Trust And Trust In Hamlet

Ernest Hemingway once said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Trusting one’s own mind to make sure critical information does not get out may be fairly more easy than to trust another person with it. In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” the protagonist faces a hardship of his own on whether or not to trust himself along with those surrounding him. Since Hamlet admits that he merely acts insane, he has the ability to decide who he should and should not trust with his secret.

No matter how hard he tried, Hamlet faced times where he needed and wanted to out his ‘crazed mind’. In the first act of the play, Horatio and two guards tell Hamlet of a spirit walking through the castle grounds who looks eerily like the Old King

He practically confesses his insanity is all for show because he says so and because he tells his best friend, Horatio, not to worry about him whatsoever. Towards the end of act 5, Hamlet again admits his insanity caused his previous actions. Rather this time, it may have been more for saving his life rather than planning to end someone else’s. Before the deadly duel against Laertes, Hamlet decides he should apologize for his actions at Ophelia’s grave and for killing Polonius. “What I have done, That might your nature, honor, and exception Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness,” he pleads. (Shakespeare 5.2.217-220) To be able to be more in favor of an apology from Laertes,

Unfortunately he is unsuccessful the first time he interacts with the one person he trusted the most. After Ophelia broke his heart by listening to her brother and father, he runs into her room like a mad man and, “He took [her] by the wrist and held [her] hard. Then goes he to the length of all his arm, And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, He falls to such perusal of [her] face As he would draw it. Long stayed he so.”(Shakespeare 2.1.87-91) Here Ophelia most likely believes Hamlet lost his mind. However, Hamlet could be deciding on whether or not to trust Ophelia with the reasoning behind his actions. She has not spoken to him in months and he does not know why, so she caused him to have an internal battle on whether or not to trust the woman he loves. Hamlet’s second breakdown had a far better outcome than the first. He was sent to visit his mom so they could talk about his actions, and so Polonius could overhear what Hamlet said. Although, Polonius got a far different outcome than from what he expected. Then when Gertrude gets into an argument with Hamlet and the ghost comes back and Hamlet freaks out. Gertrude tells Hamlet she thinks he is insane and he replies, “Ecstasy? My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music. It is not madness That I have uttered. Bring me to the test, And I the matter will reword, which