Hamlet — Madness
How does Shakespeare present the idea of madness in Hamlet? Was Hamlet truly mad? Or was it a ploy to realize his revenge?
In the play “Hamlet,” Shakespeare presents the idea of madness through the characters as a central theme. Ophelia was genuinely mad while the other characters, such as Hamlet, are debated whether his madness was absolute or feigned. Shakespeare uses Hamlet to convey the idea of madness with him at first pretending to be mad so that he could do as he pleases with less resistance from his uncle, who he plans to kill. Throughout the play, as the plot progresses, it can be seen Hamlet slowly transitions from his madness being a disguise to become a reality as he loses his grip on his sanity and truly becomes mad. This escalation can be seen as his behaviour and actions progressively change, making people around him believe in his charade more. By the end of the play, when all the main characters die, Hamlet is truly mad.
Hamlet stated to his best friend that he wanted to act as if he were mad so that his uncle would pay less attention to him. However, after his father’s ghost came to tell him how he died, Hamlet plans to kill his uncle as a means of revenge, and to Hamlet, the only way to kill Claudius was to seem non-threatening, so he begins his ploy to act mad. The more he acts as though he is mad, the more the subconscious habits alter his behaviour and eventually, he becomes mad by the end of the play.
When Hamlet tells Horatio, “I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on,” he is telling his best friend in confidence that he will put on a charade of insanity after his interaction with his dead father’s spirit. After his declaration to fake being mad, he eventually does go crazy. Throughout the play, everyone can see ghosts, yet when the ghost of his father was in Gertrude’s room, she could not see the spirit while Hamlet could. This is definitive proof that Hamlet had turned mad after all his experiences as he was hallucinating the ghost. The madness continues as his character develops throughout the play with more sporadic outbursts towards Gertrude and other people close to him. After mistakenly killing his girlfriend’s father, Polonius, Hamlet is unphased with the murder showing no remorse after stating that “[He’ll] lug the guts into the neighbour room.” His “antics” continue to escalate, with him kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern without reason. His cool-blooded killing of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had no benefit with his plan to revenge his dead father; however, he still decided to kill them and did so without remorse. By this time in this play, it can be said with general certainty that Hamlet has transitioned from fake madness to having actual psychotic tendencies. This continues as Hamlet does not doubt his sanity even after his fight with Laertes in Ophelia’s grave and him jumping aboard the pirate ship with a second thought or any protection.
When a person pretends to do something or act in a certain way, and the more they participate in this fake change, they will genuinely begin to see subconscious behavioural changes. For example, hamlet’s fake madness to convince others that he is really mad has made him vulnerable to becoming mad. Hamlet’s madness stems from his grief from his father’s death and the speed at which his mother remarried his unlikeable uncle Claudius.
The first stage of grief is denial; however, Hamlet does not deny his father’s death; instead, Hamlet goes to the second stage of anger. Hamlet experiences anger with several violent outbursts towards various characters; his anger clouds his judgment causing him to make decisions he would not have made otherwise or would later regret. For example, the anger of Claudius trying to kill him in England made him kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern without real reason; his anger would shield him from feeling remorse as he unnecessarily killed them. Bargaining is reflected with his suicidal thoughts, as seen when he says, “O God, God, How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” This only furthers him mad as he doesn’t know what to live for.
When it comes to Ophelia, Shakespeare draws similarities between Ophelia and Hamlet; with both characters descending into madness, the parallels can be seen as both characters are said to be mad. Claudius comments upon Ophelia’s madness as he states, “Poor Ophelia. Divided from herself and her fair judgment.” Claudius means to say that Ophelia has gone mad as she no longer has a clear mind. Hamlet was also called mad as one example is when his mother talks to Claudius, saying that Hamlet is “Mad as the sea and wind when both contend.” At the same time, Gertrude and Claudius compared Ophelia and Hamlet and concluded that Hamlet was acting different and wasn’t that convinced he was mad; however, it was clear that he was by the end of the play.
Overall, Shakespeare conveys the theme of madness in the play “Hamlet” through the main character’s interactions, and the validity of Hamlet’s madness proven to be true after his plan to revenge his father. Hamlet’s madness has been debated for a long time, and both sides have relevant arguments to disprove each other; however, I believe that Hamlet is truly mad, and the extent of his madness is up in the air. What started as a ploy to get revenge had decayed into a mental illness in Hamlet, whether he knew it or not.