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Hamlet Madness Analysis

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Is Hamlet an insane madman or a revengeful, scheming, genius? There are many conflicting ideas and theories on this topic. This essay is divided into three analytic sections beginning with Hamlet’s madness, and a possibility of why it occurred. Next, is an analysis of why Hamlet delays revenging his father¹s death. Then, Hamlet¹s incestuous acts towards his mother are discussed, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the first act Hamlet seems to be in a perfectly sane state of mind throughout all five scenes. It is in the second scene where the audience begins to see a change in his character. Ophelia meets with Polonius and recalls the meeting she had previously with Hamlet. She tells her father that Hamlet came to her disheveled and in a shaken state of mind, speaking of horrors.(Act 2 Scene 2 line 94). Her father immediately believes that he is Mad for thy love? (Act 2 Scene 2 line 95). Opelia answers a question posed by Polonius by which she replied that she had told Hamlet that she could not see or communicate with him any more. Her father makes reference to Hamlet¹s madness once again by proclaiming that what his daughter said, ... hath made him (Hamlet) mad.(Act 2 Scene 2 line 123).
The argument of whether Hamlet is insane because of his love for Ophelia is often debated, but a more confusing and complex situation is the struggle within Hamlet¹s mind. His personal struggle is revealed to the audience in scene one of the third act. In this scene Hamlet recites his

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