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Insanity in hamlet
Hamlet and sanity theories
Evidence that hamlet was not insane
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Insanity in hamlet
Hamlet and sanity theories
Evidence that hamlet was not insane
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Insanity in hamlet
A thing a lot of psychologist people forget that hamlet is a character acting inside the play. During the entire play it is very easily noticed when he is acting as an insane person. The way he speaks and the words he chooses is evidence towards the idea of Hamlet being sane. Most modern day men act like Hamlet when he is insane but the modern men are not always seen
Would one be able to live a full prosperous life acting insane? The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is about a young prince who lost his father and has many issues dealing with his sanity and his family. Hamlet is not crazy because he says he is faking it, he may have severe depression, and he wants to avenge his father. Hamlet is faking being insane for his own sake.
By verbally harassing Ophelia and estranging himself from her, Hamlet provides the apparent image of losing his prior care without a great amount of consideration. Additionally, Hamlet further displays his anger for his father’s death through this display. By dissolving his relationship with Ophelia, Hamlet furthers his image of insanity to further illustrate himself as incapable within Claudius’s eyes while still communicating distaste for his loss of his father. With Hamlet’s intentionally swift change of heart for Ophelia, Hamlet’s procedure warrants a certain level of sanity. Regardless of the sudden nature, Hamlet’s continual barring from Ophelia possesses procedure which causes further doubt of Hamlet’s mental instability from the audience of the
It is or is it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity? I’m not saying Hamlet was faking the whole thing. The meaning for insanity on Dictionary.com is “a permanent disorder of the mind.” I don 't think Hamlet had a permanent disorder of the mind he knew what he was doing and even planned the majority of the events that happened. Most of the time anyway.
He went through a tragedy. Hamlet is just traumatized from his father's death but he is not insane. Hamlet was the prince of Denmark. He was very intelligent and wealthy. You could tell by the way he spoke.
The Skull Jar William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet around 1600, telling the story of a prince dealing with the death of his father and the quick remarriage of his mother to his uncle. The play uses mental health, both real and faked, as a way to show human behavior. Commonly studied in high schools all over America, this tale has had a profound effect on the way mental health is viewed. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark tells the story of Hamlet, the young prince. When the play opens, his father has just died, and his mother has just married his father’s younger brother Claudius.
There are many examples of times where Hamlet seems truly insane. We have the time when he is talking with Polonius in the castle, after the King, the Queen, and Polonius were discussing the love letter that Hamlet wrote to Ophelia. Hamlet walks in reading a book, and Polonius asks “What do you read, my lord?” Hamlet replies with “Words, words, words.” “What is the matter, my lord” “Between who?”
In Hamlet Act four, it clarifies how Hamlet is being demanded to kill Claudius, but he is afraid to. For what Hamlet did to kill Polonius was unnecessary, he did not know that it was Polonius, Hamlet thought it was Claudius, and instantly, he was genuinely in a bad spot for what he is going through. Hamlet may not plan to carry out his father’s revenge, therefore making his decision can fulfill his destiny. Hamlet is apprehensive about his crowd to believe he’s the bad guy of this. But apparently, he is innocent about why he killed Polonius.
In act five of the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s mental state is sane and becomes temporarily insane at the end of the act. Hamlet as he arrives at Ophelia’s grave begins to talk to Laertes telling him that he will “fight with him” over who loves Ophelia more (V.i.252). Hamlet is sane because he talks about how he is willing to fight Laertes over who loves her more saying that he will not back down until all his strength is depleted. As Hamlet and Laertes are pulled apart by Claudius, Hamlet shouts at Laertes how even “forty thousand brothers” with their love towards Ophelia would not be able to match Hamlet’s love for her (V.i.255). Hamlet is sane because he talks about how he had truly loved Ophelia and that his own love for her would be unmatched.
An insane person would not be able to think about the consequences of their actions or do not even know that they are insane themselves. At the end of the play when Hamlet murdered Claudius it is justified as an action of a sane person. The first reason is when his own mother, Gertrude, pointed out that “the drink” is “poisoned” and Claudius was the only person that told her to not drink it, which shows that Claudius knew something about the drink. Another strong piece of evidence to justify Hamlet’s action to murder Claudius is when Laertes points out that Hamlet’s “mother’s poisoned” and that “the king’s to blame”(V.ii.315-316). At the end of the play Hamlet had every reasons to kill Claudius and avenge his father’s death because Hamlet found a letter by Claudius to the king of England to execute Hamlet when he steps in England, and the most crucial evidence is from Gertrude and Laertes
He uses his deception of madness to make this sound like mad ramblings to everyone else, but he is truly asking these questions and wondering about the ins and outs of how life truly works, and what it all means. So Hamlet basically acts insane to cover up the seriousness of these questions he is seeking the answers to. “But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,/Could force his soul so to his own conceit,/That from her working all his visage wann’d,/ Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,/ A broken voice, and his
In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many references to sanity and insanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet goes back and forth between sanity and insanity, whether pretending to be insane just to mess with those he does not like or to save himself from getting in trouble. Hamlet is actually one of the smartest characters in the play, which is why he can pull off acting crazy so well. Shakespeare uses this idea of sanity and insanity to help the plot change and take a different directions. One of the most discussed topics of the Hamlet is whether Hamlet is insane or if he was just pretending the whole time.
There are plenty of examples of Hamlet appearing mad, but there are just as many examples of Hamlet appearing sane, even intelligent. Hamlet is even aware of his madness, which can be seen in the quote, “What I have done that might your nature, honor, and exception roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness… It ‘t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy” (273). Hamlet is clearly aware of his own madness, but this does not necessarily invoke his sanity. Hamlet still appears insane,
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.
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.