Hamlet's Madness In Hamlet

Hamlet is one of the remarkable plays by William Shakespeare. Among the many questions that the play raises, lies the subject of whether or not Hamlet, the protagonist of the play is actually insane. The question of Hamlet's sanity has divided the readers of Shakespeare into two opposing sides; one defending his madness as feigned, and the other as unfeigned madness. Is his madness feigned or real? It is certainly understandable for someone who has just lost their father, and gained a stepfather to suddenly go mad. However, using extensive evidence from the play and scholarly criticism, it can be well argued that Hamlet does indeed maintain his sanity throughout the entirety of the play. Any instability in his behavior was as a result of grief …show more content…
Shakespeare offers clear evidence pointing to Hamlet's sanity beginning with the first scene of the play. Hamlet begins with guards whose main importance in the play is to give credibility to the ghost. If Hamlet were to see his father's ghost in private, the argument for his madness would greatly improve. Yet, not one, but three men together witness the ghost before even thinking to notify Hamlet. Another reason why the ghost had to be real is that what he was telling Hamlet was proved to be true. Hamlet could not be imagining the ghost because Hamlet did not know the exact details of how Claudius killed the king. Hamlet used the play he directed to test what the ghost had told him and he found it to be true due to Claudius’ reaction. If for …show more content…
This feigned madness provides Hamlet with the loss of responsibility. Men who are insane do not think rationally, they do not plan a well thought out idea ahead of time, nor do they have viable reasons for their actions, and they are unaware of what is going on around them. Hamlet on the other hand masterminded a plan that made the King, Claudius, show his guilt. Hamlet carefully thought about his actions. He wanted Claudius to suffer for his actions, so when he had the chance to kill Claudius while he was praying, he didn’t because he didn’t want Claudius to go to heaven. If he (Hamlet) was mad he would have killed Claudius then without thinking too much about it. Hamlet is a character of thought and power. Although easily swayed by his own mind he still portrayed a man with an intelligent mind. He can be considered sane because he has a very complex way of thought, one of which an insane person couldn’t operate. Hamlet can be seen as a person who passed through good and bad times and reacted according to them. Events after his father’s death can be perceived as stages of