Is Hamlet Insane? The topic of whether Hamlet is insane or not insane has become a very controversial dispute. Some say he Hamlet actually started to progressively become insane as the play went on (thoughts of suicide, etc.) and some say that he just put on an act to gain an opportunity to avenge his father’s death., who was murdered my Claudius, his brother. I believe that Hamlet was completely aware of the words he spoke and the actions he made and acted in a way that could be considered “insane” for vengeance.
In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, death is a reoccurring factor. Hamlet, who has recently faced the death of his father, is stricken with grief as he does not understand exactly what death is. Elizabethans all believed in the afterlife. Everyone strongly believed in ghosts, God, witches, and eventually ending up in either heaven or hell. Due to these beliefs and the complexity of Hamlet’s character, it is inevitable that his thoughts of death would wander outside the lines of his religion.
Seek it out!” (Act 5 sc 2 lines 342) Hamlet has lost his state of mind through out the play. Hamlet isn’t the type of person to take action as to kill a man, but the madness and unclear head as driven him to kill his many. He is insane and it is represented through the marriage of his mother, the death of Polonius and the death of his mother. Those are three reasons as to why Hamlet is
When Hamlet meets his father’s ghost and knew that his vicious uncle murdered his father while he was sleeping, his grief and indignation was aroused by Claudius. He struggles with the revenge for his father, because he always hesitates to kill Claudius so that caused him miss the best time to revenge. Otherwise, Hamlet’s mother Gertrude married Claudius immediately after his father’s death, which is ironic. This marriage seems ridiculous, especially for Hamlet, he thinks his mother is incestuous. His father’s death makes him feel miserable, but the more sorrowful thing is that everyone seems like indifferent for the king’s death, and he is the only one who is suffering the pain of loose father.
This is corrupting the mind of young Hamlet, which they think is making him go crazy. “Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy, With an auspicious and a dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole— Taken to wife.” This shows corruption when Claudius is saying that even though his brother past away he still has to move on with his life and mourning wouldn’t help Denmark retrieve its natural appearance. Also, Claudius would do anything for power and he will do whatever it takes to get the crown and Gertrude’s heart. Deception is portrayed when Claudius decides to balance out the mourning of Denmark to announce his marriage to his brother’s wife, Gertrude.
Finally Hamlet had the perfect opportunity to get his revenge and yet again his indecisiveness is getting the best of him. Hamlet was procrastinating with his revenge of his father’s death because he was too indecisive on when and how he was going to do it also whether or not the ghost was right. He was over thinking everything and worrying if it was his father’s ghost or not. Hamlet was questioned, “Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn’d, / Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, / Be thy intents wicked or charitable, / Thou com’st in such a questionable shape” (1.4. 40-43).
His change of attitude grows confusing as he professes his dear love after her awful death, “ I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?”(5.1.255-257). After all the hatred consumed for Ophelia, Hamlet feels the need to show his love and care for her only after she is dead. Hamlet’s web of lies causes a dent in his portrayal towards society and the audience.
Throughout the play many references to sex are made when Hamlet speaks to or refers to Ophelia. Hamlet has a hard time with Ophelia because she is so easily controlled and manipulated by the men in her life. Both her father and brother try to use her to set up Hamlet so that the king can get him. Hamlet truly has been in love with Ophelia, but once he is visited by the ghost of his father, he seems to become less interested in his relationship with Ophelia. The sexual imagery begins to diminish as the play goes on, Hamlet becomes more obsessed with avenging his father’s death and pretty much looses interest in everything else.
Macbeth suffers with anxiety and doubts that makes him insane which then leads to his demise. The first reason he goes insane is when he kills king Duncan. "How now my Lord! Why do you keep alone, of sorriest fancies your companions making, using those thoughts which should indeed have died" (III . ii.
Hamlet's moral struggle for revenge becomes an obsession causing a change in his character. Hamlet goes so far as to feigned madness in order to achieve his revenge here he is speaking to Marcellus and Horatio saying, ” To put and antic disposition on- That you, at such times seeing me, never shall," (Shakespeare 1379) which foreshadows a change in Hamlet’s character. For Hamlet to get revenge he must change the way he acts in doing so he starts to struggle with everything else in his life like his relationships with Ophiela, and Gertrude. When seeing his father's ghost, he unquestionably accepts all he hears as truth, but doesn't act on it until he can verify it in some way. His organization of the players' performance of "The Murder of Gonzago" shows this well; only after seeing Claudius' reaction to the play does he prepare to act on the Ghost's plea for revenge.