Hamlet's Insanity

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, is believed to be "insane" by other characters. Hamlet had to endure many difficult situations all at once. His father, the king, was killed about two months before the play takes place. Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, remarried Claudius, who is Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet was also in love with a girl named Ophelia, which just confused Hamlet even more. I think Hamlet was upset for many different reasons, and what seemed to be insanity was really the cleverness of an upset genius that other characters misunderstood.

Hamlet had very legitimate reasons for being terribly upset. He was devastated over his father's death. He was also enraged at the fact that his mother who had "loved" his father, remarried his uncle within two months of his father's death. With all of this happening, Hamlet lost all respect for his mother:

Such an act

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;

Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose

From the fair forehead of an innocent love,

And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows

As false as a dicers' oaths. O, such a deed

As from the body of contraction plucks

The very soul. (3.4.49-56)

Hamlet also thinks Claudius is not worthy of being king and would never be as great as his father. Hamlet says, "My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules" (1.2.158-159). Also, Hamlet loved Ophelia who was told by her father, Polonius, to avoid Hamlet. Ophelia's brother, Laertes added to the problem and told her that Hamlet does not truly love her:

Perhaps he loves you now,

And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch

The virtue of his will; but you must fear,

His greatness weighed, his will is not his own,

For he himself is subject to his birth. (1.3.17-21)

Ophelia obeys her father and her brother's advice and this just adds to Hamlet's problems.

Hamlet has yet another reason to be upset, and not truly "insane". Hamlet sees his father, who is dead, as a ghost. The ghost tells Hamlet that it was Claudius that murdered him:

Sleeping within my orchard,

My custom always of the afternoon,

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,

With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,

And in the porches of my ears did pour

The leperous distilment, whose effect

Holds such an enmity with blood of man. (1.4.66-74)

Hamlet believed what the ghost told him, and by knowing that Claudius was the murderer, Hamlet was seeked revenge. I think Hamlet had just enough reasons to not be considered "insane", but to be angry and upset at what is happening around him.

At some points Hamlet acts normal and makes perfect sense, but at others, he acts mad. I believe Hamlet chose when to "act" insane. He acted insane towards Claudius and Polonius throughout the play and made them believe he was mad. Polonius said, "Your noble son is mad / Mad call I it; for, to define true madness / What is't but to be nothing else but mad" (2.2.98-100). Hamlet never acted "mad" around his close friend, Horatio, whom he knew he could trust. Horatio also believed in the ghost of Hamlet's father, and helped Hamlet try to get revenge against Claudius. Hamlet knows he can trust Horatio and tell him the truth. Hamlet cleverly adds lines to a play that will try to insult Claudius, that is to be performed before the other characters. Horatio and Hamlet plan to closely observe Claudius' reactions to the actors' lines in the play. Horatio says, "Well my lord / If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing / And scape detecting, I will pay the theft" (3.2.89-91). By saying this, Horatio agreed to observe Claudius and what he thought of the play. Hamlet's supposed "insanity" took great thought and planning. During the scene where Hamlet is talking with Gertrude, he hears something behind the arrus, and thinks it is Claudius spying on them. Hamlet acts "insane" towards his mother in this scene and claims that there is a rat behind the curtain. I think that Hamlet is using the word rat to refer to Claudius. He says, "How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, / dead" (3.4.28-29). In hopes that he kills Claudius, the stabs his sword through the arrus. To his disappointment, it was Polonius he had killed. Hamlet had to be very clever to devise this plan very quickly to try to accidently murder Claudius.

I believe Hamlet did not actually become "insane" during the play, but was very upset for many reasons. His supposed acts of madness towards certain characters in the play did not make him "insane", but made him a genius. I do not think any other "insane" character would be able to control himself and put so much logical thought into his actions.