Hamlet Has Gone Crazy Analysis

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In the play Hamlet, the sanity of the character Hamlet seems questionable.It started with the death of his father and the quick marriage of Hamlet’s mother to his uncle. These events push Hamlet towards murder himself. One might see how this could drive him insane. In several scenes it appears that Hamlet has gone crazy. But it is also shown that Hamlet might just be acting crazy as a way to seek revenge for his father's murder. Hamlet first seems to go crazy when he finds out about his father’s murder. Hamlet learns of this when the ghost of his father appears to tell him that it was Hamlet’s uncle that killed him. When he speaks to his friend Horatio, Horatio notices that Hamlet is speaking wildly. Horatio asks Hamlet about the news he …show more content…
Hamlet sometimes changes his mood spontaneously for what seems to be no reason. While Hamlet and his mother are talking in her room, he speaks calmly to her and then begins to abruptly act violent. He also gets on a pirate ship seemly on a whim that he would be safe from harm. Finally, Hamlet hides Polonius body and refuses to tell anyone where it is hidden. He tells Laertes that he killed Polonius in a fit of madness as if he is admitting he has gone crazy. There are many reasons to believe that Hamlet is actually crazy. Many of his decisions were not well thought out. When his father died, he did not act normally; he acted as though his world had ended. This led people to begin to believe he was insane.On the other side, Hamlet did say that his insanity was just an act the whole time. This leads one to believe that Hamlet’s actions were actually thought out and he merely acted insane as a way to find revenge. However, when he was around his friends and people that had he was not plotting against, he seemed to act …show more content…
He seems to be aware of the things that that he says and the things that he does. He simply acts crazy to fool the people around him to take his revenge for the murder of his father. If Hamlet was crazy then why did he not kill Claudius when he had the perfect chance, and why does he doubt what the ghost has told him about his murder? Hamlet wanted to know the truth before he avenged his father’s. If Hamlet had acted rashly and killed Claudius without thinking, Claudius might not have been the real murderer. Hamlet creates a well thought out plan to catch Claudius. He could not have done this if he was insane. A man that did what Hamlet did to seek revenge could not have done it if he was not mentally
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