Hamlet's Insanity Essay

Hamlet Essay

Hamlet, a tragedy composed by William Shakespeare, contains many turns and twists that can convince anyone to believe that Hamlet, the protagonist of the story, is genuinely insane. Hamlet is faced with difficult situations that cause him to appear to have lost his mind, such as: the death of his father, shortly followed by the betrayal of his mother and uncle, and the killing of Polonius. As the plot begins to work loose, Hamlet seeks revenge for his fathers death. He shows traits of insanity that fade in and out. Hamlet only expresses these characteristics when he is around certain people and he uses the traits as reasons to act the way he does towards them. Hamlet feigns insanity because it allows him to say and perform actions he otherwise would be prohibited from, while keeping people from taking his actions seriously. So therefore, Hamlet can not be considered insane because he has complete control of his action throughout most of the story.

Initially, Hamlet uses his claim of insanity as a way to talk to Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, and even Ophelia in a manner that is disrespectful for a prince. He is often disrespectful and insulting in his remarks to theses characters. Although his acting backfires during his speech to Gertrude, Hamlet is able to criticize her for her actions because she thinks he is insane. He basically uses he insanity as a way to hide the insults he aims towards Gertrude, his Mother. Hamlet insults Gertrude for marrying his uncle and he does it in a way that is not proper form of a prince to talk to the queen, even more important, he does it in a way that a son should not speak to his mother. During the play he also makes many sexual innuendos and even more obvious sexual remarks towards Ophelia such as Thats a fair thought to lie between maids legs. His prominent insanity act gives him the chance to vent his anger towards Ophelia for her rejection. Similarly, in another scene, he is able to tell Polonius his true feelings through his craziness. Upon Polonius deciding to take leave of Hamlet, Hamlet replies, You cannot, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal. In addition, Hamlet uses his madness as almost an excuse, and definitely part of his apology, towards Laertes for his murdering of Polonius, his father, were it not for his madness, he would have been reprimanded rather than feared, pitied, or ignored. Hamlets madness redirects attention away from the fact that he is thinking about his fathers death, and puts it on the reasons for his insanity. This forces the people around him to try and figure out why he has gone insane. His plan to maintain an look of a madman is an clever one, and the fact that he does a good job in his portrayal only makes him more clever, not more insane.

Secondly, a person who you would consider mentally unstable does not have the ability to process and plan their actions, as Hamlet did through the entire story. He concocted all of these plans for the avenging of his father's death, and sometimes he overlooked the fact that the other characters weren't quite as smart as he was, as he did when he wrote the secret message to Ophelia in his letter that he was going to fake acting mad, but she did not understand and thought he really was crazy. The fact that he planned and processed his situations so accurately, he would tend to over process them, and in turn this became his downfall. Hamlet, as well as any person who is insane, is unable of repeating anything they say or do. In the following lines Hamlet expresses to Gertrude that he is willing to repeat every word he speak in order to get his point to her. My pulse, as yours, does temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music. It is not madness. That I have uttered. Bring me to the test, and I the matter will re-word, which madness, would gambol from. Through this quote Hamlet seems to proof that he is not unbalanced for the reason that he can restate every word that he speaks to his mother. A person who would be considered insane absolutely does not have that capability. 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. 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, so he does not try. Also, when he is explaining to the players how to act, he is amazingly 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? His question is direct and simple as all his directions 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 believable that a sane man could play an insane one, than an insane man could play a sane one, and so reason would believe to be Hamlet sensible.

Additional proof that Hamlet must be sane is that even in his madness he is clever in his come backs and speech, and has a full understanding of the situations around him. He plays his madman character almost too well, and each phrase he speaks appears to be an attempt towards conveying his madness or confusing his enemy. When he talks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, not only is Hamlet clever enough to realize their true purpose for visiting, he tells them he is not really mad in a manner that would be considered insane! I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw. Hamlet is able to play with his two friends through his false madness and, as a result, he is free from their questioning, and is able to maintain the mystery of his thoughts and goals. Later, he is even able to have them killed in his place using his fathers seal, through a way that is sneaky for even a sane man, let alone an insane one. Hamlets mind and role-playing of a madman combine to make too clever of an larger-than-life madman, for him to actually be insane. Many would point to the murder of Polonius and say that Hamlets action, at least in this case, is caused by insanity. According to this, unlike all his other actions he was reckless and foolish, but this is not true. Almost right away before his arrival in the chambers of his mother, Hamlet had been frustrated in his attempt to kill Claudius. However, at the time he felt ready to take his revenge. When he goes to his mothers room not only did he still have this feeling within him, her reaction towards his attempt at an reason maybe further heated him with anger for Claudius. When she calls for help and Polonius, his voice, silent from behind the curtains, calls back, Hamlet may have thought he was Claudius and therefore killed with no need to even think about it. Even assuming he knew it was Polonius, it made sense for Hamlet to kill him. The rat as Hamlet calls him, could have been anyone, but they had heard his conversation with Gertrude and his fathers ghost. Such data, as Hamlet would have quickly realized, could have put at risk the secrecy of his pretend madness and his plans. Killing Polonius, or any rat for that matter, was therefore a reasonable action.

Most importantly, Hamlet does not think as a person who is mad would. When he sees Claudius praying he thinks very reasonably, and realizes that he will not reach full revenge if he kills Claudius and sends him to heaven. Now might I do it, now he is a-praying, and now Ill dot. And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revengedA villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven. His thoughts to himself are common sense, follow a logical progress, and are in no way irregular. He is a sane man acting only for the people around him. In each of his soliloquies, he thinks through the same inner debate a sane man would. For instance, he realizes that his fathers ghost may have been a devil in costume and so he plans to watch the king during the play he has put together for himself. Ill have these players play something like the murder of my father before mine uncle. Ill observe his looks; Ill tent him to the quickThe spirit that I have seen may be a devil Hamlet even goes further to ask Horatio to watch with him in case he is partial. A madman would not have had the reason or possibly even care, to think in this very organized way. Even when questioning whether to be or not to be Hamlet is sane in his thinking. He measures the pros and cons of his situation and although at this point he appears mad to most everyone, he is clearly sane in thought.

To cut a long story short, Hamlet can be considered no worse than a weird, determined, and possibly single-minded man, who was made that way by his fathers murder and his quest for revenge. His feigned madness is kept only because it allows him to go on with his plans. Maybe Hamlet thought too much but he thought as a sane man would. He commits no actions without reason, and he is far too smart and planned to be declared mentally unstable. Hamlets version of a madman is also very complicated because it allows not only his points to be made, but in a believably insane way, which compare greatly with the expected words of a truly insane person. Therefore a conclusion can be made truly by stating that Hamlet is not insane, only clever in his words and actions.