Neveah Dunbar

Mrs. Farina

Senior Seminar

01 March 2024

Is Hamlet Crazy?

After thoroughly reading, watching and examining acts 1-3 of Hamlet, I have determined

that, in my opinion, Hamlet is not crazy. Hamlet is simply misunderstood during times of great

grief and loss. When Hamlet is introduced to us, his uncle, Claudius who has just married his

mother is telling Hamlet that it is not manly to hold onto his grief for such a long time. We are

then informed that Hamlet's father had just passed abruptly in his sleep only two months prior.

Later in the play when a grieving Hamlet makes contact with a ghost that is told to hold the spirit

of Hamlet's late father, the ghost then explains to Hamlet that he was murdered by his brother

Claudius. This new found information causes Hamlet to create a plan to draw the truth from

Claudius. To execute his plan though Hamlet needs to be seen as incompetent, not a threat to

Claudius' throne, so that he is no longer under a magnifying glass. Only then is when Hamlet

begins to act as though he is crazy. Hamlet’s plan does seem to work because his strange

behavior does not go unnoticed, it is quickly dismissed as being lovesick, when in all actuality I

believe Hamlet was trying to grieve. With little to no actual control over his life, constantly being

told to finish up grieving his father, and feeling abandonded by his mother due to her marrying

his uncle, Hamlet was looking for any outlet to make everything make sense. That is not Hamlet

being crazy, that is him experiencing what we call the 5 stages of grief.