Timothy De Guzman
Period 9-10
Champagne
H. British Lit.
Hamlet
In the tragedy of Hamlet, the characters in the play are pushed to their outmost limits
surrendering into a state of insanity. Insanity can alter one’s thoughts and feelings leading to
unthinkable actions. “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a
dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!How
weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (15). Hamlet whose
father had passed away and his mother marrying his uncle Claudius only a short time after King
Hamlet’s death is in a melancholy mood and is contemplating suicide. As the play continuous
on, Hamlet displays numerous signs that he is in fact insane.
The first indication that Hamlet is insane is the appearance of the King Hamlet’s ghost.
“…How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an
antic disposition on” (40). After the ghost had told Hamlet that Claudius murdered his father,
Hamlet plot his revenge “antic act” antic so basically Hamlet is going to act like a madman
which delayed the revenge to Claudius. Hamlet’s antic act is so convincing that that the readers
have a difficult time to figure if he’s actually gone insane. “…The spirit that I have seen May be
the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my
weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me:”
(72-73) This quote actually explains that Hamlet himself wonders if he’s melancholy state has
left him vulnerable that the ghost might actually be the devil and wants Hamlet to kill Claudius
without a cause.
With the breakup with Ophelia it may seem that Hamlet has withdrawn into his own little
world. Though in Act II Hamlet explains “I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.” (64). Hamlet does admit that he might be acting like
a lunatic but he still has his wits and straight thinking.
Now in this passage Hamlet’s act of antic may have won him an Oscar. Hamlet: “How is
it with you, lady?” Queen Gertrude: “Alas, how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on
vacancy And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly
peep; And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, Starts
up, and stands on end. O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool
patience. Whereon do you look?” (110). In this scene clearly depicts that Hamlet sees the ghost
yet, Gertrude is unable to identify or locate the ghost. Hamlet’s act confuses the reader whether
to believe that Hamlet has gone mad.
After the Gertrude and Hamlet scene, Hamlet asks Gertrude to lie about his insanity to
King Claudius. King Claudius “What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?” Queen Gertrude: “Mad as
the sea and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit, Behind the arras
hearing something stir, Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!' And, in this brainish
apprehension, kills The unseen good old man.” In this scene the Queen is saying that Hamlet has
gone insane but the question is that does the Queen really trying to protect Hamlet by lying or
simply believes that Hamlet is insane.