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.
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!
The reason for this is simple, Hamlet is not mad but rather he just pretends to be mad in order express his feelings and think of ways to gain information about Cladius and the murder of his father.. In which Claudius poisoned his father to become king. Hamlet is sane from the moment the play begins to the moment he dies. He just wants people to think he has gone mad so they dont find his behavior suspicious, but there are instances when he goes over board. At the beginning of Hamlet, before Hamlet is told by the ghost that Claudius killed his father, Hamlet is broken up over his father’s death, and the marriage of his mother and Claudius his uncle.. “The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.” At this time he doesn’t show any signs of madness, only sorrow.
“Mad in Craft” Insanity, by definition, is the “unsoundness of mind sufficient to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or sufficient to warrant commitment to a mental health facility,” and “the inability to know right from wrong from one’s doings,” (dictionary.com). One who is generally deemed to be “insane” would exhibit unruly actions without an understanding of what they were doing. Throughout the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the main character, Hamlet, can be arguably determined to be insane. However; Hamlet actually pretends to be insane in order to expose Claudius of killing King Hamlet. Hamlet is sane because he admits to pretending to be insane, he only acts insane around the
Deadly sins The seven deadly sins are renowned for a reason, which is that just one of them can drive a person insane. Greed and envy together can lead a person into doing immoral and unjustified deeds. In the play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, Claudius is the villain who contradicts Knight's The Embassy of Death because Claudius's actions and behavior result from his innate greed for wealth and envy of true love that his brother King Hamlet had; on the other hand, Knight views that his actions were forced upon him due to Hamlet's unstable mentality. (wrap up the thesis statement, condense to the main point. You don't need to make a comparison, but pick which view you agree with, Knight or Shakespeare's, or make it into 2 separate sentences.
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.
He asks Laertes a similar question, ``Make up my sum. What thou do for her?” (V, I, 281). The difference between Claudius and Hamlet is the reason that they bring up these two questions. The purpose of Claudius’ question is that he wants to use the suggestion therapy to tell Hamlet not to take revenge on him, but the reason Hamlet asks Laerte is based on his anger to Laerte’s emphasis on the grievance. The second difference that can be contrasted is the purpose of their acts of murder.
Hamlet is a moral and intelligent man, he is aware of what is right and wrong and it is due to this morality that he delays the murder of Claudius and ended the cycle of revenge. After conversing with the ghost of his own father, Hamlet already devises a plan to kill Claudius in order to fulfill the ghost’s wishes to get revenge. However, much time passes throughout the play when Hamlet could have taken his revenge but he has yet to complete the deed. He admits he may have been deceived by the ghost when he says, "The spirit that I have seen / May be a devil, and the devil hath power / T' assume a pleasing shape (II:ii, 627-629). Hamlet delays the murder of his uncle due to the doubt he has in the validity of the information provided by the ghost.
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. On the other hand, Hamlet questions the appearance of his father: “The spirit that I have seen may be the devil”(II.ii.610,611). Consequently, Shakespeare conveys that Hamlet’s indecisiveness about his father’s murderer necessitates him to procrastinate more, and lead further to his death. However, Hamlet accomplishes the opportunity to murder Claudius, yet believes it is not the right time: “Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent”(III.iii.91). In fact, he desires that “...his soul may be damned and black as hell”(III.iii.97).