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Hamlet Insanity In Hamlet

Decent Essays

Insanity is an interesting topic to explore, tricky to determine and potentially deadly to those around the affected person. Although most people in society are sane beings, many argue that Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is not sane. His actions are not that of a sane person, but rather of a grieving man who is driven to his death by his insane lust for revenge. In order to fully understand Hamlet’s insanity, one must first understand insanity itself. Insanity is a legal definition, primarily defined as “[one’s] ability to determine right from wrong” (Howes). In this sense, someone is insane when they can not determine when their actions are wrong to do. Expanding upon this definition, insanity is a “mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality… or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior” (Howes). Being unable to separate fantasy from reality as well as uncontrollable impulsive behavior are both things that Hamlet experiences throughout various parts of the play. The play first introduces Hamlet in the second scene while he is grieving his father’s death. He expresses his grief through his discontent with his mother’s lack of mourning: “Two months dead—nay, not so much, not two… She married. O, most wicked speed” (Shakespeare, I, ii). He is still grieving his father’s death while his mother has moved on and married Hamlet’s uncle. Everyone has a different way to deal with the death of a parent, but what is

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