Hamlet's Madness

A detailed Summary of Hamlet's Madness

There are many factors in Shakespeare's Hamlet that lead us to think Hamlet is mad. Although if we really look into the reading and pay attention to little comments and gestures that he does throughout the play we come to a conclusion that he is just faking his insanity. Characters in the play accuse him of being mad for several reasons. Each one of them has his or her own theory to explain his so called madness. Hamlet's sanity is sprinkled throughout the whole play.

Hamlet encounters the ghost in scene five of act one. First of all he does not seem stunned or surprised after seeing this spirit. Normally someone who comes across a ghost would either think he has gone mad or would just get scared and run off. Hamlet on the other hand speaks to the ghost as if he were just another character in the play. He listens to what the ghost has to say and from what he just heard he builds up plans and further thoughts to what may come about later on and what he should do. A second reason in this scene that would lead us to doubt his insanity is the fact that he was not in the least surprised when the ghost had told him what happened to his father and the real cause of his death. Hamlet already suspected someone who was close to the o

Another factor that proves Hamlet is in the right state of mind is the fact that he asked the players to act out a play in which a king is poisoned in his sleep. If he were insane would he be this cunning and smart to try and get Claudius to regret his past actions? He knows what he is doing. He has it all planned out from the beginning. He predicts what will happen during the Gonzago play. He tells his trusted friend Horatio to keep an eye on Claudius throughout the whole play to see his reactions. He was right, Claudius felt uneasy at the sight of someone acting out what he did to his brother. These smart moves and tactics prove that Hamlet knows exactly what he is doing. Hamlet does not kill Claudius when Claudius pretends to pray. He realizes that if he kills Claudius now, he will go straight to heaven. Hamlet would be violating a religious belief against murdering another human being. Not only would this make him feel guilt, but it would also cause Claudius's soul to go unharmed and with no weights of sin. He wants Claudius to suffer and get judged fairly as he killed and murdered a human being. To do this he should find Claudius on his own away from holy ground or holy actions. A madman would not think carefully of his plans to murder someone, he would just go and do it no matter what the occasion, no matter who was there. Claudius is afraid of Hamlet. He does not know what he is capable of.

When it comes to Ophelia, Hamlet does truly love her. His feelings for her are genuine. After having her treat him badly and the fact that his mother is married to his uncle, he comes to hate women. This does not mean his love for Ophelia has faded away. He is mad about the subject of the women in his life in the sense that he is angry, not insane. The two people in which he confides, Ophelia and Gertude, the two people he thought he could trust and go to in times of pain and anguish have wronged him in a way and hurt his feelings. With respect to Ophelia, he would like to express his intense and strong anger towards her without raising suspicion in her or in others that he is in a crazy and senile state of mind. By doing that it prevents others in the royal family from thinki

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Approximate Word count = 1482
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English