Is Hamlet Truly Insane?

He acts irrational only when he is around certain individuals. He acts irrational around Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Ophelia but remains calm and rational around Horatio, Marcellus, and the players. A big part of the play is when Hamlet lashes out at Ophelia and convinces her he has actually gone mad. “With a look so piteous in purport as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors...Then he let out a sigh so piteous and profound as it did seem to shatter all his bulk and end his being” (2.1.84-97). This single action brings tremendous tension and makes Polonius immediately believe that Hamlet has gone mad because of his love for his daughter. On the other hand, Hamlet can be rational just as much as a sane person. "Give him heedful note, for I mine eyes will rivet his face, and, after, we will both our judgments join in censure of his seeming” (3.2.83-86). Hamlet tells Horatio to watch Claudius during the play to see if he acts guilty. The fact that he thought this out in such an organized and clear way makes it hard to believe that he is mad because a madman would never be able to think like that. Hamlet also knows how to act properly around the players. An example of this is when he asks, "You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in 't, could you not?” (2.2.540-542). This question is understandable and

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.

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

Hamlet is far too on top of things to be mad. Hamlet’s intellectual brilliance is first brought out in Act I, scene V when he plans on acting mad to confuse his enemies. Hamlet is also quick to figure out who his enemies and who are his real friends. “I know the good King and Queen have sent for you” (I.iv.37). Hamlet instantly knows that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not paying a social visit to Hamlet, but were in fact sent as spies for the former King of Denmark to find out the cause of his sudden madness. Hamlet immediately knows that he cannot trust his former school friends, and that he must take caution in what he says when is around the both of them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern talk with Hamlet, but "with a crafty madness [Hamlet] keeps aloof" (I.iv.37), and they are unable to find the cause for his odd behavior. Hamlet’s true intellect is brought out in Act III, scene II when he plans on putting on a play. "If his occulted guilt do not itself unkennel in one speech, / it is a damned ghost that we have seen, and my /imaginations are as foul as Vulcan’s stithy" (III.ii.84). When Hamlet comes up with a brilliant plan to put on a play about someone killing a King, he determines whether or not Claudius is guilty of murder, or if the ghost is really his dead father or an evil spirit whose setting him up to kill an innocent man. Hamlet coming up with a successful plan to prove

During Act 1, Hamlet discloses that he will be putting on an “antic disposition” so the people around him believe he exists as mentally insane (1.5.192). The goal of Hamlet’s act transpires so he can get closer to Claudius and discover if he killed his father, King Hamlet. For the rest of the novel, Hamlet goes in and out of his acts of madness as he tests different plans to deem Claudius guilty. But this

In Act I, Scene V, after hearing the ghost’s demand for revenge, Hamlet says in advance that he will consciously feign madness while seeking the opportune moment to kill Claudius. Therefore, it is hard to conclude that he coincidentally became insane after making such a vow. Hamlet’s supposed madness becomes his primary way of interacting with the other characters during most of the play, in addition to being a major device that Shakespeare uses to develop his character. Still, the question remains: Is Hamlet really crazy or just pretending?

Theses people can believe what they want to and it is totally up to them to decide whether or not he is insane. Hamlet is not mad. He might slip into some form of madness but he never actually goes insane. The sad part is that when Ophelia's father died she went insane. She was doing this because the love of her life was "insane" when he was just pretending to be insane. The rouge Hamlet talks to himself and is perfectly sane but when he talks to other people he act like he is mad. His friends and family think he is insane because he misses his father and because his mother (Queen Gertrude) married Claudius so quickly. After all, Hamlet is just trying to find out what really happened to his father. And what a better way than just pretending to be mad or 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

William Shakespeare wrote dozens of great plays. One of the most famous of the plays was Hamlet. Claimed to be Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. When Hamlet was first performed in the Globe Theatre by Shakespearean actors one thing was very obvious; Hamlets out of his mind. Nowadays scholars have analyzed the text ask the question was Hamlet really mad or just acting. The fact of the matter is Hamlet is a god in ruins who is consumed by revenge.

There might arise a question about Hamlet’s madness, if the madness is real or not? What I believe his madness is just an acting. This is because mad people never think about a plan to find the guilt of a person. Hamlet even told his mother that he is not mad but acting it. He cleverly told the actors what

The play Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. The play Hamlet follows a young prince that goes through harrowing life situations that result in his madness. Hamlet’s madness becomes heightened throughout the play as he becomes more involved in exposing his uncle’s crime, which ultimately affects his mental health at the end. At first, Hamlet’s madness is used as a disguise to uncover truth of Claudius murdering King Hamlet, but later on, it seems apparent that his madness evolves into something more than simply an act, as his madness unfolds with him as he lost power, and was disgusted with the remarriage of his mother. Hamlet generates madness through his mourning the death of his father, the loss of the crown to his uncle, and

From the very beginning of the play, Hamlet is less of a person and more of an actor in his own life. After being told by the ghost of his father that Claudius is the murderer of his father, Hamlet slips into a new skin, one of a crazy, depressed son of a king. “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/To put an antic disposition on” (I.v.176-177). For centuries, the question of Hamlet’s insanity has baffled readers and English enthusiasts alike; the main debate: is Hamlet’s craziness fake or real? The answer is yes, he is both pretending to be crazy and is actually crazy. The events that occur throughout Hamlet and Hamlet’s actions drive him to madness and he uses more instability to cover it up. He acts mad to find out if Claudius has killed his father, but becomes truly mad after he kills Polonius, drives Ophelia to insanity and she dies, and when he causes the deaths of Laertes and Claudius. By the end of the play, appearance and reality have meshed together into the same truth and Hamlet’s facade of insanity has driven him to commit acts that make him lose his mind and cause his untimely death.

During the play, Prince Hamlet is faced with a problem that forces him to change his personality to one of a madman in order to convince the king that he is not planning to kill him. There are several instances that cause the reader to second guess whether he really is crazy, or if it was all an act. Along with planning to avenge his deceased father, Hamlet also faces internal conflicts over his feelings towards life, causing him to do things that may seem out of the norm to others. However, there are only a few characters in the play that perceive him as crazy the entire time. Although Hamlet puts on a pretty convincing act, it is obvious that it was all for show and he is sane.

Insanity is a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder. It infect all it touches with irrational thoughts, actions and emotions. In William Shakespeare's play “Hamlet”, the main character is plagued with this disease of madness as Shakespeare explores if this madness is authentic or simply an act to plot revenge. He initially claims to put on an “antic disposition” at the start of the play but his actions and thoughts suggest that he is truly mad. When we first meet prince Hamlet he is grieving the death of his father and on top of that, dealing with his mother’s betrayal; hence, Hamlet is distraught from the opening scene of the play. Hamlet also has numerous interactions with the paranormal and constantly questions the purpose of being alive as a result of suffering from severe depression. To add to this, Hamlet must address the corruption in the kingdom of Denmark which includes his closest friends and family. Throughout the play, Hamlet is perceived to be mad by the other characters while in reality he has been infected with insanity.

When reading the tragedy Hamlet one of the very first questions people ask themselves is whether Hamlet is truly insane or not. Hamlet is a Danish prince who returns home from school to the news of his father’s passing, and then his mother’s marriage to the new king and uncle, Claudius. Hamlet is isolated, lonely, and melancholic because he is still mourning the death of his father. Hamlet’s mood, however, escalates after the appearance of his father’s ghost, which tasks him to avenge his untimely death at the hands of Claudius. From this moment, Hamlet decides to fake insanity so that he can avenge his father’s murder. Hamlet is not insane because he tells people that he is not insane. Although he might seem insane, he is aware of his surroundings and of everything he says or does; he is acting insane to hide his true motive of revenge.