Hamlet and Issue of Insanity

A detailed Summary of Hamlet and Issue of Insanity


In William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, one of the most important issues is Hamlet's sanity, in which many question his thoughts and actions. In the beginning, Hamlet and Ophelia are sane, but as the play progresses, Shakespeare slowly shows how their minds deteriorate and how Hamlet goes crazy. An example of Hamlet's insanity is when he tells Ophelia to "Get thee (to) a nunnery" in Scene i of Act III. He is being cruel to Ophelia by telling her to go to this whorehouse. Then, in the end, Hamlet is sane and protests his own love and grief for Ophelia to Laertes. He says, "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum," showing that he did love her a lot. Hamlet's sanity is a controversy surrounding the play. We don't know if he actually loses his mind, or if he only pretends to, as he claims. The answer is


In the end, many say that Hamlet claimed to be insane just to escape the consequences of his actions. He probably built up his insanity as an excuse throughout the play so that people wouldn't punish him and just think his was insane. Shakespeare doesn't match his issue to a simple answer to create a unique style to the play. If there was an answer, the play would just come to an end and no suspense would be built. None of the characters would do anything if Hamlet were sane, so to keep the play alive, Shakespeare adds these complications to keep an intense plot. Sanity is related to our society today. There are many pressures in our world that cause people to go insane. A child may go crazy due to peer pressure and make unwise decisions that will affect his future. The parents of the child, as a result, may go insane as well because they don't know how to h

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 586
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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