Hamlet's Soliloquies: Unveiling the Sanity Behind Antic Disposition

Hamlet, the protagonist in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, experiences significant character development throughout the play and expresses his numerous feelings and ideas through soliloquies. Hamlet has a total of seven soliloquies, each of which reveals a new development in both the play and Hamlet's thoughts. Through these soliloquies, there is solid evidence that Hamlet was never mad or “insane”, it was more so an act of antic disposition by convincing others that he is insane, Hamlet telling his mother that he is simply not mad and Hamlet’s plan to figure out if King Claudius is guilty of the Murder of King Hamlet. 

Throughout the play, the Court is consistently questioning Hamlet’s impulsive behaviour, however, they just can’t quite figure out why he is acting in such way. Claudius insists that they find out if Hamlet is truly mad, therefore he sends Polonius out to go spy on him. Hamlet is a very intelligent man meaning he is fully aware that he is being spied on. During conversations with Polonius, we are constantly seeing vague, pregnant, and foolish responses from Hamlet. “Through this be madness, yet there is a method in’t'. Polonius is saying that Hamlet is indeed mad, however, there is a method behind it. He thinks that Hamlet is not acting like himself and that no man as intelligent as Hamlet and how involved he is with the Royal Court should be acting like that. At this point, Hamlet does believe that the Royal Court thinks he is truly insane. He knows that his plan is slowly starting to evolve. Additionally, Claudius and Gertrude bring in Hamlet’s old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The King and Queen bring them in just so they can spy on Hamlet, they don’t care to see him at all. From what Polonius told Claudius, Claudius now has this naiveness built into his head thinking that Hamlet will not figure out they are only there to spy on Hamlet. When Guildenstern and Rosencrantz confront Hamlet about being mad or even confused, he replies “I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw”. When Hamlet reveals this, we know he is not exactly mad but more so when it is beneficial to him to act mad. He is doing this all to plot against Claudius and get his revenge on Claudius for killing his father. So, keep in mind that Hamlet is only putting the madness act on as a show. Hamlet, for most of the play, has been plotting to kill Claudius as an act of revenge. Hamlet goes into the room where he sees Claudius, however, Claudius is praying. While Hamlet has a prime opportunity to kill Claudius right now, he chooses not to because he is praying. “That would be scanned; a villain kills my father, and for that, I his sole son, do this same villain end, to heaven”. Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius right now does show that he is not truly insane because if he was, he would have killed him now with no remorse. It also shows Hamlet is still logically thinking and needs to plan out the perfect time to get his revenge.   

Secondly, Hamlet became like this because his mother is with someone he absolutely hates, and he is beginning to suspect, may have murdered his father. Gertrude married Claudius which Hamlet believes is much too soon after his father’s death. Hamlet takes Gertrude into a room and absolutely loses it on her, obviously raising the question for her; is my son guilty? “I am not mad, but mad in craft”. (III.IV.188-199). This is telling his mother that he is not mad but however he is yelling at her for her own good, to prove in a way that she has made all the wrong decisions; by marrying King Hamlet’s brother, Claudius. Hamlet is screaming at his mother and does not once harm or hurt her, once again proving that he is not insane but mad at heart. Some may suspect that Hamlet was insane because he killed Polonius, however, this is not the case because firstly Polonius set himself up by spying in the first place. Additionally, Hamlet had so much going through his mind while talking to Gertrude that he was not able to understand his surroundings and that killing Polonius was not Hamlet's fault but more so Polonius’ fault. “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for they better'. With Gertrude saying this it shows that she is in fact on Hamlet’s side by saying that Polonius got what he deserved, as-well this adds to the fact that Gertrude think’s that Hamlet is somewhat sane because if she thought he was mad she would have lost her mind that he just killed Polonius. This for Hamlet now is good because his faked madness has got him this far, additionally making Gertrude believe he is sane. 

In the beginning of the play, Hamlet sees the Ghost, who is in fact his late father King Hamlet. When Hamlet was talking to The Ghost, The Ghost revealed to Hamlet that Claudius, the Ghost’s brother, poured poison in his ear while he was sleeping in the orchard. “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder'. Hamlet is all for the idea of killing Claudius, however he first needs to prove his guilt. Hamlet comes up with the fool-proof idea to put on a play and add in a scene that is someone killing another person using the method that Claudius used to kill King Hamlet. This once again proves how Hamlet was sane, if he really wanted to, he could’ve easily killed Claudius immediately after what The Ghost revealed to him, instead he decided to think more rational and get the perfect revenge by planning out the play. After the play, it is immediately revealed that Claudius did in fact kill King Hamlet. Taking this approach for sure proved that Hamlet was in fact sane the whole duration of the play because he could’ve easily killed Claudius but however took a more settle approach to it. Another example of how Hamlet is sane, is that even after proving Claudius’ guilt he still took no action and did not kill him. This is because killing Claudius is killing a part of Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, Hamlet deep down inside understands that killing one of the few people Gertrude loves, would make her more upset, because she already lost her original husband. This once again proves that Hamlet is sane, because if he was truly mad, he would have taken the opportunity to kill Claudius during prayer or after the play when they find out about his guilt. Additionally, it proves his sanity because he cares about his mother and how she feels, if Hamlet was truly mad, he would not have cared about Gertrude or her feelings and killed Claudius additionally, if Hamlet was mad, he could have quite possible killed Gertrude while yelling at her. 

The question surrounding Hamlet being sane or insane has been begged to answer for years now. Throughout the book, there are in my opinion so many reasons as to why The Prince of Denmark is sane, and the biggest one for me surrounds Claudius’ murder, I believe Hamlet truly did not want to kill Claudius because if he did, he would have done it at a prime opportunity when Claudius was praying. He again could have after revealing Claudius’ guilt but again chose not to. There are of course many more reasons but that one really stands out as to why he is sane. This tragic play has so many unanswered questions and this is just the beginning of it. Will we ever truly know if Hamlet was sane or insane? That is the question.