Hamlet- Sanity/ Insanity - Essay Example

The Sanely Insane Hamlet Shakespeare’s Hamlet took the people of his time by surprise. But this bolt from the blue did not stop there. As literature spread all over the world, Hamlet became popular amongst students and scholars alike. The play is significantly appreciated for Hamlet’s soliloquies as well as the tragic overtones. Hamlet suffers from anxiety and anger which he prefers to internalize. But he cannot take it much longer. His recently widowed mother married his uncle who murdered his father.

He does not know if his mother is aware of this coarse act. He does not even know if his father’s ghost is real. But the reader is convinced because Hamlet’s friends have also seen it. One wonders if he had sincere friends or not. But this argument is also ended because Horatio seems to be a genuine friend. This paper will consider Hamlet’s soliloquies revealing his malady, over-delicate responsiveness and adoration of scholarly hair-splitting. All this energy could have been utilized for decisive action.

“To be, or not to be,-that is the question; Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?”(III.i)Hamlet’s famous soliloquy occurs in the first scene of the third act. “To be, or not to be” he speaks in a sad voice. At this point in the play he is still as restrained, speculative, almost meticulously precise in his biases, too conscientious of motive and too scrupulous about assurances to act where may lurk the faintest doubt of explanation.

Readers can judge him as a very intelligent and sharp character despite the fact that he is unable to make an appropriate move towards his uncle. He knows that he is very good in acting and so he acts out a play within this play to communicate to Claudius, his uncle, that he knows the truth behind his father’s death. He employed insanity as a tool to trick others into believing that he is mad. After he had witnessed the ghost of his father in act one, it seemed logical that he might have lost his senses because it was not normal to see ghosts.

Shakespeare’s ghosts, however, were part of his plays mainly as dramatic device because the Elizabethan audience was very superstitious. “…To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, theres the rub;For in that sleep of death what dreams may comeWhen we have shuffled off this mortal coil,Must give us pause: theres the respectThat makes calamity of so long life;For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,…”It clearly appears from these lines that someone wants to commit suicide. Hamlet cannot find any reason to survive.

“…The oppressors wrong, the proud mans contumely,The pangs of despised love, the laws delay,… The undiscoverd country from whose bournNo traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we haveThan fly to others that we know not of?.” (III.i)There is an element of fear that the audience is being introduced to. Hamlet has taken the audience into confidence and reveals the secret of his multifarious soul. When he was not in the presence of characters, he displayed signs of astuteness.

After Ophelia arrives in the same scene, Hamlet acts more aggressively. He is suspicious of Ophelia’s presence and insults her. In the fourth scene of the same act, Hamlet again loses control and accidentally kills Polonius who is standing behind the closet. He is so furious with his mother and so helpless within himself that he forgets how to behave. It is this delay in actions that makes the play more tragic. The sanely insane Hamlet is a character who should not be ignored for a slightest moment in the play.

His dialogues weigh too much and it is not easy to digest his situation at the first reading. Even if he is insane, he cannot be held completely responsible. If he is too sane, then he could not have taken an action that the audience wanted him to take at the very start of the play. But if he had acted upon his instincts early, the play would not have made it to the last act. The stage is scared with blood at the end but it seems justified to have died with his uncle and his mother. He might have wanted to question all three of them, his father, his mother and his uncle, in purgatory.

Work CitedShakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Champaign, Ill: Project Gutenberg, 1990. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2265/pg2265.txt