Alexander mention in his article that the only characters in the play who regard Hamlet as mad is the king and his henchman, even those were full of doubts and we can see this through the king speech when he ordered his henchman to go and talk with Hamlet and know from him why he puts on this confusion, this implies that the king understand Hamlet's strange behavior as feign and not real madness. Even Polonius; though he is the first person to declare that Hamlet is mad and has lost his mind, and the purpose of his madness is due to his love with Ophelia, yet he declares that Hamlet is clever by saying: "Thought he is mad, but there is method in it" (II.ii.203-4). This implies that Hamlet has purpose or plan for his madness; he assures that he is pretending. He ends his article by illustrating his point of view: There need no doubt, then that Hamlet's madness was really feigned.. . .
Hamlet’s Feigned Madness Becomes Real William Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows that Hamlet is mad. Hamlet is forced to act insane in order to find out the truth of his father's death. Hamlet does an excellent job of acting insane, so good, in fact, that it is questioned if he was acting insane or if he actually was. Hamlet's madness is an important part in the play. The question to his insanity lies in the reasons for his insanity.
Upon Malvolio’s entrance in Act II Scene V, Sir Toby states “here’s an overweening rogue!” (Act 2, scene 5, line 27) after plotting with Fabian and Maria to punish Malvolio, referring to him as a “little villain” (Act 2, scene 5, line 12). Upon his entrance in the scene, Malvolio states his ambitions for nobility, “To be Count Malvolio!’ (Act 2, scene 5, line 32) to the group. The disdain the other characters have for Malvolio throughout the play is only met with vanity, hubris and patronizing comments on Malvolio’s part, doing very little to conjure any remorse for the character following his downfall later in the play. Malvolio opposes the fun and festivities of the “Twelfth Night” and chastises the characters in the play several times for their celebrations. Malvolio questions their actions in the form of patronizing dialogue by asking “My masters,
(5.2.217) Therefore, Hamlet is essentially begging Laertes for forgiveness. He says that he feels bad about the act that he has committed but he blames it all on his madness. His madness killed Polonius, not Hamlet himself. Speaker: Hamlet Context: It has been assumed by the other characters that leading up to this part of the play Hamlet has gone mad. Each character has their own speculation of why he has gone mad but the readers of the play know that Hamlet is putting on an
And you must needs have hear, how I am punished with a sore distraction. What I have done that might your nature, honor, and exception roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. (5.2 243-246)” Here Hamlet apologized to Laertes saying that his madness was at fault for the murder of his father. A person who was insane would neither realize that he/she is mad nor would know that their actions were uncontrollable. Hamlet showed that he was sane when he was with specific characters, such as his best friend, Horatio.
Example, walking away is braver than mouthing off. (This is something I can’t seem to do.). Violence involving calmness means that you have to avoid violence by trying not to be influenced by confliction towards you and others. Three common factors of sanity are peacefulness, joyfulness, and spiritually bound. “No matter what side you are on, you always find someone on your side who wishes that they were on the other.”- Jascha
Horatio is seen as the thoughtful and un-impetuous young scholar whom Hamlet admires for calm attitude. As P.J. Aldus points out, Hamlet’s manic depressiveness as induced a sort of paranoid schizophrenia, which causes Hamlet to ponder as to why people are afraid of what lies after death (3.1.64-98), and then feel disgusted over the death of a beloved childhood jester
But he does. While Hamlet slowly is driven mad by visits from the ghost of his father and the scheming plots of his uncle Claudius, the one thing that actually keeps Hamlet focused and centered are his feelings for Ophelia. Hamlet’s seemingly unreasonable actions and questionable motives toward her are all part of a ruse to fool everybody at court and actually protect her from being used as leverage by the murderous King Claudius. There are several moments where Hamlet professes his love for Ophelia in moments where he didn’t have to, which in my opinion point to where his heart really lies. Let’s explore the moments within the text where Hamlet actually used his smarts to trick the other conniving characters into thinking that he didn’t love Ophelia and was going insane instead.
Hamlet was trying to be clever with Polonius as he kept asking him questions that he already knew the answers to such as “…have you a daughter” pretending that he does not know that Ophelia is his daughter. Hamlet was trying to confuse Polonius, making him think he was mad and trying to make Polonius look like a fool in front of the audience. Polonius then asks “…what do you read my lord?” and Hamlets response was “words, words, words.” Then he completes later on saying “Slanders sir, for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging think amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit…for yourself sir should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward”, here we see Hamlets cleverness in insulting Polonius as he calls him old and he has a lack of understanding. Hamlet seems to be scaring the Polonius as Polonius starts stepping back as Hamlets steps near him. Then at the end, Hamlets says “These tedious old fools” which is calling Polonius directly an old fool without trying to hide it as he did before.
The family drama keeps Hamlet from having any true support. But, next Ophelia enters the plot. As sad as it is Hamlet is so brilliant that he will eventually use poor Ophelia for revenge. Hamlet is so capable of destroying a person. H e uses attacking with language, plays with words and cons people into thinking his way or believing what he wants them to believe.