Hamlet
Extended Character Analysis
Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, the son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and the protagonist of the play. He returns to Denmark from the University of Wittenberg in the wake of his father’s death. He is disgusted by his mother Gertrude’s marriage to his uncle Claudius, which happened very soon after his father’s death. Hamlet idolizes his father and, even before learning of his murder, mourns him in what others view as excessive. He is educated, brooding, and prone to overthinking. He uses soliloquies to belittle other characters, express moral truths, externalize internal conflicts, and give readers a glimpse into his mind.
After returning home from university for his father’s funeral, Hamlet finds himself disgusted by the incestuous, by Elizabethan standards, marriage between his widowed mother and his uncle Claudius. He is openly hostile towards Claudius, constantly drawing comparisons between his uncle and his deceased father. When the ghost of his father appears and tells Hamlet to seek revenge, Hamlet is dismayed to hear about the murder but also admits to having suspected it. He vows to avenge his father, but he has some doubts about the veracity of the ghost’s claims.
In the process of trying to prove Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet ruins most of his relationships. Fearful that his plans might be exposed, he feigns madness in an effort to keep suspicion at bay. However, given that only Horatio understands his act, Hamlet is left without any other allies. Hamlet’s single-minded pursuit of revenge against Claudius leaves him disillusioned with others. Ultimately he is betrayed, at least in his mind, by Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. Hamlet views Claudius as such a villain that he is unable to trust anyone who might be associated with him. Instead, Hamlet ineffectually rants about the fickle nature of humans and bemoans his own cowardice at both exacting revenge and facing the unknowns of death.
Hamlet’s tragic flaw is his indecisiveness, which has spawned a number of theories about his inability to kill Claudius until the very last moment. One interpretation is that Hamlet has doubts about the veracity of the ghost’s claims—doubts which are often read as rooted in religious conflict. Though Hamlet is set prior to the Protestant Reformation, Elizabethan England was in the midst of the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism. Hamlet himself questions whether the ghost is truly his father returned from Purgatory, as Catholic theology would suggest, or whether it is a devil in disguise, as Protestant theology would suggest. The point of the play within the play in act III, scene II is to prove Claudius’s guilt so that Hamlet can known for certain whether his revenge is justified. However, after getting the necessary proof, Hamlet is unable to exact his vengeance. In act III, scene III, he refuses to kill Claudius while the man prays so as not to send his soul to heaven. Hamlet’s refusal leads many to seek out alternative explanations for Hamlet’s inaction.
Another reading positions Hamlet as a morally conflicted character who is torn between two different callings. One the one hand, he has been tasked with exacting revenge for his father. On the other hand, Christianity, the dominant religion in 14th- and 15th-century Denmark, calls on its followers to avoid murder and revenge, instead leaving matters of justice to God’s judgement. By reading Hamlet’s conflict as religious in nature, his suicidal ideation stands out because Christian doctrine bars him from obtaining any form of relief. Not only can he not exact the revenge that he longs to, but he also cannot end his own life without barring himself from salvation.
By yet another reading, Hamlet’s isolation is to blame for his inaction. After learning that Claudius murdered King Hamlet, Hamlet is unable to trust anyone in the castle aside from Horatio, because he has no way of ascertaining who might betray him to Claudius. His isolation prevents him from acquiring allies or spreading the news of Claudius’s treachery. Just as he fears sending Claudius to heaven by killing him while he prays, Hamlet may also fear making a martyr of Claudius. Regicide is a serious crime, and if Hamlet were unable to prove that Claudius killed King Hamlet, then Hamlet himself could become a object of fear and animosity amongst the people of Denmark. This reading is supported by his insistence in act V, scene II that Horatio remain alive in order to clear his “wounded name,” something that the dying Hamlet will not have the chance to do.
Hamlet is an enigmatic character, alternatingly introspective and impulsive. He ultimately accomplishes what the ghost tasks him with, but at the cost of his own life and the lives of six others. Unlike most Elizabethan revenge tragedies, Hamlet does not end on a triumphant note. There is no final confrontation between Hamlet and Claudius, nor is there any sense of vindication for the ghost. Instead, Horatio is left to lament a senseless bloodbath. Revenge winds up feeling almost meaningless, accomplished as a final desperate act in the face of death.
Expert Q&A
Why did Hamlet pretend to be crazy?
10 Educator Answers
Quick answer:
Hamlet's main reason for feigning insanity is that he wants to investigate the suspicious nature of his father's death without Claudius suspecting that he knows the truth.
It's important to note that some literary analysts don't think Hamlet's madness is an act but that he is literally driven crazy by his life which is spinning out of control on all fronts. Still, others do believe it's an act.
Hamlet is visited early in the play by his father's ghost, who asks Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing his brother and Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. Hamlet really doesn't know whether to believe the ghost for a while, and he stalls for time. In the meantime, Ophelia, whom he seems to have been genuinely close to prior to the play's opening, reports all Hamlet's "strange" actions to her father and Claudius. Additionally, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, former friends of Hamlet, are employed by Claudius and Polonius to watch over Hamlet and report back to them. His mother has hastily married this same murderous uncle and goes so far as to tell Hamlet that he has "insulted [his] father" (III.iv.10).
Hamlet doesn't know whom he can trust besides Horatio. His world is full of potentially murderous, lying, backstabbing former friends and family. If he wants to fulfill the wishes of his father, he needs to buy some time to investigate the claims.
Hamlet is intelligent and talented in wordplay. Thus, he crafts a new image for himself so that all those employed to spy on him will be thrown off course in his true purpose: carefully investigating the ghost's claims about Claudius.
It works. Most of the characters are confused by Hamlet's actions, and Hamlet does discover that Claudius is the murderer that his father's ghost claimed. Thus, his actions of insanity show Hamlet's skill in navigating a world that he cannot trust in order to learn the truth.
Hamlet's biggest reason for pretending to be crazy is that he wants to be able to investigate the accusations made by his father's ghost against his uncle and new stepfather, Claudius, without raising any suspicion that he knows the truth about his father's death. It isn't particularly difficult for him to pretend insanity because he is already so grief-stricken by his father's death and disgusted by his mother's very hasty remarriage to a man who is, according to the Bible, her brother (since she was married to his brother). Further, once Hamlet learns that Claudius actually murdered his father, he adds anger to his mix of emotions. Then, to add insult to injury, he is abandoned by the woman he loves, Ophelia, when her father tells her she must break things off with Hamlet in order to preserve her virtue; thus, on top of Hamlet's grief, disgust, and anger, he is heartbroken. It is not difficult, then, for him to feign insanity, because he truly is experiencing so many painful emotions.
Hamlet pretended to be crazy for several closely related reasons. He pretended to be crazy to have freedom to examine Claudius's guilt, to find a way to do what the Ghost asked, to make people think he was no threat, to distract attention from his investigation into his father's death, and so he could say outlandish things without striking a nerve.
HAMLET
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on,
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
...
... by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As 'Well, well, we know,' ...
...
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me: this not to do,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear. (I.v)
What purpose does Hamlet's feigned madness serve?
Immediately after his first meeting with the Ghost, Hamlet swears Marcellus and Horatio to secrecy and indicates that he is thinking of pretending to be mad. Throughout the play his mental condition is a matter of increasing concern, mystery, speculation, discussion, and debate.
Hamlet knows that the King is a murderer and a usurper. He intends to assassinate the King. He knows his father’s ghost is haunting the castle. His mother may have been involved in her husband’s murder. Any of these secrets could cost him his life. His facial expressions, body language, and possible slips of the tongue might give him away. Claudius will continue to pry into his mind and his very soul. His encounter with the Ghost has changed him into a different person, and this is sure to be noticed by the King.
Hamlet’s foresight proves correct. Claudius uses his cunning mind to try to understand his stepson. Like many villains, today as well as in yesteryears, he is parasitical: he specializes in analyzing people in order to manipulate them. He uses Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and even Gertrude to spy on Hamlet. Unlike them, he is not convinced that his stepson is really mad. He says:
There's something in his soul,
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger . . .
That wonderful and characteristically Shakespearean metaphor shows the extent to which the King is trying to pry into the recesses of Hamlet’s soul and suggests the difficulty that Hamlet must be experiencing in dissimulating. He plans to kill Claudius--and that is precisely what Claudius suspects. Hamlet cannot hide. Being a prince and heir-apparent keeps him in the spotlight. Claudius says he wants to keep him
Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
And Ophelia describes him as
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s eye – tongue – sword,
Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mold of form,
Th’ observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
We all invent “personas” to represent ourselves to the world at large, and in emergency situations we may invent new personas. Hamlet is really doing the same thing that the fugitive Edgar does in King Lear: Edgar knows he cannot hide but must reinvent himself. Rosalind does something similar in AsYou Like It.
To be the subject of such ceaseless scrutiny could drive anyone mad — especially an introvert like Hamlet who naturally values his privacy. He cannot even feel safe with Ophelia or with his mother. He cannot really be sure that the four men who actually saw the Ghost will keep it a sworn secret. By acting insane he can present a false persona which Claudius may find impossible to penetrate.
As we go through life we encounter many people who try to figure out what makes us tick. Some may be only curious, while others may, like Claudius, be very dangerous. We can learn a practical lesson about humanity from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Watch out for inquisitive people! They may have ulterior motives. We empathize with Hamlet, because we have often been made to feel uneasy or suspicious, if not resentful, by self-appointed mind-readers. It is ironic that Hamlet’s inquisitors are inferior to him in intelligence. He makes Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern look ridiculous with their efforts to understand the workings of his mind. He even makes Claudius—by far the cleverest inquisitor of all—look ridiculous. Claudius is trying to draw Hamlet out; instead Hamlet draws Claudius out.
What purpose does Hamlet's feigned madness serve?
Hamlet decides to "act" mad because it's going to get him what he wants--or so he thinks. We know he's an accomplished actor (his conversation with the Players reveals this), and we know everyone gives him plenty of license because they're not sure of his mental state. He continues his plan in the face of obstacles, but it does not, of course, really get him what he wants in the end. Ophelia is dead, Polonius is dead, Laertes is dead, his mother is dead, and he is dead. The fact that Claudius is also dead somehow doesn't satisfy in the way it should have. If there is a shift from feigned to true madness, I suspect it's when Hamlet realizes he is being sent to England to his execution or when he sees Ophelia's body being brought to her grave.
What purpose does Hamlet's feigned madness serve?
His madness (as he calls it when he speaks to Horatio and directs him not to pay attention to anything "crazy" he does) is supposed to help Hamlet study Claudius' actions, speech, habits, all to discern whether or not the Ghost has told Hamlet the truth or duped him into believing a falsehood, since creatures from the "other world" aren't always trustworthy. When characters believe others are crazy, they tend to say and do more than they would otherwise, since crazy people don't pay attention, and even if they do, who would believe them if they told what they heard?
What purpose does Hamlet's feigned madness serve?
The astute question of how madness is defined is, indeed, cogent. Perhaps Hamlet uses his mad outbursts as a way of venting his disgust for his mother, his antipathy for Claudius, and his frustration and repulsion regarding the "rotten" court of Denmark.
His feigning of madness can also serve to act as a smokescreen so that he can learn more about the chicanery of King Claudius as he does, for instance, with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz who end up revealing more than they intend.
What purpose does Hamlet's feigned madness serve?
It is interesting to study Hamlet as a dynamic character and to try to determine if he does cross the line from feigned madness into the real thing. And how is his "madness" defined? Often it seems to be only an exaggerated state of what he is really feeling/thinking. He never becomes another person; he only becomes "more Hamlet." By being "mad," he is freed of the need to control his emotions and his behavior.
Whether Hamlet crosses the line between sanity and madness, again, seems to depend on the definition of madness. At what point does being depressed become more than being depressed? When addressing a skull? When jumping into Ophelia's grave? When a young prince who had once been gentle and philosophical comes to embrace the cold, clever, premeditated murders of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, has he crossed a line somewhere in his own mind?
One aspect of Hamlet that is often overlooked is the fact that it is a revenge play in the tradition of Shakespeare's day. Revenge plays were enormously popular with Shakespeare's audience, and Hamlet incorporates all the elements of the revenge play genre: murder, the eventual identification of the murderer, various obstacles that impede the avenger from gaining satisfaction--and madness. Madness was a basic staple in revenge plays. Hamlet's madness fit the bill.
Shakespeare being Shakespeare employs Hamlet's feigned madness in creating one of the great ironies of the play. In the end, it is Ophelia who becomes truly mad.
Why did Hamlet pretend to be mad?
In Act I Scene 5, Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, who tells him of when and how and by whom he was murdered. When he receives this revelation, his close friends Horatio and Marcellus see the ghost but do not hear its revelation. Upon learning that his uncle murdered his father then married his mother, Hamlet is unsure what to do next. In this act, the ghost of his father demands that he swear to avenge his death and that his friends swear that they will never say anything about what they saw. In addition, Hamlet says:
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come;
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 an antic disposition on,
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me: this not to do,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear.
In other words, he already has the idea to behave like a madman. He does not say why, but we can surmise that his behaving like he's lost his marbles will provoke people to talk and perhaps fear less what he hears and repeats (because, once everyone believes he is mad, who would believe whatever strange stories he might utter?). This also buys him time to work out how he will determine the truth of the ghost's accusations (he tells these friends that it is an "honest ghost," but later puts his uncle to the test by having the players re-enact the murder the ghost told him of, suggesting that he still needs proof--as any man in his right mind would do before killing the king.
Another interesting question to consider as you read the play is whether Hamlet really is pretending to be mad--or is he truly mad? ;)
Is Hamlet truly mad, or is he feigning madness?
This is likely one of the most hotly debated questions about the play and one that brings out all kinds of different answers. There is significant evidence to suggest that he is, at least some of the time, pretending to be crazy. At the beginning of the play it is difficult to tell as he is seeing ghosts and many of the people around him are worried for him because of the death of his father and his continuous mourning and melancholy.
As time goes on, however, it becomes clear that he is lucid at least some of the time as he plans to have Claudius think that he is crazy in order to throw off some suspicion and give Hamlet time to arrange his plans. He tells his mother to say as much to Claudius and he mocks Polonius rather pointedly in a way that suggests his madness is at least madness with a clear object and not the madness that drives Ophelia to kill herself.
Why does Hamlet recall the story of Priam and Pyrrhus in Act 2 of Hamlet?
3 Educator Answers
Quick answer:
Hamlet recalls the story of Priam and Pyrrhus and asks the player to present a speech about it because Hamlet believes that it closely resembles his visualization of future events in his own situation, that of Pyrrhus (representing Hamlet himself) killing King Priam (representing his uncle, Claudius) in revenge for the death of his father, while Priam's wife, Hecuba (representing Hamlet's mother, Gertrude), stands by helplessly.
In act 2, scene 2, of Shakespeare's Hamlet, when Hamlet asks the player to recite a speech about Priam's death from a play about Dido and Aeneas (2.2.440–443), it's clear that Hamlet has been thinking about how the story of Priam and Pyrrhus relates to his own situation.
In the ancient myth, Pyrrhus avenges the death of his father, Achilles, by killing Priam, the king of Troy, during the sack of Troy, while Priam's wife, Hecuba, is forced to watch her husband's death.
In Hamlet's mind, he visualizes himself taking the role of Pyrrhus, avenging his own father's death by killing Claudius, while his mother, Gertrude, stands helplessly by.
What's remarkable about Hamlet's request is that Hamlet remembers the speech well enough to recite part of it nearly word-for-word (2.2.445–460) and to cue the player at the part in the speech that relates to Hecuba, whose name isn't spoken in the speech (2.2.494–496).
How does Hamlet remember that speech so well, particularly since it's likely been several months since he saw the play performed in the city or since the players last performed at Elsinore? Is Hamlet's memory really that good? Or has Hamlet been doing some research into plays that resemble his own situation that he can arrange to be presented by the players at court?
Also, even after the player's lengthy presentation of the speech about Priam, Pyrrhus, and Hecuba—which relates so closely to Hamlet's own vision of future events—why does Hamlet ask the players to perform a completely different play, The Murder of Gonzago (2.2.530–531), which has not come up in conversation in this scene at all?
Perhaps Hamlet is thinking that a play about Pyrrhus and Priam might simply alarm Claudius and alert him to Hamlet's intentions toward him. The plot of The Murder of Gonzago more closely resembles the events of Claudius's murder of Hamlet's father and would better suit Hamlet's intention to cause Claudius to reveal his guilt.
HAMLET. I have heard
That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King. (2.2.583–587, 599–600)
To understand Priam and Pyrrhus in Hamlet, we first have to identify the two men who are mentioned in the allusion.
The characters are from the stories of the Trojan War. For this allusion to be effective, most of the Elizabethan audience the play was performed for would have known of the story. Priam is killed by Achilles' son Neoptolemus (also known as Pyrrhus).
It is possible that Hamlet is comparing Pyrrhus to his uncle, Claudius. Some sources record the presence of Piram's wife, Hecuba, who helplessly stands by watching the murder. Hamlet wonders if perhaps Gertrude stood by and watched while Claudius murdered King Hamlet. By doing so, Gertrude might knowingly have aided Claudius in the murder. But this idea is swept aside when the ghost of Old Hamlet speaks to his son while Gertrude (not seeing the ghost) watches. The ghost confirms that murder was not her sin. Instead, the ghost tells Hamlet that judgement for the crime she has committed—marrying her brother-in-law (seen as incest by the Elizabethans)—should be left to heaven.
The comparison that Hamlet makes seems clear enough. It is, however, ironic and provides an instance of sad foreshadowing (of which Shakespeare most certainly would have noticed and used intentionally) that Priam also kills Pyrrhus' son. By the end of the story, through conniving treachery, Hamlet has been poisoned by Claudius and dies.
In terms of the choice of Priam and Pyrrhus, Hamlet is drawing a parallel between the murder of Priam by Pyrrhus, and the murder of his father, Old Hamlet, at the hands of Claudius, who then "steals his throne and wife."
Ultimately, it is impossible to be exactly sure how Shakespeare intended to use his reference to Priam and Pyrrhus, but it is clear that he is drawing attention to the idea of one man killing another.
Hamlet recalls this story because it is, in some particulars, related to his own situation with the death of his father. Achilles, Pyrrhus's father, was killed by Priam (the king of Troy), so Pyrrhus seeks to avenge his father's death by killing Priam. The speech Hamlet recites has an incredibly graphic visual image of Pyrrhus:
Head to foot,
Now is he total gules, horridly tricked
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets [. . .]. (2.2.481-484)
Pyrrhus, then, is represented as being covered in blood, totally red, as he stalks the streets of Troy, seeking Priam so he can murder him. He is one extreme example of the lengths to which a son might go to seek revenge on the man who killed his father; his retribution is swift and mighty. Hamlet, on the other hand, has known about his own father's murder for a while and has not yet done anything to avenge it, despite the ghost's charge that he do so. Perhaps Hamlet recalls this speech in order to inspire himself to begin to take some action on behalf of his own father.
Quotes illustrating Hamlet's madness and feigned insanity
5 Educator Answers
Summary:
Quotes illustrating Hamlet's madness and feigned insanity include "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw," showcasing his deliberate act, and "To be, or not to be: that is the question," reflecting his deep existential crisis and possible descent into madness.
What quotes show Hamlet pretending to be insane?
The most important quote revealing that Hamlet is only pretending to be insane comes after Hamlet meets with the ghost. Horatio is with him, and knows all about the various sightings of the ghost, but has been sworn to secrecy. Hamlet then warns him—and though him, warns the audience—that he is planning to act as if he is crazy to keep his enemies off guard. He calls this putting on "an antic disposition" and warns Horatio not to reveal that he knows Hamlet is just pretending or to be worried about him, no matter how strangely he acts. Hamlet says to Horatio:
never, so help you mercy,How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself(As I perchance hereafter shall think meetTo put an antic disposition on) ...
Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t.
What quotes show Hamlet pretending to be insane?
In Act II of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," Hamlet bandies words with Polonius, whom he suspects of treachery. He first calls Polonius "a fishmonger," then he remarks, "Then I would you were so honest a man. This bandying with words continues as he talks to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, whom he also suspects. When Hamlet says, "Denamrk's a prison" (II,ii, 236), the former friends of Hamlet disagree. To this Hamlet replies,
Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
While these remarks are not insane, they become a cause for some concern by others, especially when they learn that Ophelia has been frightened by him. She tells her father,
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,/Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced,/No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,/Ungartered and down-gyved to his ankle,/Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,/And with a look so piteous in purport /As if he had been loosed out of hell/To speak of horrors--he comes before me. (II,i,76-83)
Her father asks if Hamlet is mad for her love. Ophelia replies that she does not know; she only knows that she fears this affection, telling Polonius,
He took me by the wrist, and held me hard,/Then goes he to the length of all him arm,/And with his other hand thus o'er his brow,/He falls to such perusal of my face/As'a would draw it. Long stayed he so./At last, a little shaking ofmine arm,/And thrice his head thus waving up and down,/He raised a sigh so piteous and profound /As it did seem to shatter all his bulk...And with his head over his shoulder turned/He seemed to find his way without his eyes...(II,I,88-97)
Later, in Act III, Polonius and Claudiius decide to put Hamlet and Ophelia together to decide if love is what makes Hamlet mad. When Ophelia greets Hamlet and tries to return his gifts, Hamlet denies having given her anything, subjecting her to paradoxical outbursts (lines 11-114 "Ay, truly....) and criticisms:
Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me. (III,i,119-121).
His remarks about his own mother suggest that Hamlet is still reacting to the realization that his mother has married the murderer of his own father. His disgust with his mother has engenered misogyny in Hamlet.
What are some quotes showing Hamlet's madness in Hamlet?
I would say that there are a lot of quotes that can show how Hamlet appears to be mad. The first one I can think of comes when he sees Polonius and says Polonius is a fishmonger. He follows that up by telling Polonius not to let his daughter walk in the sun for fear she'll become pregnant.
Then, when he talks to Ophelia, he says nonsensical things at times and he contradicts himself. He tells her in one breath that he used to love her and in the next he tells her that he did not.
My favorite quote about his madness, though, is one where he seems to be saying he is not crazy. That is the one where he says that, when the wind is blowing from the correct direction, he can tell the difference between a "hawk and a handsaw."
What are some quotes showing Hamlet's madness in Hamlet?
There are numerous incidents and quotes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet to which we can point as potential proof that Hamlet is mad. In the first act, after his father’s ghost tells Hamlet he has been murdered and asks him to avenge him, Hamlet returns to Horatio and Marcellus, who ask how things went with the ghost. Hamlet becomes defensive, claiming they will spread any news he shares, and despite the fact they say they will not, Hamlet tells them to go about their own business, and he will go pray. They respond, “These are but wild and whirling words, my lord” (1.5.127-134). They are essentially telling Hamlet he is not making sense.
Later, Ophelia, the woman Hamlet (supposedly) loves, tells Polonius that Hamlet badly frightened her when he
with his doublet all unbraced;
No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;
Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors (2.1.1035-1041).
Polonius brushes it off, asking if perhaps it is madness prompted by the depth of Hamlet’s love for Ophelia that has made him appear so, but Ophelia goes on:
He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face
As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so.
At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
And with his head over his shoulder turn'd
He seem'd to find his way without his eyes,
For out o' doors he went without their help
And to the last bended their light on me. (2.1.1046-1059)
Basically she says that Hamlet grabbed her wrist, touched her face as if he were going to paint it, then starting bobbing his head up and down like he had gone crazy, then left the room without taking his eyes from her face. Polonius determines then that Hamlet has gone crazy because he has not been able to see or be near Ophelia.
Later still, Hamlet goes to visit his mother, hears someone, who turns out to be Polonius, behind the curtains, and kills him. His father’s ghost reappears, but significantly, Hamlet is the only one who can see him. To this point, others have also always seen the ghost, but now, when Hamlet alone can see and hear him, his mother declares that he is mad (3.4.2500-2540).
Last, when facing Laertes in a duel over Polonius’s murder, Hamlet makes his own declaration, stating that he killed Polonius in a fit of madness:
Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong;
But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
This presence knows,
And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
With sore distraction. What I have done
That might your nature, honour, and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. (5.2.3863-3869)
There are also other possible indications of Hamlet’s insanity, such as his violent mood swings, especially with his mother, and his irrational behaviors, such as boarding a pirate ship with no backup and killing his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for no particular reason. The problem is, however, that Hamlet tells us at the beginning of the play that he intends to act mad:
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 an antic disposition on),
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumb'red thus, or this head-shake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me- (1.5.922-932)
Then, when he sees the ghost in his mother’s chamber, and she tells him he is mad, he assures her that he “essentially [is] not in madness, [b]ut mad in craft” (3.4.2592-2593). Hamlet also tells Guildenstern that he is faking madness:
Hamlet: [M]y uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived
Guildenstern: In what, my dear lord.
Hamlet: I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. (2.2.1457-1461)
So although there are quotes in this play that seem to indicate Hamlet is truly mad, there are equally as many that call into question the veracity of his madness. In the end, it is perhaps more his behaviors that allow for an analysis of his sanity.
What are some quotes about "madness" from Hamlet?
Hamlet announcing that he might pretend to be mad:
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on—
Later Polonius thinks:
... I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
He argues that it is because his daughter, Ophelia, has rejected Hamlet's advances. Hamlet, Polonius thinks, then:
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.
Act 4, Scene 5, has an abundance of good quotes about Ophelia's madness. Lastly, here's Hamlet's Act 5, Scene 2, apology to Laertes in which he argues that his madness is responsible for most of his behaviour:
What I have done
That might your nature, honour, and exception
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet.
If Hamlet from himself be taken away,
And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it, then? His madness. If't be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
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