Hamlet's Sanity
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.
Hamlet only claims madness because it allows him to say and perform actions he otherwise would be prohibited from, while keeping people from
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On the other hand, Hamlet acts perfectly sane when acting insane is unnecessary. When he talks to Horatio about watching Claudius for signs of guilt during the play, he says ?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 (3.2.87).? His words to Horatio are those of a sane man. Horatio is one of the few people to whom he does not need to prove he is ?insane,? and as such, he does not try. Also, when he is explaining to the players how to act, he is surprisingly organized and natural sounding. For example, 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 (2.2.565)?? His question is direct and simple as all his instructions are, and it seems that the player not only understands completely, but also is comfortable with Hamlet and what he asks. It is much more plausible that a sane man could play an insane one, than an insane man could play a sane one, and so reason would deem Hamlet sensible.
Additional proof that Hamlet must be sane is that even in his ?madness? he is clever in his retorts and speech, and has a full understanding of the situations around him. He plays his madman character almost too well, and each phrase he utters appears to be an attempt towards conveying his
The novel by William Shakespeare is a very famous piece of literature. There is a lot of controversy on whether or not Hamlet is truly insane. Everything he does throughout the whole play is well thought out in great detail. In my opinion I believe Hamlet is actually not insane but rather an intelligent person that thought everything through in great detail. Some of the things he does have good and reliable reasons to be done.
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
In Act III, Scene II, Hamlet appears to be more self-controlled, given that he adeptly works Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and his freely speaks with Horatio. The facility with which Hamlet alternates between passionate, erratic behavior and rational, focused behavior seems to prove that he is not insane after
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.
The astute statements and remarks that Hamlet says throughout the play prove that he is completely sane. Hamlet does indeed act mad throughout the play, but it is only an act to prove that Claudius killed King Hamlet. “I am essentially not in madness, but mad in craft” (3.4.187-188). Hamlet is admitting that he has been acting mad, but that it is by his will, which shows that is in control of his actions. Also, after Hamlet kills Polonius, Hamlet gives clever hints to where Polonius’s body is hidden, something that an insane person would be incapable of doing. “Where is Polonius? In heaven. Send thither to see. If
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 is so creative in his responses made to express his madness that Polonius's comments on there skill. "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't (2.2.223)." Hamlets smarts and acting of a madman make it to much to be a madman.
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.
A major source of discussion regarding Shakespeare’s Hamlet involves whether or not the title character is indeed mad or if he is only acting. One stance claims that Hamlet is mad throughout the play. Others may think that his madness is only latent, up until a certain point. There are many opinions on exactly where this shifting point occurs, thus opening up many possible explanations. Another argument explains that Hamlet performs his madness throughout the play, as evidenced by his unremitting sharp wit, the opinions of other characters, and Hamlet’s own admissions.
While it is true that Hamlet was merely playing the role of someone who had gone mad, many people may say that Hamlet’s madness was brought upon himself simply by the fact that he was trying to fulfill the orders from his dead father yet couldn’t because of his lack of acting upon a plan. It is strongly possible that Hamlet became extremely frustrated because every chance he got to expose Claudius and capture him in this enormous secret, he failed to do so. Therefore, Hamlet’s madness could be judged as reasonable but most likely for different reasons than one may think. Rather than going mad over the concrete facts that his father died and his mother remarried his uncle less than two months afterwards, he drove himself mad over his own flaws. Hamlet’s tragic flaw absolutely led to his tragic downfall as a
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
Insanity is a perfectly rational adjustment to the sane world. In the play Hamlet several times only with family and close family members has he showed any signs of madness. However when he is alone he is thinking of ways to make other believe that he is insane. Hamlet is trying to deceive everyone by his words and his actions. Essentially the book Hamlet is about a boy who needs to help his father to take revenge by assassinating the king so that he may be in peace. Although Hamlet seems insane throughout most of the book, he is just faking it so that he may assassinate the king and avenge his forebear.
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
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
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the main character Hamlet is believed to have gone insane after the death of his father. There is much evidence in the play that causes one to believe that Hamlet is in fact crazy. However, there are also indications to the contrary, Hamlet only feigns madness for the purpose of carrying out his mission. He rehearses his pretend madness first with Ophelia for even if he fails to convince her , that failure would not cause him any harm. The language he uses is clearly not that of an insane person, he is lucid and succinct when he speaks proving that he knows exactly what he is doing. .