Sanity in William Shakespeare's Hamlet Essay

Throughout the play of Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy's the main character, Hamlet is faced with the responsibility of getting vengeance for his father's murder. He decides to pretend madness as part of his plan to get the opportunity to kill Claudius who was the suspected murderer. As the play goes on, his portrayal of a madman becomes believable, and the characters around him respond quite vividly. Through his inner thoughts and the obvious reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor faking insanity in order to complete the duty his father assigned him.

The novel by William Shakespeare is a very famous piece of literature. There is a lot of controversy on whether or not Hamlet is truly insane. Everything he does throughout the whole play is well thought out in great detail. In my opinion I believe Hamlet is actually not insane but rather an intelligent person that thought everything through in great detail. Some of the things he does have good and reliable reasons to be done.

Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.

Hamlet’s plan from the beginning is to act insane to draw attention to the royal family, and his plan eventually works. “Something have you heard of Hamlet’s transformation” ( 2.2.3-4). When people start to notice that Hamlet was going insane, more attention is focused on the king and queen than before the incident. Also, even Ophelia believes that he is mad: this leads to her being watched over by her father, and eventually leads to her suicide when she drowns herself. He is such a good actor that even his mother thinks that he is insane. “O, he is mad, Laertes” (5.1.272). Gertrude is more in love with Claudius than she is with Hamlet. This is proven when she jumps to Claudius’s side when he was accused of murder and immediately rats out Hamlet. Hamlet could be accused of being insane, but in the end his plan works out which proves that he is sane and in his right

Hamlet’s sanity has made many people question him. “Hamlet certainly displays a high degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his “madness” is perhaps too purposeful and pointed

The final point to prove that he was a sane person through out the play is his famous soliloquy (Act 3 sc1 line64-98). At this point in the play he should be thinking about the outcome, but instead he contemplates weather it is better to be alive or dead. Is it nobler to fight his troubles and end them or to die? He asks himself if it is better to be asleep forever, or suffer the pains of life. He talks about when we sleep we dream and what happens if there is a bad dream and you can't getup. He dreads of something after death and wants to know if he should suffer his sorrows, which he is used to, or travel to the unknown and kill the king, but he is afraid of the unknown. He believes that a conscience is bad and that all it does is make a coward of all, conscience makes cowards of us and clouds instinct. He then realizes he is too intelligent to do this. To summarize his thoughts, he has basically said why do we choose to live when death is an easy response to misery, but he answers his own question and then goes on to describe his burden but then sees what his action of revenge must be. Does an insane person go through this type of mental thought. Most think not, showing that he is well witted and knows what life is and what he must do. Insane, no, more or less a manic depressant. One with a quick change of mood, not in and out of sanity.

Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William

   Shakespeare's Hamlet is a master of deception. Hamlet decides to make Claudius believe that he is insane, but the scheme backfires when everyone, except Claudius, falls for it. Ophelia is one of those who believes Hamlet lost his mind, and when he does not return her love, she is so brokenhearted that she commits suicide. Near the end of the tragedy, Hamlet plays the part so well, that he convinces himself he is insane. Clearly, Hamlet's plan to put on an antic disposition is a tragic error.

Hamlet’s Flaws Each person is born to be unique and have an individual personality. Along with good traits, comes the flaws that each person has. Some could be minimal and have little affect on your life, others could lead to your undoing. Flaws leading to one’s undoing is clearly shown in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet.

“...He has been robbed of his father,all trust in his mother, and his throne to which he is entitled.” (Citation here). He has been robbed of much more than his kingdom and mother, he has been robbed of his sanity. He is a man of 30 who has lost it all and is now “faking” being insane. Well that is insane in itself and to trust a man's opinion on

Many characters throughout the play exhibited signs of madness. The most controversial character, of course, is Hamlet. Unanimously, every reader can agree that Hamlet was perfectly sane before the death of his father and until consequently finding out the truth about the tragedy. It was after the apparition scene that the thought of being insane consumed Hamlet. Hamlet was filled with disbelief, indignation, outrage, and vengeance. While it is no secret that Hamlet’s

This behaviour is echoed by Hamlet following his meeting with his father's ghost. This insanity, this posturing and preparation for revenge, though for a good reason, is undoubtedly machiavellian. It is arguably the case that the insanity that both characters experience is not entirely faked, as both undergo extreme mental stress. This very real insanity is

Shakespeare 's, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is a tragic play about the revenge Prince Hamlet is told to take on his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet 's father, King Hamlet. According to the ghost of King Hamlet, Claudius had murdered his own brother by pouring poison into his ear while he was sleeping. Claudius also seized the throne and married his deceased brother 's widow, Prince Hamlet 's mother. Finding out the real reason of his becoming an orphan, from his ghost father, Hamlet sets out to take revenge of his father 's murder. In acting with all the passion of an avenging son, Hamlet is thought to be insane by all those around him. All of this is just a presentation of lunacy, by Hamlet, and it becomes predictable, making it a sure sign that it is simulated and not real insanity. All his thoughts, words, and actions, are explained as being a part of his feigned madness, for the achievement of a specific goal.

Hamlet is not truly insane because whenever he is pretending to be mad, everything he says has a hidden meaning. This is seen when he talks to Polonius:

During the play, Prince Hamlet is faced with a problem that forces him to change his personality to one of a madman in order to convince the king that he is not planning to kill him. There are several instances that cause the reader to second guess whether he really is crazy, or if it was all an act. Along with planning to avenge his deceased father, Hamlet also faces internal conflicts over his feelings towards life, causing him to do things that may seem out of the norm to others. However, there are only a few characters in the play that perceive him as crazy the entire time. Although Hamlet puts on a pretty convincing act, it is obvious that it was all for show and he is sane.