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Is Hamlet Insane

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There is much speculation surrounding the mental wellbeing of Prince Hamlet of whether he himself is mad, not mad, or a combination of sanity turning into insanity. Throughout the book though there is evidence of Hamlet being sane, and from this it can be drawn that Hamlet is not mad. In the beginning of the played there is a ghost of the late King Hamlet who is introduced and discovered by the guards of the castle at night. The guards tell Prince Hamlet’s best friend, Horatio, of the ghost which in turn leads to him telling Hamlet about the ghost. Hamlet is intrigued by the ghost and wishes to talk to it, but Horatio requests Hamlet be weary of the ghost. Hamlet in the scenes of he talks to the ghost is interesting because his interactions …show more content…

Hamlet decides the best course of action is to act like he has gone mad, so that nobody will be suspicious with his actions with investigating the cause of his father’s passing. “Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, / How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself, / As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on,” (1, 5, 170-173). Hamlet does not want to just go out and commit a crime against his uncle as this would just lead to more family trouble and drama that is not needed. The reason this is important in the play to isolate this part of the scene is because it leads to the basis of whether Hamlet himself is mad or not. Hamlet talks of how he will be pretending to have gone insane, and this is a key role to him in finding out who killed his father. If Hamlet was caught digging around for the actual cause of his father’s death then who is to say that the killer won’t make Hamlet his next target to keep the murder a secret. Hamlet thinks two steps ahead of his actions and make a plan before he carries it out, and during the deceit he stays loyal to the cause the entire time for the sake of his father. A man who has gone mad would not be able to think so well ahead and stay in character for an entire castle, because only a sane person would have the capacity to do

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Have you ever wondered if the noble Hamlet from The Tragedy of Hamlet play written by William Shakespeare was insane? There are many instances in that the heroic Hamlet pretends to be legally insane, but there are many more occasions when the young Hamlet just pretends to go insane. There are three main reasons why gentle Hamlet is not insane. The reasons are that if he went insane he would fail his smart mission, there are some cases that he does seem insane, and no one that is insane can come up with the brilliant plans the classy Hamlet comes up with. Above all, he seems the most sane.

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1154 Words | 5 Pages

Having your father die is bad enough, but to have your mother marry your uncle, within a few weeks of your father’s death? Then to see the ghost of your dead father. That would drive anyone a little insane, but maybe not to the extent that everyone thought Hamlet was acting. Hamlet is torn between acting sane and letting everyone else see him as insane.

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932 Words | 4 Pages

The differences in their madness strongly support the assertion that Hamlet is, in fact, not truly mad. "The mad role that Hamlet plays to perfection is certainly a proof of Shakespeare's genius, but by no means a surety of the insanity of the prince, unless we be prepared to maintain that no one saves a madman can simulate dementia" (Blackmore). As Blackmore points out, his crazy behavior is such that only someone who is not mad could play the part so well. Again, a truly mad person would not have so much control over his actions and

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652 Words | 3 Pages

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, many see Hamlet as mad, or even at times distraught. However, insanity is in the eye of the beholder and although those around him claim he’s insane, Hamlet is actually sane throughout the play. Over time, Hamlet crosses over between the realms of insanity and his true sanity. Although throughout the play the others are convinced Hamlet is mad, through brilliant planning and scheming, Hamlet proves his own sanity. Hamlet perfectly portrays the actions of a deranged young man, which he had to appear to be in order to get revenge on Claudius.

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212 Words | 1 Pages

Most of society would agree that anyone who kills his childhood friends and uncle has lost his mind, but sometimes, without giving it a second thought, they overlook the motivation and purpose behind the actions which would disprove the underlying assumption of insanity. Shakespearean scholars have always pondered the question of whether Prince Hamlet of Denmark feigns insanity or truly goes mad because of the circumstances. His dead father, King Hamlet, appears to him as a ghost and informs him that his brother and current king, Claudius, murdered him using poison. He asks his son to avenge his death and kill Claudius but leave his wife Gertrude, who married Claudius, out of the whole scheme. Prince Hamlet goes off on a quest for revenge,

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

When Hamlet got to see the ghost, Horatio, one of the people who saw it that one night, said, “Look, my lord, it comes” (Shakespeare, I, iv, 38). Hamlet undoubtedly wanted to see what the ghost looked like since they told him, since it was his dad, so Horatio and Marcellus took him to the spot where they saw him and waited until the ghost came. This is another example about how Hamlet is not the only one seeing the ghost. Why are other people seeing the ghost, when his mother could not see the ghost. If people are telling him hear comes the ghost, is he trying to pretend to his mother that the ghost is in the room to make her feel mad about what she and his uncle have done?

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714 Words | 3 Pages

Ultimately, although many believe that Hamlet is simply pretending to act crazy, one cannot rule out the fact that, given his circumstances with his father’s death and his past, the possibility still remains that he may be truly

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534 Words | 3 Pages

Plus how can we even trust whatever Hamlet has to say, if he is in fact such a good actor. He could have just been acting when he said he is not mad; or he could have just believed he was not mad because he was doing such a good job of acting he believed that he was sane. Have you never seen people do something so insane and for them to say "Hey, I'm not crazy" would you take their word for

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1153 Words | 5 Pages

In the midst of Hamlet’s confrontation with his mother, the ghost appears and stares at him. Hamlet breaks down and tells the ghost not to look at him that way unless he wants him to cry instead of being powerful enough to get his revenge. While this happens, Gertrude holds to the belief that her son has gone mad as she watches him talk to himself. Gertrude can not see or hear the

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542 Words | 3 Pages

When the play first began Hamlet did not seem crazy but more depressed and suicidal after his father’s death, he did not begin to act crazy until learning about his father’s murder. ”How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself, to put an antic disposition on...”, here Hamlet tells Horatio that he will start to act crazy but for them to just ignore it. After this when Hamlet only acts mad around thoses who he does not trust but when

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801 Words | 4 Pages

Madness is often a symptom, and in the case of Hamlet this may be the reason behind his actions. The death of Hamlet’s father is the catalyst for Hamlet, causing him to see the ghost and ultimately become obsessed with the idea of revenge. A common theme for shakespeare is to explore a character’s mind and reasonings, and Hamlet’s character being mad was a perfect opportunity to continue this theme. Hamlet’s debatable madness, Ophelia being truly mad and the death of every character involved with Hamlet or his father is a prime example of tragedy, which Shakespeare is known for. While Hamlet’s madness is not certain, it is indisputable that the play Hamlet was built off of the idea of what is madness, and how does it affect one’s

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451 Words | 2 Pages

Hamlet is sane because he only acts mad in front of certain people, he told his friends of his plan of revenge, and the fact that many people continuously doubted his insanity. Hamlet only acted insane in front of the king and his chairmen. In other times, he acted completely normal. This is because to get revenge for the death of his father, he needs to buy time distracting King Claudius so that he can kill him. He admits to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is “but mad north-north-west.

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906 Words | 4 Pages

King Hamlet’s ghost in Hamlet plays a very significant role in Shakespeare’s play even though he only appears briefly in the very beginning. King Hamlet’s ghost furthers the play in many ways. He affects action by setting the play in motion, he affects the theme of revenge, and he helps develop other characters, specifically his son, Hamlet. He sets the play in motion by causing the wheels to spin inside of Prince Hamlet’s head, the ghost is the whole reason for Hamlet trying to extract revenge upon his murderous Uncle Claudius who is now the King of Denmark. The ghost affects the theme of revenge by causing Young Hamlet to be seized by vengeance, the whole play turns into a story of Prince Hamlet trying to avenge his father’s wrongful death.

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1004 Words | 5 Pages

Insanity is an idea that has been examined for a long time in numerous mediums such as films, music, plays, and even works of literature. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is no exception to that rule. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters, and many scholars have been debating for centuries whether or not Hamlet is truly insane, or whether there is a particular reason for his odd behavior. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet merely pretends to be mad but in reality is sane.

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1675 Words | 7 Pages

The ghost’s appearance has a significant impact on Hamlet’s behaviors and forms his decisions through the play. Hamlet, who is suffering from depression since he is dealing with his father’s death and the hasty marriage of his mother with Claudius, his uncle, became obsessed with the concept of life and death after seeing his father’s ghost. In the first appearance of the ghost, he reveals the truth about the how the king has been murdered, which drives Hamlet to seek revenge, and by revenge killing his uncle. The ghost establishes a dilemma and gives Hamlet time to think about his father’s request. But Hamlet has an uncertainty about the existence of the ghost as he notes “the spirit that I have seen may be the devil, and the devil hath power T ' assume a pleasing shape” (2.2.561–563) here, Hamlet is concerned that the ghost may be the devil and questions the motivation of the ghost for killing Claudius.

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