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Insanity in hamlet
Insanity in hamlet
Analysis of characters in hamlet
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Insanity in hamlet
Insanity in hamlet
Analysis of characters in hamlet
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
1. It is hard to imagine what Hamlet must have gone through. The experience of losing a parent is hard enough, but the news unveiling that his own uncle was responsible for his father’s death was probably even more horrifying. Although everyone has their own way of grieving, I believe that Hamlet combined a developed irrationality with vengeance, to create insanity from within. At the beginning of the play, the setting introduces King Hamlet’s ghost, where he comes in to haunt Elsinore and remind Hamlet of his obligations.
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.
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?”
An overwhelming amount of evidence shows that Hamlet faked his insanity to confuse the king and his accomplices. Often revered for their emotional complexities, William Shakespeare’s tragic characters display various signs of mental illness. Sylvia Morris notes “Hamlet contains Shakespeare’s most fully-developed study of mental illness, and has always intrigued commentators on the play.” (“Shakespeare’s Minds Diseased: Mental Illness and its Treatment”). When looking at the play, one can infer that Shakespeare makes the relationship between sanity and insanity undistinguishable from one another.
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.
National Library of Medicine, as “severe mental disorders that cause abnormal thinking and perceptions” – that is associated with symptoms that cause problems in the way a person thinks, denotes actions and events, expresses their emotions, moves, and interacts with others (“Schizophrenia”). Schizophrenia can be any mixture of symptoms that cause said problems, including positive symptoms, responsible for sensory illusions and misconceptions, and negative symptoms, such as unresponsive behavior and inability to speak. It is not caused by one lone factor but by a combination of a person’s physiological, hereditary, and environmental state, including family history and extreme stress levels. Considering the actions that Hamlet takes throughout the play, it is quite plausible that he is suffering from positive schizophrenic symptoms, mainly hallucinations and
I don't think you fully understood what I was trying to point out with my quote so let me explain it to you a little simpler. I meant that the sheer thought of Claudius and him mom led his mind toward the thought of his father. Whether he was daydreaming or not it still shifted his attention towards his father. Also the quote you used was Hamlet saying he will never see his father again. So if you use that quote claiming he will never see his father again how would you explain the scenes with the ghost, who looks exactly like his father.
William Shakespeare tells the tale of a troubled man in his masterpiece, Hamlet. Imagine your beloved father dying and your mother marrying his brother shortly after. You’re left to grieve on your own. Instead of consoling you, your mother and uncle have a wedding and begin to share the same bed. This is what Hamlet suffers through in the play.
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.
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
Many characters show signs of intelligence throughout William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as they conjure plans to achieve their goals. However, Hamlet’s intelligence is far superior to that of all the other characters. He is capable of altering the kingdom’s perception of him to his advantage by adjusting his behaviours. The schemes he devises outsmart everyone and leave him to appear innocent. Most importantly, Hamlet miraculously escapes his own death and instead brings an end to those involved in his execution.
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.
By using this definition of insanity, it establishes a set of guidelines that establish Hamlet as being mad and as proves that he is insane. The first evidence that shows Hamlet’s insanity would be when he first sees his father’s ghost. In the play after Hamlet has already confronted his mother and killed Polonius, he is confronted by the ghost who tells him to not hurt his mother. As their conversation takes place the Queen is unable to see the ghost of the late king Hamlet, and this can be seen when she states “And with th’ incorporal air do hold discourse” and “Whereon do you look?”(III.4), meaning Hamlet who are you arguing with.