Hamlet: Was He Mad?
For centuries, scholars have been debating the issue on whether Hamlet - the
prince of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet - was mad. This question is not
as easy as it sounds to answer; this is due to the fact that there are numerous
arguments to support both sides of the issue. For many reasons, it is easy to
believe that Hamlet was indeed mad. After all, Hamlet's behavior throughout most
of the play is extremely erratic and violent. However, there is another way to
look at his actions; there are indications within the play that there was
actually a method in his madness, suggesting that he was not mad at all.
One of the major arguments that Hamlet was mad, was his erratic and ...
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earth! We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us...
* Act 3 Scene 1
One minute Hamlet tells Ophelia that I did love you once.1 Then in his next
line he says I loved you not.2 This quick change in moods suggests that he
was mad.
Hamlet: Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty-
1 - Act 3, Scene 1
2 - Act 3, Scene 1
Queen: O, speak to me no more;
These words like daggers enter in my ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet.
*Act 3 Scene 4
This excerpt is from Hamlet's conversation with his mother after he lays his
trap down on Claudius. He speaks with such anger and wrath that his own mother
fears him and screams for help. Consequently, Polonius who is hiding behind the
curtains screams for help, and Hamlet stabs him thinking that he had caught
Claudius spying on him.
Hamlet: Thou ...
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and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
*Act 4 Scene 3
1 - Act 3 Scene 4 2 - Act 4 Scene 1
Even when telling Claudius where the body was, he seemed to take the whole
incident as a joke. ...You shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the
lobby.1 He will stay till you come.1
Hamlet's madness is not only evident in his actions and words, but
sometimes in his thoughts. During Hamlet's first soliloquy, he expresses deep
anger and resentment against his father's death and his mother's hasty
remarriage to his uncle.
Hamlet:O, that this too too-solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into dew!
Or that the ...
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"Hamlet: Was He Mad?." Essayworld.com. July 16, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Was-He-Mad/11109.
"Hamlet: Was He Mad?." Essayworld.com. July 16, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Was-He-Mad/11109.
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