Hamlet's Sanity and Insanity In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the main character offers a puzzling and ambiguous persona. Hamlet often contradicts himself throughout the play. Hamlet may be considered eccentric at least, insane or deranged at worst. He seems to balance the virtues of "playing ...

Context William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a prosperous leather merchant in the village of Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England. He attended grammar school, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway, and eventually left Stratford for London to pursue a career in the t...