Suemnick's Madness In Hamlet

The Madness in Hamlet Insanity, it is a word people use commonly to refer to a crazy, mad person. According to David A. Suemnick, insanity is an “abnormal medical condition, from any cause, as to render the accused at the time of committing the alleged criminal act, incapable of doing right and wrong and so unconscious at the time of the nature of the act which he is committing, and the commission of it will subject him to punishment” (543). Insanity is a legal term that can be used to defend one’s self from being guilty of committing a crime. In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, seems to have gone insane to the people around him. This leads to the question of “Was Hamlet's madness feigned or genuine?” Hamlet’s

He soon makes his insanity known to all his peers who think the reason he is crazy is because he is “crazy in love” with Ophelia who is Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain’s, daughter. Hamlet starts talking erratically and when he speaks to Polonius he calls him names like “fishmonger” and “old fool.” Instead of getting upset, Polonius pushes it to the side because he believes that it is simply Hamlets “crazy” talking. This is one of the ways that Hamlet uses his madness to his advantage. “He seems to use it as a tool or a veneer to act irrationally and assert his opinion about matters without being made accountable for them” (Bali 83-84). However, there is one person that Hamlet speaks rationally to and it is Horatio. Horatio is the only person Hamlet trusts in the play since he feels like everyone else has betrayed him. When actors come to his town, Hamlet has them act out a play resembling the way his father was killed. Hamlet wants to see if his uncle, Claudius, looks guilty during the scene, which would prove that he killed his brother. Before the play starts, Hamlet quickly tells Horatio of the

He says Hamlet is “unquestionably mentally ill” with symptoms such as “delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, social behavior and speech, suicidal ideations and acting out violently” (31). It is true that Hamlet acted out in inappropriate ways. Nonetheless, his uncle did kill his dad and soon after his mother married his uncle. It is very reasonable to act out and be mad after such a tragedy. Hamlet has no option than to believe that everyone is against him, which explains the paranoia. Additionally, Hamlet did not have any hallucinations. Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo also saw the ghost that would be considered a hallucination. There is only one person who did not see the ghost when Hamlet saw him and that was Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. This could be explained simply by just saying that the ghost did not want her to see him. He only appeared to talk to Hamlet and it was during a time of great distress for Hamlet's mother and the ghost did not want to cause more. If Hamlet was truly mad and if it was a hallucination, the ghost would not have told him to not harm his mother. He most likely would have said the opposite. A.B Shaw explains that Hamlet was acting out like this to relieve his tension (95). All of the symptoms Peckham listed can be easily dismissed by the fact that every time Hamlet showed the symptoms, he had a reason to. They weren’t just out of nowhere like a true mad