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Do you think Hamlet was Insane or Sane?

I have really pondered this question, I'm leading on Sane, but I'd like to know your Oppinion on this subject.

Was Hamlet sane? why do you believe this?

Was Hamlet Insane(crazy)? why do you believe this?

Hamlet was one of the sanest in that darned play.

Lol.. Pretty much.

I believe Hamlet was sane. After all, the ghost told him how his father died, and he was right. So if he didn't make up the most fantastic bit, it's logical to assume the rest was not insanity.

Well, it's been a while since I read it though.

Sorry, but that's just really funny given the context

Well, he tried to determine Claudius's afterlife - that's insane in that classical-novel greater-than-God sense...

It was hard to tell. I believe that in the beginning he was sane,but by the end of the play he had been driven to the extreme. This I think pushed him over the edge. Therefore I think he did turn out to be insane.

I agree, in the beginning, he was as sane as any other sane person not being called insane.

In the beginning Hamlet was a sane man playing at being insane, but by the time he decides to sent his unsuspecting friends R&G to their deaths he has been playing insane so long that he has become the part.

I think he was sane throughout. I know he acted pretty crazy towards the end, but I believe he would have returned to normal once people saw his actions justified if had lived that long. I mean wouldn't you act a little crazy if you were in his place?

I say insanely sane... I wish I had the paper for an lit class I did... sadly it was on a midterm which are keep locked away in the department chairs office. The topic for the essay was to take the people of Hamelt and cast them into Dante's Inferno as you see fit and give reason and evidence to support each choice.(in the 1.5 hrs a week for 3 weeks that's all we had managed to cover of the 8 books we had to get through so we got a fun question)

His unsuspecting "friends" were carrying a letter that was supposed to get him killed, and Hamlet just pulled a name switch on them. Seems sane enough to me. A tad vengeful, mind, but then this is a classic Elizabethan revenge tragedy after all.

As Hamlet himself notes at one point, he knows a hawk from a handsaw (i.e., is sane) depending on which way the wind is blowing (that is, when it's safe for him to be sane). It was an act to keep his uncle from considering him a threat & killing him off.

The ghost doesn't really enter into the sanity question, because it was seen by the guards before Hamlet, and by Horatio with Hamlet.

A bigger question for Hamlet -- and a source of much of his indecision -- wasn't whether the ghost existed, but whether it was really his father or whether it was a demon impersonating his father in order to tempt Hamlet into damning his own soul.

While trying to arrange where his uncle would spend eternity was, as Tharkun mentioned, hubris, it was still in accordance with religious belief of the time. (For those who don't recall, that was the scene where Hamlet had a clear shot to kill his evil uncle Claudius, but didn't take it because Claudius had just finished his prayers and could thus be considered in a state of grace -- eligible for Heaven if he died right then without having sinned again in word, thought, or deed. For some reason, the thought of his father's murderer going to Heaven didn't set well with young Hamlet.)

Pteri Sage -- that sounds like a terrific essay question. Any chance the department chair would allow you to get a copy of your own essay?

There is no indication anywhere in the play that R&G know what they are carrying or why. Hamlet sets them up for certain death and engineers it so that they will not have a chance to confess before death. Previously his machinations have revolved around his desire for revenge for his father, but this is spiteful and malicious and can easily be intepreted as a manifestation of his growing break with reality.

The line you are citing is said by Hamlet to Polonius, obviously before Hamlet has killed anyone. Hamlet becomes increasingly callous over the course of the play, pointing to a growing detachment from morality and sanity.



The ghost actually does enter into the question. Although others have seen the ghost, Hamlet is the only one who hears it speak. and he does this alone. While the ghost may be real, the conversation could be interpreted as a hallucination, a validation of the facts Hamlet already knew.