The question of the sanity of Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been argued for hundreds of years. Shakespeare’s critics believe Hamlet’s portrayal of a madman is so convincing that his sanity is lost from the very sight of his father’s alleged ghost. While it is true that Hamlet murdered his own uncle, the cause for his malicious crime is the unarguable topic. However, Hamlet was completely sane, otherwise he would have murdered Claudius, his uncle, earlier in the play and committed his pre-meditated suicide. After Hamlet discovers the truth about his father, he goes through a very distressing phase, which is interpreted by readers and characters as madness. With the death of his father and the hasty, incestuous remarriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet is thrown into a suicidal frame of mind that is he unable to escape. Hamlet certainly displays some degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his "madness" is far too purposeful for one to assume that he actually loses his mind.
To every tragic hero belongs his tragic flaw. In Hamlet’s case, his irresoluteness and unconscious self-excuses result in his inability to wholly complete his revenge.
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Hamlet’s keen perception and crafty language are his best attribute in order to trick the King into thinking that he is insane. He puts on an extremely convincing spectacle that is perhaps puzzling to a reader. “Mad” call I it, for, to define true madness, / What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?” (II, ii, 99-101). Most likely, Hamlet's decision to feign madness is a sane one, taken to confuse his enemies and hide his intentions from the denizens of Elsinore. Hamlet’s satirical humor hides their rather snide and loaded meanings (Internet 1). Either his love for Ophelia was never as strong as he said, or he has really gone insane by assuming every situation is going to happen and he sacrifices her love for revenge. The revelation of his mother’s adultery and father’s murder demands him to arise and act (Bradley, 1): “The time is out of joint! O cursed spite/That ever I was born to set it right,”(I,iv,210-11). He also believes Hamlet phrases his words with such aptness that they cannot come from a sane mind. ” It is the state of being which kept him bound from doing anything. Hamlet was indeed, at one time, in love with Ophelia. Action would be swift and impulsive. Hamlet’s seeming madness is a tactic in which to confuse and sheath his intentions to avenge his father's murder.
Approximate Word count =
1114
Approximate Pages =
4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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