Vargas 1

Ashley Vargas

Ms. Forlini

AP Literature

3/26/2017

Masterfully Managing a Mask of Madness: A Psychoanalysis of Hamlet

Lunacy, foolishness, and frenzied are words often associated with the idea of madness.

Being in a state of chaos and pursing thoughtless behavior is what one would expect from

someone truly mad. However, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet the prince of Denmark

consciously chooses a path of madness to enact a plan with the end goal of avenging his father.

Though Hamlet displays lapses of insanity throughout the play, he displays fixated motivation

and thorough calculation for all his actions proving that his madness is an act. Shakespeare

provides Hamlet with a resilient arsenal of language that leads to his adversaries questioning

his madness and through Hamlet’s soliloquys his ability for self-reflection is revealed. Hamlet is

livid, distressed, and depressed. These are qualities that are often not paired with someone

mad, but rather paired with someone in mourning. Instead of acting thoughtlessly, he often

thinks too much before acting. Hamlet only puts on a costume of insanity to remain

unsuspecting as he searches for his revenge.

The ghost that Hamlet sees throughout the play can be argued as proof for Hamlet’s

insanity; however, it also be seen as motivation for him to remain sane. Hamlet’s interaction

with his father’s ghost provides him with the main instruction for his revenge. The ghost’s
 Vargas 2

words push forward him throughout the play. Therefore, when the ghost instructs Hamlet to

not let his pursuit of revenge “taint his mind” it provided Hamlet with the first warning to avoid

becoming crazed (Shakespeare 1.5.92). After Hamlet is quick to reveal his plan to Horatio

stating, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your

philosophy… / As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on.”

(1.5.188-192). Here Hamlet is directly stating that he is only putting on an “antic disposition”

and will only act crazy to defeat the evil in Denmark. The disposition is used as an explanation if

anyone suspects Hamlet of odd behavior. Mack Maynard stated, “The ghost's injunction of

revenge unfolds a different facet of his [Hamlet’s] problem. The young man growing up is not to

be allowed simply to endure a rotten world, he must also act in it.” (Maynard 1). However,

instead of immediately acting upon his problem with hastened rage, Hamlet uses his mind to

create the best course of action and waits to deal with his “rotten world”. A.C Bradley states:

The conventional moral ideas of his time, which he shared with the Ghost, told

him plainly that he ought to avenge his father; but a deeper conscience in him,

which was in advance of his time, contended with these explicit conventional

ideas.

This means Hamlet doesn’t just blindly listen to his father’s instructions but still had inner

conflict with his conscious. Though it can be argued that the existence of the ghost is only a

figment of Hamlet’s imagination and compromised mental state when the Queen says, “This is

the very coinage of your brain. / This bodiless creation ecstasy / Is very cunning in.”

(Shakespeare 3.4.156-159). However, the play is opened with those other than Hamlet seeing

its presence. When asked about the deceased king’s presence Horatio replies, “Before my God,
 Vargas 3

I might not this believe / Without the sensible and true avouch / Of mine own eyes.” (1.1.62-

68). The ghost only appears in the Queen’s room to prevent Hamlet from harming his mother

and “blunting” his purpose; therefore, the ghost only comes to reassure Hamlet’s sanity

(3.4.27).

Though Hamlet doesn’t display true madness, there is a character who exemplifies it

throughout the play. It is said, “Ophelia's mental derangement must be understood as insanity

in the full sense of the word, its oddity is marked even more clearly by particular non-verbal

devices and, at the linguistic level, a violation of various principles of textuality.” (Peter 1).

Ophelia, after the death of her father, deteriorates into madness. She says, ”I hope all will be

well. We must be patient, / but I cannot choose but weep to think they would/ lay him i’ th’

cold ground.” Polonius was the only figure she could confide in after Laertes leaves and Hamlet

renounces his love; therefore, once he’s gone Ophelia is isolated and lost. Though Hamlet also

loses his father, he remains level-headed and doesn’t display careless language like Ophelia. It

is stated that, “… the audience's perception of Ophelia's madness is again carefully guided by

the remarks of the commentator-figures, in this case Queen Gertrude and King Claudius”

(Wenzel 1). The Queen at first doesn’t wish to speak to Ophelia and the King later asks, “How

long has she ben thus?” implying that he believes that she is mad (4.5.72). Laertes states that

his sister is a “document on madness” after he witnesses her crazed mind, but doesn’t come to

the same conclusion when he interacts with Hamlet (Shakespeare 4.5.203). Ophelia, once mad,

only speaks in stories and songs rather than in her own thoughts. For example she sings, “And

will he not come again? / And will he not come again? / No, no, he is dead. / Go to thy

deathbed. / He never will come again.” (4.5.213-217). The repetition of the first line exemplifies
 Vargas 4

her madness. She sings about her father’s death, rather than trying to understand it. Ironically,

the first person exposed to Hamlet’s madness is Ophelia and she describes his craze only

primarily through the physical. She stated, “Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced, / No hat

upon his head, his stockings fouled, / Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle" (2.1.78). What

she describes could easily be a costume put on by Hamlet of what he believes madness to look

like. Lastly, though Hamlet contemplates suicide due to the state of his family (3.1.64), Ophelia

“incapable of her own distress” drowns due to her insanity (4.7.203)

Hamlet’s act of madness is characterized by his almost quick-witted responses and

complicated syntax. It is stated that, “He acts the part of madness with unrivalled power,

convincing the persons who are sent to examine into his supposed loss of reason, merely by

telling them unwelcome truths, and rallying them with the most caustic wit.” (Schlegel 1).

Schlegel argues that Hamlet’s act is used to state truths through only a guise of craziness so his

adversaries wouldn’t look too deeply into what the prince was saying. However some, Polonius

for example, begin to see through Hamlet’s act. Polonius states, “Though this be madness, yet

there is method in ’t” (Shakespeare 2.2.224-225) and “How pregnant sometimes his replies

are! A happiness / that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity / could not so

prosperously be delivered of.” (2.2.22-228). Though Polonius knows nothing of Hamlet’s plan,

he begins to see that Hamlet’s words are too calculated to be deemed as crazy. “When he puns,

his puns have receding depths in them… His utterances in madness, even if wild and whirling,

are simultaneously, as Polonius discovers, pregnant.” meaning that Hamlet’s words while in

“madness” have a specific purpose and meaning when he says them (Maynard 1). Hamlet also

uses this language when talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when he describes the King
 Vargas 5

and Queen as his “uncle-father and aunt-mother” (Shakespeare 2.2.360). This at first seems to

be overlooked by the two; however, later on Guildenstern states that Hamlet’s madness is “a

crafty madness” (3.1.8). This is proof that those not aware of Hamlet’s act also gain suspicions

that the prince can’t actually be completely crazy.

HORATIO: Well, my lord. If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing

And ’scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

(Sound a flourish.)

HAMLET: They are coming to the play. I must be idle. Get you a place. (3.4.93-97)

In this interaction between Horatio and Hamlet it is easy to see that once the flourish plays

Hamlet is immediately ready to put begin his act of madness once again. He describes it as

becoming “idle” knowing that he must pretend as if he has nothing on his mind, despite

planning an elaborate play to prove to himself what the ghost said to him was true. Later in the

scene Hamlet put on his act of madness with Ophelia asking if he could place his head on her

lap alluding to their relations in front of everyone (3.2.119). Hamlet makes sure those he wants

to believe in his act are always present before he turns on his insanity.

The easiest one can get a look into Hamlet’s mind is through his soliloquies. He states,

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, /And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied

o’er with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pitch and moment… /” (3.1.91-94).

Here Hamlet is questioning why he didn’t immediately kill his uncle once he was spoken to by

the ghost. He contemplates even going on with his life. Though this soliloquy can be seen as
 Vargas 6

madness from his thoughts of suicide, it can also be seen as suicidal thoughts from justifiable

depression. Bradley states, “I see nothing to object to in that; I am grateful to him for

emphasizing the fact that Hamlet's melancholy was no mere common depression of spirits.”

(Bradley 1). It is easy to forget that Hamlet’s gloom is justified and view him as a man who lost

his father and in some ways his mother through a betrayal from his own uncle. His uncle tell

him in his state of morning that, “In obstinate condolement is a course / Of impious

stubbornness. / ’Tis unmanly grief. / It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, / …For what we

know must be and is as common /… Why should we in our peevish opposition Take it to heart?”

(Shakespeare 1.2.95-105). This implies that a man mourning this long isn’t normal, and

Hamlet’s probably more sensitive to these situations. The man who murdered his father and

now sleeps with his mother called him “unmanly” so the idea of Hamlet being disturbed

shouldn’t be seen as abnormal. This guilt and depression is seen again when Hamlet states,

“And can say nothing—no, not for a king / Upon whose property and most dear life / A

damned defeat was made. Am I a coward? / Who calls me “villain”? breaks my pate across?.../

But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall / To make oppression bitter… /” (2.2.596-604). Here

Hamlet is doing a self-analysis and realizing that he himself can be seen as a coward, but

justifies his claim. Bradley states:

The longing for death might become an irresistible impulse to self-destruction;

the disorder of feeling and will might extend to sense and intellect; delusions

might arise; and the man might become, as we say, incapable and irresponsible.

But Hamlet's melancholy is some way from this condition. It is a totally different
 Vargas 7

thing from the madness which he feigns; and he never, when alone or in

company with Horatio alone, exhibits the signs of that madness. (Bradley 1).

Therefore, Hamlet when alone or with someone he trusts reveals that he is actually sane, he

only shows signs of sadness. His manic depression and tendency to self-destruct should not be

mistaken as madness, but as a part of his mourning. For example, the Queen mistook Hamlet’s

depression for madness at is at Ophelia’s burial. The Queen describes Hamlet as, “This is mere

madness; / And thus awhile the fit will work on him; / Anon, as patient as the female dove, /

When that her golden couplets are disclosed, / His silence will sit drooping…” (5.1.307-312).

However, directly before that when Hamlet is alone with Horatio, he was sanely contemplating

the life of Yorick (5.1.190-293). Only when seeing the King, and Queen, does he jump out and

act as “mere madness”.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet deeply explores the definition of true madness and what can

cause it. However, just because there is a tragedy in one’s life, doesn’t mean they’ll

immediately go mad. Hamlet was sent on a mission by the ghost of his beloved father, yet he

never becomes a rash and brazened prince without purpose and if he did lose his way the ghost

was there to remind him of his task. Unlike Laertes who immediately picks a fight and needs to

be told by the King to calm down, Hamlet consciously creates himself a plan and becomes so

rational that he begins to question his ability to murder (4.4.46). His “madness” is a mask and

was only used as a tool to fool those around him, it wasn’t a senseless response to the betrayal

by his uncle. True madness is defined by irrational choices and thoughtless behavior, which

Hamlet throughout the play proves to not take part in.

 Vargas 8

Works Cited

A. C. Bradley. Shakespearean Tragedy. Quoted as "On Hamlet" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Hamlet,

Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages. New York: Chelsea House Publishing,

2008. Bloom's Literature, Facts On File, Inc.

Mack, Maynard. "'The Readiness Is All': Hamlet." In Everybody's Shakespeare:

Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, 107–27, 267. University of Nebraska Press,

1993. Quoted as "'The Readiness Is All': Hamlet" in Bloom, Harold, ed. William

Shakespeare–The Tragedies, New Edition Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York:

Chelsea House Publishing, 2009. Bloom's Literature, Facts On File, Inc.

Quinn, Edward. "madness and literature ." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms,

Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literature, Facts On

File, Inc.

Schlegel, August Wilhelm von. Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. Quoted as

"On Hamlet" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Hamlet, Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages.

New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literature, Facts On File, Inc

Wenzel, Peter. "Word and Action in the Mad Scenes of Shakespeare's Tragedies." In Word

and Action in Drama: Studies in Honour of Hans-Jürgen Diller on the Occasion of His

60th Birthday, 65–80. WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 1994. Quoted as "Word

and Action in the Mad Scenes of Shakespeare's Tragedies" in Bloom, Harold,

ed. William Shakespeare–The Tragedies, New Edition Bloom's Modern Critical Views.

New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2009. Bloom's Literature, Facts On File, Inc.

Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince

of Denmark. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2012. Print.

Vargas 9