Method To Hamlet's Madness example essay topic

Hamlet, like all of Shakespeare's plays, presents an array of debatable issues. One such issue in this particular play is whether or not Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is mad or not. Like so many other arguments of Shakespearean literature there is no simple or obvious answer. I think that there is evidence in the play supports Hamlet being both a madman and a completely sane man.

In my first reading of Hamlet I was convinced that he was completely mad immediately following his encounter with the ghost. However, as I read it through again, looking for evidence he was mad I started to see that he might not be mad, but acting mad. I will show how one can derive from the text that Hamlet is mad and how one can better yet come to see Hamlet as merely acing mad. Hamlet's behavior throughout the play is the major focal point for the argument of his madness. Throughout the play, following his encounter with his fathers ghost, the things he does and the way he talks become volatile and erratic. It is mentioned that he walks around the lobby for hours by himself.

In one scene he tells Ophelia, "I did love you once". ( , i. 114). Then a few lines later he tells her, "I lov'd you not". ( . i. 119).

In the scene where Hamlet is having an angry conversation with his mother he appears more mad than in any other part of the play. His mother being so frightened of his behavior cries for help and Polonius, hiding behind the curtain, yells for help too and is consequently stabbed by Hamlet who thinks it is the King behind the curtain. Throughout this whole scene Hamlet seems mad: the rage he expresses towards his mother, he killed Polonius in a "fit of madness", and also when the ghost appears to him. In all of the other instances, everyone was able to see the ghost; but in this scene the ghost can only be seen by Hamlet. When Hamlet starts speaking to the ghost even his mother thinks that he is mad. "Queen.

To whom do speak this? Ham. Do you see nothing nothing there? Queen. Nothing at all, yet all that is I see". ( . iv.

131-133) "Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain", ( . iv. 138) When the queen tells Claudius of this event she says that Hamlet was, "Mad as the sea and wind... ". (IV. i. 7).

When Hamlet goes before Claudius to confess the murder of Polonius, he refuses to tell where the body went and seems to make a joke out of it. "King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? Ham. At supper. King.

At supper? Where? Ham. Not where he eats, but where 'a is eaten; a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him". (IV..

18-23) These are just some examples of how Hamlet can be interpreted as being mad. They illustrate his consistently mad behavior throughout the play. If these scenes as well as others convince you that Hamlet is indeed mad then they are doing exactly what they are intended to do, show Hamlet is a madman. I am suggesting that they are meant to show he is a madman, but do not prove he is. I think that there are several examples that will show the Hamlet wanted to act mad so that he would not be perceived as threat to the king.

I will begin with the ghost. Critics often point to scene I presented earlier where no one but Hamlet can see the ghost. The credibility of Hamlet's ghosts existing outside of Hamlet's mind is challenged. This can be easily discounted. Shakespeare provided clear credibility of the ghost by making him first seen at the beginning of the play by more than one person and before Hamlet entered the play. A second use of the ghost used by critics who say that the ghost made Hamlet mad or processed him to kill the king, his uncle.

For one Hamlet doesn't act on the ghost's information until much later when he has been assured that what he was told was true. There is also evidence that Hamlet is putting on an act immediately following the encounter with the ghost because when he is asked what the ghost said to him he acts like it is good news when in fact it is terrible news. Another solid case for Hamlet simply acting mad is his direct mention of it to Horatio". Ham. Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe " er I bear myself - As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put antic disposition on -... ". (I. vs. 169-172) Although with some characters Hamlet is able to come off as completely mad there are those you are not completely convinced that he is. I think that Shakespeare's only reason for doing this would be to clue the audience in that Hamlet is not mad.

Polonius is one of the characters that isn't convinced. In act two, scene two when he talks with Hamlet he says, aside (which would be directed to the audience) "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't". Claudius is also unconvinced of Hamlet's madness. When he and Polonius are spying on Hamlet talking with Ophelia. He says, "Love? his affections do not that way tend, Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, Was not like madness". ( . i. 162-164).

There is yet another scene in which Hamlet admits that his madness is an act. In the scene where Hamlet sees the ghost during his conversation with his mother and his madness appears more evident than ever Hamlet says, "It is not madness That I have utc " red. Bring me to the test, And [I] the matter will reword, which madness Would gambol from". ( . iv. 141-144). If these passages have not produced enough evidence to show that all of the instances of madness displayed by Hamlet are merely the result of a big act him he his purposely putting on, I offer the most convincing passage in the play for Hamlet's sanity. "Ham...

You are welcome; but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deciev'd. Guild. In what, my dear lord? Ham. I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southernly I know a hawk from a hand-saw".

(II. ii. 375-379) So was there a method to Hamlet's madness? I think so and apparently Hamlet thinks so as well, for he often admits in several scenes he is, "not essentially in madness, But mad in craft... ". I think that it is easy for a reader to take his erratic and violent behavior for face value.

Notice, when you read this play, that Hamlet's behavior changes abruptly when he is around different characters as well. He appears only to act insane around characters like Claudius, Polonius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Laertes. When by himself, Hamlet appeared very depressed and angry, but in no sense mad. His behavior was also quite normal when he was around characters such as Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, the actors, and the gravediggers. All of this evidence suggests that Hamlet was not mad and that this madness was just a tactic of his plan to get revenge for his father's wrongful death.