Still People wonder. Throughout the play, there are questions of whether Hamlet is sane or not. His moods change abruptly throughout the play. Hamlet is not crazy at all. He is very depressed

Authors Avatar
Hamlet is not crazy     Is Hamlet insane? Literary scholars have debated that question for more than 400 years. Still People wonder. Throughout the play, there are questions of whether Hamlet is sane or not. His moods change abruptly throughout the play.   Hamlet is not crazy at all. He is very depressed because of his father's death. And especially because of his mother's hasty marriage to his Uncle Claudius, one month after his father's death. Hamlet is still in mourning. His mother should be also. He doesn't understand why she isn't in mourning. Upset by his mother's unfaithfulness to his father, Hamlet scorns his mother saying, "frailty, thy name is woman" (I.2.46).   A point I would like to make is in act I, we learn that his father's ghost has appeared to Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo. These three people give credibility to the ghost's existence. If Hamlet was the only one who saw the ghost, then we could assume that he was mad. The three men witness the ghost before even notifying Hamlet. Horatio states "Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes." (I.1.56-8) All three men are witnesses to the ghost demanding that Hamlet speak alone to it. And all three swear upon Hamlet's sword to keep it secret.   Besides being
Join now!
depressed, he is acting like a madman to conceal his motive, revenge for his father's murder. He gets the idea of his insanity plea from Horatio's warning when he meets with his father's spirit. "What if it tempts you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And draw you into madness?" (I.4.69-74) When he comes back from meeting with the spirit, he reveals to the three men that everything is wonderful and ...

This is a preview of the whole essay