Throughout the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the insane and sane Hamlet occasionally changed between the realms of insanity and sanity. When madness suits Hamlet’s purpose he puts on a “antic disposition” (1.5.173). On the other side, when sanity is worthy, Hamlets reverts back to being logical. He claims he is “mad north-north-west” (2.2.376), which means he is mad sometimes and sane others. Therefore, to accomplish his short-term goals, Hamlet changes between insanity and sanity, which also slows his goal of revenge. To start, Hamlet changes to the realm of insanity to accomplish his short-term goals. Hamlet uses his insanity as a weapon, using his insanity as a form of words or action. Also Hamlet is only insane towards his enemies and enemy’s allies. For example, Hamlets goes and attacks Ophelia, who has allied herself with his enemy Claudius using words like "are you honest" (3.1.104) and "are you fair" (3.1.106). Hamlet “speak daggers” (3.2.387) to Gertrude because she is an obstacle to Hamlet for getting revenge. Furthermore, Hamlets slays Polonius so harshly that Hamlet guarantees that Polonius is “dead, …show more content…
Whenever he is sane, he is focused on only one certain situation. When Hamlet encounters the ghost he tells it to “speak”, because he is “bound to hear” (1.4.7). While speaking to the ghost Hamlets cries for his “prophetic soul” (1.5.42), this shows that his mind is clear unlike his mind of insanity. Hamlet’s short-term goal is to focus when necessary. Also, when Hamlet is alone, his thoughts are very thorough and thought through. An example is Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” (3.1.57) speech. It is very clearly thought out. Hamlet's thoughts are much more knowledgeable than those of the insane. Hamlet’s second short-term goal is to speculate. Through the return into sanity, he is able to accomplish both short-term goals of speculating and