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Hamlet . Madness or not? Hamlet is a play written by the well known play writer William Shakespeare.

Its about
a young man, the prince of Denmark, who seeks to revenge his dead father. The Intrigue is set in Denmark, we dont know when, its somewhere past Shakespeares time. The reason his looking to revenge his late father is because his ghost tells him that Claudius killed him for the throne. The ghost seeks revenge, and he asks his son, Hamlet, to avenge him. Hamlet doesnt start his revenge quickly, first he seeks to find the truth , from here he starts to pretend insanity . Because Hamlet is a man of radical contradictions he is reckless yet cautious, courteous yet uncivil, tender yet ferocious.(1) This quote shows that its not in Hamlets usual being to take it on the easy road and he thinks twice before he takes any important decision. At first he searches to see if his uncle Claudius really murdered his father he seeks the truth like Oedipus, even if will bring him nothing then destruction. His pretended madness has a very important role in the play and many authors were wondering if Hamlet did really got mad or he pretended until the very end ? Was he such a good pretender, that made everyone, in the play, believe that he became mad, he fooled the readers to? In my opinion just reading the play, I say that he wasnt mad, and that his madness was only an act, because after he planned his strategy during the day was acting mad and when the night came he was himself again, but no one cant be 100% sure , so in this short paper I will try to find an answer to this question. Of course, I will have the help of the authors that had the same question as I have. Was he mad, or not?

Or was he like this from the start? Why from the start ? because a ghost is involved, hes the one asking for revenge, and John Dover Wilson asks is there a ghost in the story?(2) A first answer should be yes, because the ghost was seen by 4 characters. The first to see the ghost were Marcellus and Barnardo - officers of the guard, and after them was Horatio and the last one was Hamlet. Did they really saw the ghost? If the answer is yes why can Gertrude neither hear nor see the ghost?(3) The father was in the room with her and Hamlet, but only he saw and heard it. Why? Was he having hallucinations? Did she pretended not to see the ghost ? Or maybe the ghost had the ability to appear to whom he chooses to? Maybe seeing that he killed Polonius and not the king and being very angry at that time with his mother of her choice of marrying with the dead kings brother made him have an hallucination with his father. The ghost told him that he wasnt revenged yet and he must proceed soon. We will be drawn to say that the ghost was seen by other 3 characters, so why cant Gertrude see him? The next question is why did the ghost spoken only to Hamlet? For security reasons? or his father appearance was something else, and the son had hallucinations about speaking with him. There is no answer to these questions, but there are other points of view to find what a plausible answer to Hamlets behavior. His relation with Ophelia, once he tells her that he loves her and in the next scene he takes all back? Is this one of the signs that show us that his sanity is in jeopardy? No, its not , he starts no to trust her because of the relation of his mother with Claudius, he sees Ophelia as an opportunist Ha, ha! are you honest?... Are you fair?
( Act 3, Scene1)

The way he treats her and the

news about her fathers death will make her loose her mind and kill herself. Only after her death he admits that he loved her I lovd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers Could not (with all their quantity of love) Make up my sum (Act V, Scene 1) Polonius is the first to say to the king and his wife that Hamlet is mad .. Your noble son is mad: Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, What is't but to be nothing else but mad? But let that go
(Act II, Scene 2)

and the first one to see that there is something wrong with his

madness "Though this is madness, there's method in it." (Act II, Scene 2) And in real madness there is no method, madness is a mentally deranged, insane (4) behavior and in that there is no place for method. Every time when Hamlet is alone with Horatio, he acts normal, no act of insanity takes place . He even tells his mother the truth about his sanity, but she is already concerned about him so she doesnt believe him. She doesnt believe him because he tells her after he killed Polonius and she heard him speaking his father ghost, the ghost she didnt saw. When he puts the play in motion, and the actors are playing he puts his head in Ophelias lap and pretends his insane so he could see his mother and uncle reaction without negative consequences on his behalf. If they wouldnt believed he was mad , he could have been charged for plotting against the king and queen. My opinion is that Hamlet kept his sanity until his last breath, he pretended all that time because he couldnt decide what to do, he had doubts about Claudiuss guilt, and he wasnt sure if he shouldve act or to let it the way it was. In the end he realized it was time to act, he saw Claudiuss guilt, and avenged his father. Because of this vendetta innocent characters died like Polonius and Ophelia. There is no knowledge of what William Shakespeare thought about Hamlet to be mad or not, he let the reader to decide what to believe .

The reader must decide for himself if the Prince of Denmark got mad or he pretended until the end. He has to look at the evidences and choose the most plausible option, for himself and either way there is no wrong answer. Was he mad or he pretended until the very end?

Bibliography

(2)(3)John

Dover Wilson- What happens in Hamlet, Cambridge University Press 1951 Dumitra Balosache The spell of Shakespeares Characters, SITECH, Craiova 2009

(1)Daniela

William Shakespeare - Hamlet, Penguin Books, London ,2001


(4)Martin

H. Manser and Nigel D. Turton The Penguin Wordmaster Dictionary, Penguin

Books, London, 1987

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