Many powerful figures throughout the course of history have been considered “mad”, but despite this, they often have a goal or method to their madness. Within Hamlet, there are many themes to be found such as misogyny, doubt, plotting and stratagems, and the structure of the main theme being madness. Madness can be identified throughout Hamlet by his actions against other characters which result in a method of madness. Actions by and/or resulting from Hamlet that can be easily identified were plotting strategies on other characters, murdering others out of his belief, telling Marcellus and Horatio about “pretending to be mad”, etc. Along with many other counts of madness, Hamlet endures as the storyline develops.
In the first act of the play, Hamlet’s, downfall can be predicted since we see his morality changes to madness. At the end of this act, Hamlet can be seen talking to the ghost and learns how Claudius kills his father. The ghost then tells Hamlet to seek revenge on Claudius which he responds “So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.” (1, 5, 110) This can be identified as the event that caused Hamlet’s madness to start rising quickly as his morals fall. Not so long after, Hamlet can be found talking to Ophelia, for which she describes him, “Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac’d, no hat upon his head, his stockings foul’d, ungarter’d and down-gyved to his ankle, pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, and with a look so piteous in purport as if he had been loosed of hell.” (2, 1, 77-84) In this quotation, Ophelia is found saying “loosing from hell”. This portrays how much Hamlet has changed from being a good person in the past to now. A study which was written by , Joseph Natoli, speaks about the consciousness of the characters within Hamlet. An example quotation, “Within what Claudious, Horatio, Laertes and everyone else in the play reveal to us on the conscious level is what Hamlet is not aware of; cannot perceive.” That talks about how different character in the story are already beginning to see the madness come out of Hamlet and his morals fall without Hamlet even knowing himself.
Other characters within the show have started to notice Hamlet’s change in his actions, emotions, and personality. As they start to realize his fallen morals and ambition for madness. An example of Hamlet being sane toward a lady in the show, “I shall in all my best obey you, madam.”(1, 2, 120) As he acknowledges what Gertrude The Queen wants/needs demonstrating loyalty and good service to the Queen. It can be identified that Hamlet was sane before his father had died and experiencing this change keeps driving him further away from being “good”. In Act three, Hamlet has a line that suggests he is still thinking with his brain and not allowing his avenge for his fathers death to control his emotions, “And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned.” (3, 3, 73-75) This is where we see an uprising in “method” to his madness; he says he could get his revenge but realizes he would be caught easily and quickly. Hamlet then begins to organize a play and makes the actors act out a scene, that enacts how the King poisoned and killed Hamlet’s father in order to see his uncle’s reaction. This idea was surprising and brilliant as he doesn’t have to kill Claudius as his father said. A journal published by Tenny L. Davis dedicated six pages to talk about “The Sanity of Hamlet”. He mentions, “Hamlet was really mad, his psychosis was that of an intellectual.” This proves the thesis as it proves there is method to Hamlet’s madness and is still in control of his emotions.
In the next act, Gertrude reflects on how Hamlet has changed but still sees hope that there is morality still left in him. At the end of Act three, Hamlet has a talk with Gertrude about how he has been acting and how the King is not happy. During the conversation, Hamlet uses this as an attempt to scare Gertrude by pulling away an arras to then see Polonius dead at the end of his sword. Hamlet seemingly does not care as he calls him a “fool” and, “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.” (3, 4, 32) Gertrude then reports to the King what happened, “To draw apart the body he hath killed, o'er whom his very madness, like some ore among a mineral of metals base, shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.” (4, 1, 24-27) comparing Hamlet’s madness to ore’s and other minerals. This can be identified as a metaphor as him being a diamond in the ruff and how she stills sees hope in Hamlet. A study published by Joe Keener titled “Evolving Hamlet: Brains, Behaviour, and the Bard” talks about how humanity has changed amongst eachother in the past 400 years since the message portrayed in Hamlet. Keener mentions multiple times throughout the study and one quotation being, “The humanity expressed in Hamlet displays varied characteristics of the human and, therefore, human evolution.” and explains how us humans have evolved amongst our characteristics changes to be more self aware.
In conclusion, Hamlet seems to have been self aware in his plan about getting revenge on Claudius. Such as when he checks with himself to not kill Claudius while wathcing the staged play on stage and trying to guilt trip him. Hamlet can be seen having a method to his madness and with the backing of many professional sources from journalists that have the same viewpoint.
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