Insane or not insane, that is the question!
An essay on Hamlet’s insanity
Philip K. Dick is quoted as stating, “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
Many diagnoses of mental illnesses attest to their stemming from bad situations that people couldn’t cope with. Many create false expressions of reality to escape from their actual reality. If this goes on for a long time, then the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred, such that they cannot tell what is real and what is not.
The question is: “Is Hamlet truly mad, or is he feigning his insanity?” Shakespeare left this up to interpretation due to the many loose ends that suggest that he truly is insane and others that state that he’s in his right mind.
What is madness?
Madness is a state of being mentally ill, marked by extreme foolishness. It is synonymous with ridiculousness and impracticality.
When the play opens, Hamlet may already be insane, and his later decision to simulate insanity may be a cover for true insanity.
We doubt his insanity since our definition of insanity is someone who has a mental disease that is so severe that he acts erratically. The main reason why it is assumed that Hamlet is not insane is that he stated that he was pretending to be. Giving Hamlet’s remarks force implies that we, subconsciously, already believe that he is not insane. If a drunk person claims not to be intoxicated, his word cannot be accepted since if he is drunk, he may be saying words that make no sense to him at the moment. Hamlet’s admission that he was pretending to be insane is comparable. It could simply be a crazy person denying that he is crazy because he simply doesn’t understand what it means to be crazy in his crazed state.
In Act One, Scene Two, Claudius explains why he married Gertrude. He maintains that marrying Gertrude was for the sake of the kingdom’s stability. He also claimed that if the kingdom mourned for too long, it would give their enemy an opportunity to invade, thinking they were weak. It’s questionable whether Claudius is speaking the truth about his marriage to Gertrude. The strongest perspective that the audience hears is Hamlet’s, and he feels disgusted and enraged at the marriage. It is possible that the aristocracy and general public approve of Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage; yet, it is also possible that many individuals have reservations but are unwilling to express them to Claudius, the king. However, the response is plausible enough for an average man to believe or accept it for what it was without liking it as another betrayal or conspiracy; Hamlet couldn’t because he was set in his ways, like a child set on an answer and willing to use any method to prove that the answer is right.
Hamlet was gloomy long after the burial and was in mournful clothes, so his now stepfather Claudius and Gertrude, his mother, asked him why he seemed so sad since all must die, and his father did. He rips at them. During Hamlet’s first soliloquy, we learn that Hamlet’s mother and uncle underestimated his emotional pain. We also learn that Hamlet reviles his uncle Claudius and is deeply angry with his mother for marrying Claudius shortly after she was widowed. This is because he doesn’t think that his mother and his uncle have sincerely mourned his father. This could be the start of his unravelling.
Yes, we can all agree that the ghost is “real”. However, as we all know, the ghost never talked to anyone except Hamlet. Hamlet, the boy who kept mourning his father’s death long after it happened, had a lengthy soliloquy and kept talking to himself. Even if he wasn’t already mad, he was on his way.
The ghost could have been a source of comfort to Hamlet, but he chose to interpret it as something being wrong since his father’s ghost was wandering in armour:
“Foul deeds will rise,/Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.”
Seeing a ghost and conversing with one is a good indicator that he’s insane. Hamlet could have been a fine young man before his father’s death, but after seeing the ghost, his mind was affected. Just by seeing this ghost, he already had an interpretation of its meaning. This could be the cause of his delusion that his father’s ghost was speaking to him. In fact, rather than the ghost telling Hamlet that his father was murdered, this could be a figment of his imagination because of his disgust about his mother’s marriage to Claudius soon after his father’s death, which he mentioned in his soliloquy in Act One, Scene Two. So, finding out that Claudius really killed his father could just be something that coincidentally aligned with his delusions about conversing with the ghost.
If his soliloquy in the beginning wasn’t enough of a tell, he kept on with it and treated his mother, Gertrude, and Ophelia, his potential wife, both of whom loved him, horribly; he stabbed the wrong person in anger, and instead of feeling remorseful immediately, he dragged the dead body out like a psychopath and left it to stink up the palace. Because these episodes have little to do with his quest for justice but seem to evoke his greatest impulses, Hamlet’s sexist and misogynist behaviour towards Gertrude and Ophelia can be interpreted as evidence that Hamlet is truly insane. In the play, there is little proof that either Gertrude or Ophelia has done anything wrong, and they both appear to have genuine affection and concern for Hamlet. His letters to Ophelia, his claim that he loved her, and his claim that he didn’t, before he began to “feign madness”, show his inability to have a complete and sound mind. Nonetheless, he treats them both with paranoia, distrust, and brutality, implying that he has lost the ability to discern others’ intentions appropriately.
In conclusion, Hamlet may be described as a son who lost his father, and rather than feel the pain, his need to find someone to blame drove him crazy bit by bit without him realising it, thinking he was only acting insane. When the right adversary presented itself in the person of Claudius, who seemed to have married his mother too quickly, Hamlet chose him as the right target. It was only quite fortunate that his choice was right, as evidenced by the confession in Claudius’ prayer. If not, Hamlet could have killed or sought revenge based on the directives of a “ghost,” killing an innocent man and proving to all, his inherent madness.
p.s. With bated breath, anticipate my upcoming post on mental health issues, likely to be released before the year’s end.
