Insanity In Shakespeare's Hamlet

One definition of madness is “mental delusion of the eccentric behavior arising from it.” However, as Emily Dickinson once wrote, “Much madness is divinest Sense/ To a discerning Eye.” In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Prince Hamlet, shows apparent madness which proves to serve an important role throughout the story. This erratic behavior consists of his seemingly senseless dialogues, his loss of care for Ophelia, and his increasingly aggressive nature. Such behavior often proves justified by the play’s audience due to its convincing nature despite Hamlet’s predisposition towards insanity.

Ophelia’s lie to Hamlet marked betrayal in their relationship and ultimately the end to their trust. Inevitably, Ophelia’s honour with Hamlet was broken by her betrayals and lies she presented. The fate

In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, many times the sanity of Hamlet, the protagonist, comes into question. This question has been debated by both lay-readers and scholars alike for hundreds of years. Although this topic could be strongly debated either way, the evidence leans more towards the idea that Hamlet was simply feigning insanity, and portrayed the role of a madman only in front of those whom he thought to be his enemies. This faking of craziness can be seen most in his conversations with friends, his conversations with those he distrusts, and through the stark difference of his craziness and the truly demented mind of Ophelia. From the beginning of the story, it can be seen that Hamlet is under a lot of stress.

In “Hamlet” William Shakespeare uses the character Ophelia to get to the men around her. She’s portrayed as a weak, trusting woman that tells her father and brother everything. They see her as a virtuous, unsuspecting, loyal daughter. Hamlet sees her differently. He sees her as an object, easily disposable.

During this play of Hamlet by Shakespeare, Hamlet is approached with crazy situations that make him act out of the ordinary. Such as the vengeance he has for the killing of his father. He isn’t actually crazy but acts like it throughout the play because it is all part of his plan to kill Claudius. As the play continues his act of a maniac becomes better and better which then leads to the other characters actually believing him. But he is not really mad, he is just acting to fulfill the duty to his father.

In the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the main character Hamlet experiences an irrational behavior of madness throughout this piece of work. While reading this play there is a question that crosses the reader’s mind of, “Is Hamlet going crazy or is he going mad?” The reader can often wonder this because of the way Hamlet starts to act as soon as his father dies and the actions and choices he makes leads the audience to think that he isn’t normal and that even though he is going through a hardship in his life that the way he reacts still is not how a normal person would react. Throughout this play, his irrational behavior is an important role in the play because it is constantly leading the audience to an important question of if his

In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet assumes the disguise of a man that has lost his mind. Hamlet uses this madness to masquerade around in such a way as to not draw attention to his true plan, to avenge his murdered father. Many readers debate as to whether Hamlet is truly mad, or whether he is fully aware of his actions and what he is doing. However, both sides of the debate can agree that Hamlet’s apparent madness is a key element of the play, Hamlet. There are many reasons as to why readers debate Hamlet’s madness.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many references to sanity and insanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet goes back and forth between sanity and insanity, whether pretending to be insane just to mess with those he does not like or to save himself from getting in trouble. Hamlet is actually one of the smartest characters in the play, which is why he can pull off acting crazy so well. Shakespeare uses this idea of sanity and insanity to help the plot change and take a different directions. One of the most discussed topics of the Hamlet is whether Hamlet is insane or if he was just pretending the whole time.

Hamlet views Ophelia as a naive and ignorant girl who is nothing but Polonius and Claudius's puppet. This was revealed when Hamlet said "God has given you one face and you make yourself another. . You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God's creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance." (III, i, 143-146) In this quote Hamlet knows that Ophelia is spying on him for Polonius and Claudius.

This conversation is imperative in establishing the power imbalance between men and women in Hamlet, specifically emphasizing Ophelia’s place of inferiority to the male figures in her life. It is this lack of disobedience to the male dominance of Ophelia’s that leads to her

Insanity is an idea that has been examined for a long time in numerous mediums such as films, music, plays, and even works of literature. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is no exception to that rule. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters, and many scholars have been debating for centuries whether or not Hamlet is truly insane, or whether there is a particular reason for his odd behavior. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet merely pretends to be mad but in reality is sane.

Saying this, Hamlet’s behavior towards Ophelia is crude, rough, and full of anger. Despite Hamlet’s harsh treatment towards Ophelia, he really did love her, but because she was not his main focus, the

Everything is Not as it Seems. Throughout Hamlet, Shakespeare makes Hamlet appear to be insane, however, Hamlet is just putting on a phenomenal act. Hamlet appears to be crazy but in reality, his madness is just a very convincing act. In act one, Hamlet forewarns Horatio that no matter “How strange or odd soe 'er I [Hamlet] bear myself/ ” (I.5.190), it is just an act and under no condition can anyone give him up.

In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, there are a series of events that causes Hamlet to act abnormally. He has to deal with his father’s death, mother’s remarriage, and his lover Ophelia. However, it is often argued whether Hamlet’s madness is real or fake. Throughout the tragedy, he is over-exaggerating his madness for his plan of revenge.

In many scenes Hamlet can be seen as insane, this is because he wanted everyone to see that so he can get away with his bad manners/acts such as the crimes he had made. Likewise, due to his father’s death, in which he focused on, he wanted to get revenge and ended up acting abnormal along with being “mad” in the situations of crime. Consequently, Claudius had saw that Hamlet could be dangerous in situations such as Act 3, Scene 4 were he acted upon impulse, and so that’s when Claudius thought of making Hamlet go to England, and he did. Seeing that the relation he had with Ophelia led to her own suicide in the “Murder of Gonzago” is where we can see how his role impacted others. Being that Ophelia loved Hamlet, his role-play did ruin their relation