Notes

“Hamlet” is one of the most devastating and destructive plays ever written. Prince Hamlet devotes himself to the task of avenging his death and the means of how the task is accomplished are given deep thought. He is determined to arrange a flawless revenge murder but his extremely thoughtful personality only lags the process of reaching the goal... stopping Claudius' heart. Hamlet is one to realize his flaw of being a man of thoughts and not of actions. His willpower leads us to question his mental state and argue his sanity throughout his process of coming to a decision; to kill or not to kill.

Hamlet has a very hard time finding courage and balancing it mentally and physically. He wants more proof of his uncle's sinister ways before he seeks vengeance, only to save himself grief in the end. It's a reason for his delay in seeking revenge because he wants to be absolutely certain of Claudius' guilt and he doesn't want to hurt his mother whom he loves very much. His behavior can be very temperamental and this is evident in his mother's chambers when the ghost appears to Hamlet and his mother cannot see it. Every other time the ghost has appeared, someone else could see it too so it frustrates Hamlet. It reveals his true lunacy especially since his mother can't see what is going on and he goes to kill Polonious in a fit of madness. Hamlet even discusses with his mother that "I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft" and he doesn't doubt his control over his mentality. His cold act of murdering Polonious was out of a frenzied temper and not him drowning in his own pool of insanity. He is sorry for the act but he lacks empathy and this may be because he already holds too much suffering of the mind for his father's death.

Hamlet's madness is only revealed when he is around specific characters. When he is around Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he functions very foolishly. But when Hamlet is in the presence of people like Horatio, Marcellus, Bernado and Francisco, he behaves intelligently. Characters have disclosed that they are unsure whether Hamlet's absurdity is legitimate or not. Claudius admits that Hamlet's behavior, although very bizarre, does not appear to branch from madness. "And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose/ Will be some danger; which for to prevent, I have in quick determination." Polonius also confesses that Hamlet's conduct and his words have a technique behind them. "There appears to be a reason behind them, they are logical in nature. Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." It appears to be that there are pretty much two Hamlets in the play. There is one that is conscious and behaves like a classical prince, and then there is an insane and irrational Hamlet who will have outbursts full of extreme passion and some of cold indignation. With such contradictory personalities, it leads us to imagine the depths Hamlet reaches when speculating. His thoughts appear to obtain a broad perspective and are rooted in profound self-reflection.

Hamlet comes to meet his dreadful end not because he was sane or insane, but because of his own deadly flaw. He ends his life tragically because of his own tragic flaw, procrastination and grief. Whether he was mentally stable or had just lost control of his actions, both theories have their own support. The support makes each theory a practical decision either way. Hamlet as seen from the beginning is a prince that was grieve stricken. But at the end he becomes a prince of fury and passion and it has developed through the stages of his own sanity and madness. Even if the madness was false, Hamlet portrayed the role of a mad man. He took it upon himself to be lost and wandering in his control of actions.