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Madness In Hamlet

Decent Essays

In the book “Hamlet,” we see in multiple circumstances the idea of madness and the ways in with the main character displays it and how it is described in the book. Throughout the entire story, it is hard to understand Hamlet’s true emotion. Subsequent to the death of his father, Hamlet finds himself in the presence of a ghost in which tells him that his father was murdered and that Hamlet should seek revenge. After his endeavors with the ghost, Hamlet states, “How strange or odd some’er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet, To put an antic disposition on” (Act 1, Scene 5, 170-172). Hamlet tells Horatio that he will act psychotically or mad and for him not to think anything of it. Nonetheless, it seems as the story unveils, that Hamlet’s act becomes reality. Hamlet seems to have truly become insane and is not just putting on an act. …show more content…

Hamlet states in one of the most famous soliloquies, “To be or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them?” (Act 3, Scene 1, 56-59). Hamlet's state of mind has led him to question the meaning of life. Hamlet wonders, when facing his circumstance, if living is even worth it or even if fighting to find the truth behind the murder of his father is desirable. As the reader, we have no insight as to whether this is just Hamlet carrying out his role of antic disposition or if it is of his true

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