Is Hamlet Insane Or Not Insane? That Is The Question

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that he is mad (when actually is not). Polonius says to Ophelia “That [rejected love from her] hath made him mad” (94). The king, however has a different opinion that “since nor th’ exterior nor the inward man resembles that what it was. What it should be, more than his father’s death, that thus hath put him so much from the understanding of himself I cannot dream of” (96). For this very reason he has requested that Hamlet’s friends from childhood, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come to spy on Hamlet to see what is causing his madness if it not be the same reason as the king is thinking of. Hamlet is under careful watch by Polonius who has realized that even though Hamlet appears to be mad “there is method in’t” (110). The plan is working accordingly.
As Hamlet’s feigning madness continues, it becomes more and more troubling to those around him and even himself. Hamlet comes to a point where he contemplates suicide—“To be, or not to be, that is the question” (142). It is ...

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