hamlet
Prince Hamlet uses many double meaning phrases to speak his mind to the audience and the other characters in the play. "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw". This is a classic example of the "wild and whirling words" with which Hamlet hopes to persuade people to believe that he is mad. These words, however, prove that beneath his temper, Hamlet is very sane indeed. Beneath his strange choice of images involving points of the compass, the weather, and hunting birds, he is announcing that he is calculatedly choosing the times when to appear mad. Hamlet fakes insanity because it allows him to do several things that he otherwise would not be able to do. Hamlet is very far form being mad, he is perfectly capable of recognizing his enemies. Hamlet's madness was faked for a purpose. He warned his friends he intended to fake madness, but Gertrude, Claudius, and even the slightly dull-witted Polonius saw through it. His public face is one of insanity but in his private moments of soliloquy, through his confidences to Horatio, and in his careful plans of action, we see that his madness is assumed. After the Ghost's first appearance to Hamlet, Hamlet decides that when he finds i
Hamlet's soliloquies, his confidences to Horatio, and his elaborate plans are by far the most convincing proof of his sanity. Claudius is constantly on his guard because of his guilty conscience and he therefore recognizes that Hamlet is faking. To convince everyone of his madness, Hamlet spends many hours walking back and forth alone in the lobby, speaking those "wild and whirling words" which make little sense on the surface but in fact carry a meaningful subtext. "I have no life to breathe / what though hast said to me". She does not question him at all but instead promises to keep it her secret. However, although Hamlet manages to convince these simple friends and Ophelia of his insanity, other characters in the play such as Claudius, Gertrude and even Polonius eventually see through his behavior. Even Polonius can see that Hamlet has not completely lost touch with the world. When Polonius and Claudius test the theory of rejected love by "loosing" Ophelia to him, Hamlet acts completely rationally. A further important proof of his sanity is how patiently he devises plans to prepare for his revenge. Although he frequently misses the meanings of Hamlet's remarks and insults, he does recognize that they make some sense. He plays mind-games with Polonius, getting him in crazy talk to agree first that a cloud looks like a camel, then a weasel and finally a whale, and he then comments that "they fool me to the top of my bent". The words of a madman could not have penetrated her soul to such an extent. He confides to Horatio that when he finds the occasion appropriate, he will "put an antic disposition on". Hamlet shows himself perfectly capable of action, as well as of rational thought, in escaping the king's armed guard, dispatching Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths in England, dealing with the pirates and making it back to Denmark.
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