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The Mask Of Insanity In Shakespeare's Hamlet

542 Words3 Pages

Throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet the main protagonist is on a steady decline straight for insanity, or so it seems. There is a constant unknown on the subject of Hamlet’s mental health and stability. Given every literary piece of evidence, Hamlet’s insanity was clearly an act that he was willing to portray. Starting as early as the first scene of the play there is sufficient evidence in favor of this claim. Hamlet is known to be highly intelligent and is favored by the common people. So when he was informed of his father’s death followed with the new of his mother marrying her brother-in-law it didn't take the prince a long time to connect them to each other and start making conclusions. Horatio and Marcellus are the first to hear the plan he managed to come up with. In the scene he urges his accomplices not to be concerned with his craziness, or as he refers to it, “antic-disposition” (1.5). Hamlet had decided to use his knowledge of the dramatic arts and put up a mask of insanity. By acting insane he would be able to blame uncommon acts on that mindset and use it for his advantage in obtaining probable cause against his uncle, Claudius. By advising his friends about his false behavior ahead of time Hamlet is openly acknowledging it …show more content…

In scene 420 he stumbles upon the King alone in prayer. This was the perfect opportunity for him to avenge his late father seeing that Claudius had murdered him. Hamlet draws and raises his sword but he starts to contemplate the circumstances of this situation. He takes note that Claudius is in the middle of player and realizes that if he was to kill the king at that moment his souls wouldn't go to hell. Not wanting the murderer to spend eternity in heaven, Hamlet opts to wait for another time and doesn't continue with his actions. This shows that he is able to control his mindset and able to switch from his normal disposition to his

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