Hamlet makes sure his uncle is guilty of murder before enacting his revenge. Hamlet is not insane because; He tells people that he will pretend to be, He makes a lot of sense even when he is supposedly crazy, and He acts insane at highly convenient times. Hamlet tells his friends that he will pretend to be crazy. He says to Horatio and Marcellus: Here as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself, As I perchance shall think meet To put an antic disposition on, (I, V, 171-173). In this quote Hamlet tells them that no matter how strange he is acting, they should not be alarmed because he is going to feign insanity.
If it weren’t for Hamlet’s supposed insanity then the King would have seen that Hamlet knew the truth about the old King’s murder and would have had him dealt with immediately. In society, if someone is insane, then that person can get away with just about anything. Hamlet is a scholar and a thinker; he knew that in order to not let anyone on about his plan for revenge he would have to act insane. “I am but mad north-northwest: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw,” (Hamlet II.ii.377-378). This quote is an example of the nonsense with which Hamlet hopes to persuade others that he is truly mad.
The beginning of the key scene is important because, Hamlet has been summoned by his mother, who is furious with him for events surrounding the play-within-the-play, in which it has been suggested clearly that Hamlet’s father has been murdered by his brother. Hamlet, however, confronts his mother, still unhappy that she is married to his uncle, Claudius. Polonius has been sent to spy on Hamlet on behalf of Claudius. Hamlet kills Polonius, apparently believing it to be Claudius. Old Hamlet’s ghost appears for the second time to remind Hamlet of his mission of revenge for his father’s murder.
While speaking the ghost Hamlet asks, “O all you host of heaven! O Earth! What else?/And shall I couple hell?” (I.v.25). Hamlet does not believe the ghost until Act III, when Hamlet tricks Claudius into revealing that he is the cause of his fathers death through the use of his play, “The Murder of Gonzago.” Even though Hamlet knows the truth, he still has trouble acting on his thoughts. It seems that Hamlet does not want to extract revenge and he regrets promising the ghost that he will do so, “O cursed spite,/That ever I was born to set it right!
“So excellent a king.” (Act 1, Scene 11, Line 149) this proves how much he wanted to be like him. Hamlet’s mother marriage with King Claudius, makes Hamlet upset because King Claudius was his father’s brother. “ Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebona in a vial.” ( Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 61-62) Hamlet finds out that Claudius killed his father to take the throne when he talked with his father’s ghost. This gave reason to Hamlet to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet makes his first move against King Claudius by telling the actors to play a tragic play by which he can see King Claudius’s reaction.
It is not that hard to believe that Hamlet has gone insane if one simply looks at the circumstances that could have made him lose his grip on reality. For one thing, his father, the former King of Denmark has died; and before he is cold in his grave, Queen Gertrude has married Hamlet’s uncle, the new King of Denmark Claudius! This alone would cause most to go insane; and the reason why relations between Hamlet and Claudius become strained, and Hamlet’s attitude becomes destitute. Since the death of his father, Hamlet has been what appeared to be in a state of madness. His madness is the result of his fragile personality being confronted with the great anguish of his father’s passing.
In this particular instance however, this soliloquy also lends to the idea that Hamlet is insane due to the passing of his father. Insanity plays as both an internal and external conflict
If Hamlet were to have seen his father’s ghost by himself, there would be a greater argument for him being insane from the outset of the play. Hamlet also exerts control over his actions, which is the main reason why it could be argued that he is sane. He actively tries to convince Polonius that he has gone mad - mocking him when he would usually be respectful, acting cruelly towards Ophelia whom he was clearly affectionate to earlier in the play. He does this in the hope that Polonius will tell the court of his madness. Hamlet is often hesitant to do things, for example where he had the chance to kill Claudius in the chapel but couldn’t bring himself to do it, not because he would be killing another human but because he wanted Claudius to suffer and not go straight to Heaven.
The personality traits of insanity and intellectuality also contribute greatly to the death of Hamlet. Hamlet’s tragic flaw is his procrastination. Without a doubt, Hamlet portrays procrastination and indecisiveness multiple times in the play. The ghost of Hamlet’s father visits him in the beginning of the play informing Hamlet that he was murdered by his own brother, Claudius: “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears the crown”(I.v.44,45). Furthermore, Shakespeare exhibits how Hamlet chose to devise a plan of acting mad, rather than avenging his father’s death immediately, progressing to his demise.
He questioned the worth of his own life, and became suicidal. Hamlet proves this when he says, “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter!” (1.2.131). Soon after his grief ridden soliloquy, Horatio and the guards brought news of a ghost sighting. Supposedly, the ghost was Hamlet's father. Later in the last scene of Act 1, Hamlet accompanies the guards to the platform on which the ghost was spotted.