For centuries, scholars have been debating the issue on whether Hamlet - the prince of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet - was mad. This question is not as easy as it sounds to answer; this is due to the fact that there are numerous arguments to support both sides of the issue. For many reasons, it is easy to believe that Hamlet was indeed mad. After all, Hamlet's behavior throughout most of the play is extremely erratic and violent. However, there is another way to look at his actions; there are indications within the play that there was actually a method in his madness, suggesting that he was not mad at all.
One of the major arguments that Hamlet was mad, was his erratic and violent behavior in many parts of the play. His erratic behavior is especially evident in his conversation with Ophelia:
Hamlet: ...I could accuse me of such things that it were better
my mother had not borne me: I am very proud,
revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck
than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to
give them shape, or time to act them in.
English: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act I, Scene I...
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
"Ophelia and Laertes" by William Gorman Wills, Oil...What should
such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and
earth! We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us...
* Act 3 Scene 1
One minute Hamlet tells Ophelia that "I did love you once."1 Then in his next line he says "I loved you not."2 This quick change in moods suggests that he was mad.
Hamlet: Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty-
1 - Act 3, Scene 1
2 - Act 3, Scene 1
Queen: O, speak to me no more;
These words like daggers enter in my...