An Analysis Of Hamlet's 'Freigned 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.

It is or is it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity? I’m not saying Hamlet was faking the whole thing. The meaning for insanity on Dictionary.com is “a permanent disorder of the mind.” I don 't think Hamlet had a permanent disorder of the mind he knew what he was doing and even planned the majority of the events that happened. Most of the time anyway.

In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, as the play progresses Hamlet portrays himself as going insane. However, I believe that in reality Hamlet is really just acting as if he was insane to deter attention from his plot to kill Claudius, his father's murderer. For instance, at the very beginning of the play when Hamlet, Horatio, his good friend, and Marcellus see the ghost of Hamlet's father Hamlet makes them both swear that they will not tell anyone about the ghost. He also says, “How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself

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.

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. Hamlet is sane because he only acts mad in front of certain people, he told his friends of his plan of revenge, and the fact that many people continuously doubted his insanity.

The topic of insanity commonly arises on many occasions, particularly in the law. The term “insanity” is defined as the “unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility” (Document A). In terms of the law, there exists an insanity defense, which is a plea that defendants are not guilty because they lack the mental capacity to realize that they committed a crime (Document C). This concept arises in several of Shakespeare's plays as well. In Hamlet, many readers claim that Prince Hamlet was actually mad, his actions guided by the grief he experienced when his father was murdered by his uncle King Claudius.

In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, it is clear that Hamlet was once sane, but the tragic events of his life led him to be insane. Grieving over the loss of a loved one, yet a parent, is extremely difficult. These hardships can cause a lot of problems in one’s life. In Hamlet, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness to serve a motive. In fact, Hamlet is not initially crazy, but plans to use the insanity as a trick to achieve what he wanted-- revenge. As the end of the play is reached, Hamlet's false madness becomes a reality. Hamlet converts from sane to insane in a matter of time due to plotting revenge on Claudius, losing Ophelia, and living with the new, quick marriage of his mother and Claudius.

Hamlet was role playing all throughout the book. He was acting crazy the entire time so that he could avenge his father's death. When Hamlet told his friends not to tell anyone if he acted a little weird after he saw the ghost. That was Hamlet's way of expressing that he was going to be acting crazy in order to avenge King Hamlet's death. So, basically, it's important to him because he needs to act insane in order to avenge his father's death. He uses his insaneness as a sort of a crutch to commit all of the crimes without getting in trouble. So, one of the events it affects is the death of Polonius. When Hamlet stabbed his sword through the tapestry and killed Polonius because he thought it was Claudius. That was definitely a major event

Ophelia suspecting the cause of Hamlet’s madness to be his love for her is a clear example of dramatic irony as it shows her not grasping what is the real reason for him acting in that way. The conversation between Ophelia with Laertes and later on Polonius in Act 2 scene 1, leaves the audience with tension as Polonius says “This is the very ecstasy of love, / Whose violent property fordoes itself / And leads the will to desperate undertakings / As oft as any passion under heaven / That does afflict our natures.” (2.1. 102-106) The audience knows that the real reason of his madness is to distract attention from his investigation of the murder by leaving everyone concerned about his mental state. Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony in this case

William Shakespeare tells the tale of a troubled man in his masterpiece, Hamlet. Imagine your beloved father dying and your mother marrying his brother shortly after. You’re left to grieve on your own. Instead of consoling you, your mother and uncle have a wedding and begin to share the same bed. This is what Hamlet suffers through in the play. He is depressed and suicidal as indicated in his infamous quote, “To be, or not to be: that is the question.” (3.1.57). However, while many may choose to carry on after the death of a loved one, Hamlet chose to hold on to his sorrow and pretended to be mad so he can know the truth behind his father’s death. Hamlet’s tragic life is not the cause for his madness. Hamlet drives himself to the brink of insanity

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.

In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare reflects the common early modern beliefs and perspectives about madness by using the character development of the protagonist who feigns madness throughout the play. Given Hamlet 's status as a prince, current knowledge of madness during the time period, and the contrast of the different types of madness of other characters in the play, Elizabethan audiences would have found it plausible that Hamlet feigns madness as part of his plot to avenge his father 's death. This new historicist perspective steers the modern reader away from anachronistic psychological interpretations of the play.

Throughout the play, Hamlet claims to be feigning madness, but his portrayal of a madman is so intense and so convincing that many readers believe that Hamlet actually slips into insanity at certain moments in the play. Do you think this is true, or is Hamlet merely playacting insanity? What evidence can you cite for either claim?

Hamlet is a tragedy play written by William Shakespeare. It is a play that involves numerous deaths. Hamlet is the main character in the play and he is depicted as an insane person. Hamlet faked his madness so as to confuse Claudius and his assistants in order to find the truth about the death of his father. He acted strange when he was around the king and his attendants and this is evident when he tells his friend Guildenstem that "his uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived" (Shakespeare). In addition, when they enter the court party, Hamlet tells Horatio that "I must be idle," meaning he is trying to feign his madness. He also confesses to his mother that "I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft" (Shakespeare). For Hamlet, he had to pretend to be mad in order to plan and execute his revenge against Claudia. Hamlet’s madness played an important role in the play because he later on became insane after he had feigned his insanity. It is obvious that Hamlet had a troubled mind in the play because he was torn on what to do in order to avenge his father’s death. He was torn between whether he was following his father’s wish or the wish of the ghost that appeared to him. This made him insane because, he spent his time worrying about his father’s death revenge and this affected his state of mind. Hamlet became insane because

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I.v.90). Hamlet is about a young prince who is mourning the loss of his father. He then tries to seek revenge on his uncle Claudius because he poisoned his father. Throughout the play Hamlet’s behavior starts to change which causes him to become mad. The theory about all this is a