Is Hamlet's madness feigned or real?

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Is Hamlet’s madness feigned or real?

The idea of a character feigning madness is not foreign to great literary works. In fact, many authors use it to show the sanity of the character.  Take Homer’s The Iliad for example. The main character Odysseus shows his sanity by pretending to be mad in order to avoid having to fight. If his plan had been successful, he would have stayed safe at home, away from the dangers of war. The idea of feigning madness is also apparent throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet puts on an act after he is told of his father's murder, perhaps to have something on which he can place the blame after he avenges his father's death, or perhaps it is to capture the attention of certain characters so that he may find out exactly what has gone "rotten in the state of Denmark". Though it sounds like a crazy idea, Hamlet is feigning madness in Shakespeare's tragic play. This is proved by Hamlet first warning his friend Horatio about it, the way how Hamlet only acts mad with certain people, and the opinions of Polonius and King Claudius.

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It is certainly understandable for someone who has just lost his father, and gained a stepfather to suddenly go mad. However, some time passes before Hamlet is "mad". In fact, before he even begins showing signs of madness, he says to his friend Horatio "As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on" (Act I, scene V, lines 189-190). It is not until after this statement that Hamlet becomes mad. The purpose of this statement is to tell Horatio not to worry if Hamlet appears strange because he will be acting mad, in order to ...

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