Insanity In Hamlet

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

Shakespeare fancies the application of ghosts in his plays, Hamlet is no exception. Scholars argue that the ghost in Hamlet is only a figment of Hamlet’s imagination, but how does that explain others witnessing the apparition. Hamlet’s mental state is declining throughout the play, but what is the true cause? From an external view Hamlet appears insane, whether or not he is insane is left ambiguous. If he is insane, is the traumatic loss of his father causing Hamlet to see a ghost or is the ghost real indeed?

Hamlet’s madness is questioned by many readers. The truth is that Hamlet portrayed madness before he came up with the plan of acting madness. This madness is an important characteristic in the play with Hamlet’s actions revolving primarily around the idea he has because of his madness. There are several occasions further in the play when the audience sees Hamlet acting mad even though there is no one else in the room that he was aware of. In act three, scene four, when Hamlet is in his mother’s chamber and hears a noise behind the arras the rash decision to stab the noise behind the curtain shows exactly how erratic and unstable Hamlet is. His rash behaviour to kill without seeing what he is doing shows that his madness is real and not something he is faking to have revenge for his father. In act five scene two, Hamlet announces that he has switched the letter that ordered Hamlet to be killed in England; instead writing that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are to be killed. This is perhaps because he thought they were the ones who ordered his death when in fact they were just following Claudius’ instructions. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were Hamlet’s friends which show that he was perhaps paranoid in his madness. They were there to help yet his rash character after seeing the Ghost has yet again ended people’s lives. It is important to consider that in the Elizabethan era madness was defined differently than what the

One would agree that Hamlet was a lonely character. In the entire play he isolated himself because of the things that he did and the secrets that he had. He had very few friends and he started to not trust humanity. His loneliness was a major contributor to his tragic downfall. The reason for this is because it kept him away from his friend and family and then eventually it started to make him go crazy and make the wrong decisions or so he wanted it to seem. According to the play Hamlet was informed that his Uncle killed his father. He did not want to let anyone know the news that he found out about his father’s death. He also did not want to tell anyone that he knew about the ghost of his father. He couldn't even trust his friends and

Depression is a mental illness that affects approximately three hundred and fifty million people in the world today. Is it too far fetched to think that a man who has lost his father, and essentially lost his uncle and mother too at the same time, is depressed? Any person that has gone through what Hamlet has gone through would be at a high risk of having depression. Not only can it be assumed that Hamlet, who has gone through many awful experiences, has this illness but it can be seen in the text when Hamlet has suicidal thoughts in the beginning of act three.

Hamlet was deeply depressed about his father's death, in this quote he couldn't even speak in complete sentences so you can see how much this affected Hamlet and how it took a toll on him. Hamlet overcome this obstacle by taking revenge for his father and killing his uncle for the murder of his father. Hamlet was also going through other obstacles because right after his father death his mother married his father's killer which is his uncle. Hamlet was bummed about this and really disappointed in his mother's actions. In the Play Hamlet said “she married.

In the beginning of the play the main character, Hamlet, gets a visit from the ghost of his father that has recently deceased unexpectedly. His father’s ghost appears throughout the play but only Hamlet has the ability to see this spirit which leads to the conception that he has gone insane. He grieves his father’s death in very unhealthy

The insanity of a person can be contributed through the trauma that is caused by a few events in a person’s life, but in the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare wrote the main character prince Hamlet experiences a few dramatic events from the play which his attitude changes throughout. In order to figure out whether hamlet is insane is by figuring out what the characteristics of his insanity. Characters see Hamlet in different shades of gray, each side more or less sane than others. His sanity can be his truth or his lie.

Hamlet has also idealized his mother, and it seems like that they have had a close relationship before this incident. Hamlet really loved his mother, and I think he put her on a pedestal. In the play, this delusion that he has about his mother's character is quickly shattered. She, "within a month" (1,2,145) marries Hamlet's uncle who has for some odd reason become king after Hamlet's father's death. Hamlet is sickened and disillusioned by his mother's behavior saying things like "O that this too too sullied flesh would melt" (1,2,129) and "frailty, thy name is woman"(1,2,146). But the realization that he has about his mother also ties into the realization that he has about his father and ultimately

     When we first meet Hamlet, he is a sad, dark, loathsome figure; the loss of his father and the whoring of his mother have upset him indefinitely. Like a ticking time bomb, Hamlet’s noticeable temper reflects the storm of emotions and thoughts brewing in his head, and then like a catalyst, his meeting with the Ghost of King Hamlet brings his anger to a boil. With revenge in mind, Hamlet plans to fake his madness so that he may be free to pursue his father’s killer. Everyone, except his close friend Horatio, seems convinced that he is mad. Claudius however, fearful that someone will discover his evil deed, has also had his perceptions heightened by his guilt and he experiences chronic paranoia throughout the

Secondly, if Hamlet saw the ghost, and went insane from that, don’t you think that Horatio, and the guards would have gone insane from seeing him as well? I really don’t think that Hamlet would become crazy out of seeing something that 3 other people did. Later on, Hamlet lets out to his friends and his mom his plan to pretend to act insane. He tells Horatio that he is going to "feign madness”, and that if Horatio notices any strange behaviour from Hamlet, it is because he is putting on an act. Some of the other people also come to notice that Hamlet is not crazy. Claudius says that Hamlet's "actions although strange, do not appear to stem from madness." Also Polonius says that Hamlet's actions and words have a "method" to them, there might be a reason behind them, and they make sense over all. Through the play Hamlet looks like he’s insane then sane again. What he says to his friends describes his madness "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw". This explains how he is mad only at the right time, when he’s around the people who betrayed others and himself. The people are: Ophelia and her betrayal to him, his mom's betrayal to his dad, his friends’ betrayal to him and his uncle's betrayal to his brother.

He told Horatio, one of his really good friends, to play along with him acting insane so he can hide the fact that he is going to get revenge on his father by killing King Claudius, so this is why he wanted people to think he was going insane. Hamlet tries to explain to Guildenstern, another good friend of his, that he is just simply acting and there is no reason behind it. Hamlet's attempt to pretend to act insane backfires, resulting in his actual symptoms of schizophrenia. One of Hamlet’s first symptoms of Schizophrenia is that Hamlet assumes this hallucination is actually the ghost of his dead father. During the encounter with the ghost, Hamlet's mind begins to see what he wants to see: his dead father.

He doubts the Ghost’s revelation, “The spirit that I have seen / May be a devil, and the devil hath power / T’ assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, / Out of my weakness and my melancholy, / As he is very potent with such spirits, / Abuses me to damn me” (Shakespeare II.ii.627-632). Upon reflection, he realizes that the Ghost being stuck in purgatory until Hamlet avenges his father’s unnatural death does not add up. Also, he specifically points out the Ghost’s ill intentions as it asks Hamlet to go against the natural order of the universe through the act of murder. His philosophical nature is seen through his intellectual analysis of the Ghost’s request. He needs proof of the Ghost’s accusations to convince himself that it is okay to murder the Ghost. He is more likely to obey his father than the impression of his father, as demonstrated in the fact that Gertrude cannot see the Ghost, which suggests that it is not real. Secondly, in order to conceal his newfound knowledge, Hamlet decides, “To be on an antic disposition” (I.v.192). That he considers feigned madness necessary shows the intricacies and ambiguity of his character, for he has multiple personalities. On one side is his antic disposition and on the other is his active within action, mind always racing side. He creates madness as an outward display and insists, “That [he is] essentially…not in madness, / But mad in

When Hamlet sees the ghost of his father he listens to his words diligently as he is "bound to hear" (I.v.11) what he has to say. This is very different compared to his behavior when he acts mad because very focused when speaking and listening to the ghost and others. While Hamlet meets his father's ghost, he gives his full attention, and while Hamlet speaks with Horatio about his father's ghost, he listens and speaks with sanity. Hamlet's short-term goal is to use sanity when necessary and control the environment he is in at all times. But while he’s alone, his thoughts are very deep. He questions whether it is “nobler in the mind” (III.I.65) to be miserable or if he should “end them.” (III.i.68) Hamlet uses more logic than someone that is insane would use, and because of this sanity, Hamlet is able to accomplish his short-term goal of

With the appearance of the ghost the reader is, whether they realize it or not, being challenged to take a position on Hamlet's state of mind. At first the reader may take it at face value assuming that a ghost is a ghost and should be accepted as such. But after a deeper look using the psychoanalytic perspective of critical evaluation, it becomes believable that the ghost is just a trick of Hamlet's mind used to justify his urges to avenge his father's death, a sort of madness. It is hard to decide what to think about Shakespeare's introduction of the ghost because of the two different ways he portrays it.