The Question of Hamlet's Sanity

Categories: Hamlet

Essay, Pages 6 (1475 words)

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Hamlet, the primary person, is faced with the task of attaining retribution for his father’s murder. He elects to assume madness as part of his strategy to obtain the chance to kill Claudius. He makes this clear when he quote, “How strange or odd some'er I bear myself to put an antic disposition on” (1.5). As the play develops, his interpretation of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the people around him respond appropriately. However, through his private thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is evident that he is not mad and is an actor impersonating mental illness to deliver his obligation to his father.

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Hamlet only claims insanity because it allows him to say and carry out actions he otherwise would be forbidden from while keeping individuals from taking his dealings seriously. While trying to fool others seems to be part of his original plan that Hamlet reveals when he asks Horatio and Marcellus not to make any remarks concerning his “escapade nature.

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Hamlet’s folly permits him to talk to Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, and Polonius in a fashion unsuitable for someone of his statue. He is often discourteous and rude in his remarks. Although when giving a speech to Gertrude his acting backfires. Hamlet can brutally condemn her for her acts because she thinks he is insane. In the Course Of the play, he also makes many fleshly overtones and even unashamedly sexual comments towards Ophelia because she thinks that he is crazy. Like when Hamlet states, “that’s a fair thought to lie between maids” legs (3.

2). He is talking and acting in a very sexually suggestive manner that if he were sane, he wouldn’t be able to get away with such remarks. Hamlet’s powerful insanity act offers him the chance to express his resentment towards Ophelia for her desertion. He was also able to show his emotions through his disguise.

When Polonius elects to take abandonment of him, Hamlet tells him that “he cannot take from him anything that he would willingly give part.” ( 2.2). Therefore, Hamlet uses his insanity as virtually a justification, and unquestionably part of his confession, towards Laertes for his assassinating of Polonius. How would a person that considers himself to be mad be able to recognize that he is insane and be able to determine his actions as being unmanageable? If it wasn’t for his madness; he would have been criticized instead of people being afraid of him, pitting or overlooking him. Hamlet’s madness sends awareness away from what he is feeling about his father’s death and puts it on why he has turned crazy. Hamlet being unmanageable lets only himself know what he is genuinely feeling, it also limits him from answering questions regarding his odd behavior.

In turns allows for him to resume to plot his attack on Claudius. Hamlet’s strategy to sustain the presence of a crazy man is a clever one, and because of the great job he does in pretending to be insane makes him more inventive and less stupid. Therefore, when it’s unwarranted for Hamlet not to pretend that he’s insane, then he acts perfectly sane. Like when he is speaking to Horatio regarding signs of Claudius' fault. His words to Horatio are those of a rational man. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Horatio is one of the few and far between people to whom he does not need to show he is mad, and he doesn’t try to pretend. Another time when he doesn’t prove to be insane is when he is describing to the actors how to act, he is astonishingly prepared and instinctive talking. His question to the players are to the point and, and the actors completely understands everything Hamlet is telling them.

They 're relaxed with Hamlet and what he instructs them to do. It is much more probable that a sane man might play an insane one. Then a crazy man playing a sane one. Because of this reason, it is fair to say Hamlet is a man of rational thinking. Another reason that Hamlet seems sane is that all the more so is when he wants others to believe that he is mad. He is crafty in his replies and language and has a full grasp of the circumstances all around him. He most definitely plays this insane character like a pro, and each word he speaks shows to be an effort towards expressing his insanity or baffling his antagonists. Hamlet can tangle with his acquaintances through his deceptive madness and, consequently, free from their interrogation, while able to uphold the concealment of his thoughts and purposes. Soon After, he can have them slain in his house using his father’s seal, using a technique crafty for even a sensible man, let alone an unreasonable one. Numerous would point to the killing of Polonius and say that Hamlet’s act, at least in this situation, was triggered by insanity.

According to this thinking, unlike all his other measures he was reckless and almost inconsiderate, but this is not true. Because just before his appearance in the meeting room of his mother, Hamlet had been prevented in his try to kill Claudius because he was praying. Though, at the time he believed ready to take his vengeance. When he enters his mother’s room not only did, he still have this intensity within him, his mother’s response towards his attempt at a reason perhaps further fervent him with rage for Claudius. Through the play, Hamlet is someone for the most part, that a person might not believe or think acts as you might consider a mad person would behave. There were many times his thinking was that of a reasonable person. For instance, the time that he sees Claudius praying.

Hamlet thinks very plausibly and understands that he will not achieve full retribution if he kills Claudius and delivers him up into heaven. “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do. And so, he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.” (3,3). When he is trying to reason to himself his thinking to himself makes sense. His thinking follows a consistent development and is in no way bewildered or irregular. Hamlet is a sane man pretending only for the crowd around him. In each of his monologues, he thinks through the same hidden discussion a wise man would. Would an insane man be able to comprehend that his father’s spirit may have been an evil spirit in disguise? Even when the spirit states, “I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night “(I,5,).

A madman would not have had the insight, purpose, or possibly even concern, to think in this very orderly manner. Most would say that when Hamlet spoke even such words “To be, or not to be, — that is the question” (3, 1). Hamlet thought as a person of rational thinking. He assesses the good and bad in any situation, and even though some might see him as appearing mad, but he is genuinely sane in the way he thinks. In conclusion, my question is, do I think Hamlet to be sane or insane? The assumption that I arrive at is Hamlet was no crazier than the next person. He can be considered no harsher than a peculiar, established, and perhaps a man focused on a mission, that was all brought upon due to his father’s slaying and his call for vengeance. His faked madness so preserved because it permits him to resume with his plans. Hamlets madness is not, however, lasting when he sees that it’s unnecessary.

Hamlet was a man of smarts he might have thought more than the next person, but he’s thinking was that of a sane man would have thought. Everything he did he did it without a just cause. Therefore, Hamlet was far smart and structured to be declared intellectually unstable. What Hamlet did by pretending to be mad is very difficult to do because it didn’t only allow for him to get his views out, but he made his points in a realistically insane way which consisted of the expectation that you would expect for a truly crazy person to have. So, I want you to ask yourself could a person that was indeed a madman be able to arrive at a plan and see it through? I think not, but I want you to be the judge, so, I ask again is Hamlet sane or insane?