Sanity And Insanity In Hamlet

When he talks to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, Hamlet is clever to realize what their actual pupose of visiting was. "I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw. (2.2.401)." Hamlet is able to play with his friends through his "madness" and is still capable to maintain his secret of what he is really doing.

       The most interesting thing about all of the characters' guesses as to the logic behind Hamlet's insanity is that the majority of their opinions stem from the thing that most plagues or preoccupies them. Claudius believes that Hamlet is crazy because he has a secret. This was ironic because the secret that Hamlet does have is that he knows that Claudius is his father's murderer. The very secret that plagues Claudius is the same that plagues Hamlet. Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, is wrapped up in her guilt about marrying Claudius so soon after the death of her late husband. She thinks that this must be what makes Hamlet rant so incoherently. While spying on Hamlet for the King, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern decide that he is going crazy because he can no longer fulfill his potential. Their betrayal of their school chum is fueled by the same blind ambition that they believefuels Hamlets insanity. Polonius thinks that Hamlet must be mad

As well as that, Hamlet’s madness is used as an excuse. He does not have to answer any questions people may have about why he is acting weird which gives him more time to continue plotting to hurt Claudius. His objective was to appear crazy and make it believable, and in doing so it makes him appear even smarter. Hamlet acts like himself and only acts insane when it is necessary. When he talks to Horatio about watching Claudius for signs of guilt 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)”. The way he speaks makes it clear that he is perfectly fine. Horatio is one of the only people he does not need to feine insanity to. As well as that,when he is explaining to the players how to act, he asks “You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would

One of the recurring themes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is Hamlet’s unwillingness or rather inability to act and make decisions when necessary. Time and time again, he is given the chance to exact his revenge for his slain father and murder his uncle. Yet every time he comes up with an excuse as to not have to act. Granted he takes some action to prove that it was in fact his uncle that killed his father, however, he goes no farther than that. Hamlet’s inability to fulfill his destiny and take out his revenge that he wants shows insanity. Hamlet is a man who’s father passed away, his mother married his uncle, and he later finds out that it was his uncle, his mother’s new husband, who killed his father, this would cause serious mental issues in any man. Even though Hamlet may have feigned insanity, Hamlet is insane because he is clinically depressed, he shows signs of being bipolar and he has hallucinations. Eventually even in his insanity he is left no other choice but to kill Claudius, his uncle, however until then his depression, bipolar disorder, hallucinations, and overall insanity keep him from exacting his revenge.

To start, Hamlet shows his insanity through his blinding rage. While visiting his mother in her room to discuss his outrage with her marriage, Hamlet becomes destructive. He throws his mother around the room, grabbing her and screaming at her. All this commotion scares Gertrude, his mother, and causes her to scream out “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? / Help, Ho!”(III.iv.23-33). Gertrude is so scared of her son and who he has become that she believes that he will kill her. This shows that Hamlet is delusional because he reaches a point in which he is threatening his mother, a woman who his fathers ghost warned him about mistreating. Hamlets rage takes over his mind and does not allow him to think clearly.

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.

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

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

The play demonstrates Hamlet to be insane, however, he uses this “insanity” to deceive everyone in order to draw attention from his suspicious activities. First and foremost, Hamlet deceives the entire state of state of Denmark by acting mad so that nobody would suspect him. For example, Hamlet says to Horatio, “How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself/ (As I perchance here after think shall think meet/ To put antic disposition on)” (I. V, 190-192). In this passage, Hamlet confirms to Horatio that he will be acting mad later in the future. This proves to be

   Shakespeare's Hamlet is a master of deception. Hamlet decides to make Claudius believe that he is insane, but the scheme backfires when everyone, except Claudius, falls for it. Ophelia is one of those who believes Hamlet lost his mind, and when he does not return her love, she is so brokenhearted that she commits suicide. Near the end of the tragedy, Hamlet plays the part so well, that he convinces himself he is insane. Clearly, Hamlet's plan to put on an antic disposition is a tragic error.

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.

Much has been has been discussed of Hamlet’s madness and insanity. There have been endless arguments of whether his madness is feigned or unfeigned. Although, minimal arguments have been made about Hamlet’s pessimism. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare 's most pessimistic plays, and as such it delivers the message that in a fallen world, reality often fails to match the ideal. The human experiences held up for pessimistic contemplation in Hamlet includes death, grief, loneliness, insanity, loss of meaning in life, breakdown of relationships, and the corruption of the basic institutions of life. Hamlet, as the main character, is the embodiment of such pessimism throughout the play.

Here Hamlet says to Horatio that from that point forward he'll act weird but to ignore him as it is just an act to seek revenge for his father's death. Furthermore, Hamlet only acts mad as he confronts certain characters such as Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. He acts mad towards them because they plotted against him. One of their plans is to secretly spy on him using two of his best childhood friends and see why he is acting weirdly. "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw" (Act II.

In addition to Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, the Players, and the Gravediggers are characters around whom he behaves rationally. Hamlet’s madness is only noted in the presence of Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern (Was Hamlet Mad). Among the characters who experienced Hamlet’s madness firsthand, Claudius is one who confesses that although Hamlet’s actions seem strange, “do not appear to stem from madness” (3.1.165-167). However, Crawford writes, “But it serves his [the king’s] wicked purpose to declare him a madman, and to make this the excuse for getting rid of him by sending him to England.” Blackmore explains, “The consciousness of his [Claudius’s] guilt made him alert and, like a criminal ever fearing detection, he suspected the concealment of some evil design under Hamlet's mimic madness.”

     Hamlet is in a situation where his sanity is turning into insanity. He is like one of those people who tell so many lies that they start believing their own lies. Hamlet’s acting is so vivid to him that, unconsciously,