hamlet has devised a plan to make things more clear to the audience. “Hamlet’s behavior strikes the audience as abnormal on  several occasions. For example, Hamlet seems to be really mad when he is in front of Ophelia in disordered clothes. He behaves as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of the horror”.  As the progress of the play foreshadows a significant end to his insanity that he acts upon.  As the play progresses throughout, Hamlet finds ways in order to give others the impression that he has lost his sanity from his “love” of Polonius’s daughter Ophelia. “(Ophelia)He grabbed me by the wrist and held me hard, then backed away an arm’s length and just looked at me, staring at me like an artist about to paint my

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 shows that he is not crazy through his actions, even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what if going on around him, and through his conversation with Horatio, Ophelia and more. Soon after finding out about his fathers death, and in order to further develop his plan to murder Claudius, Hamlet talks to Horatio and tells him he will put on an act of antic disposition. You can see this when Hamlet says

Can we say Hamlet is insane because of the way he acts when the group of thespians come to Elsinore to perform? No, Hamlet gives them a list of guidelines on how to be a good player or theatrical performer. He uses these guidelines himself to "play" the other characters around him and to attempt exposing Claudius' crimes. He "plays" the other characters in the sense that he puts on a dramatic performance for them, and they believe him. Hamlet plays the other characters by acting as though he is insane.

In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare madness is a prominent trait that many of the characters in the play come to possess. These characters go through a multitude of troubles throughout the play that makes this madness justifiable. This madness plays an immense role in the outcome of the play and events throughout it. Hamlet and Ophelia show this trait of madness in their actions throughout the play which ultimately have a detrimental effect on themselves and other characters in the play.