Method in Hamlet’s Madness

Hamlets madness, whether feigned or real, is a subject on which critics debated for centuries, but we are almost sure that Shakespeare, the supreme artist, never intended to present Hamlet as a madman, though he appears to be half mad or verges on madness on several occasions. Early in the play Hamlet, having received the Ghosts message, tells Horatio and Marcellus that he may find it necessary to put on “an antic disposition” and behave in an eccentric manner. Later Polonius, during his interview with Hamlet realizes that ‘though this is madness, yet there is a method in’t’. Polonius remarks that a madman often hits upon a kind of “pregnant replies “but when he leaves, Hamlet comments on him saying, ‘These tedious old fools’. Thus there are enough evidences to show Hamlet as a man of sound sense.

On reading Hamlet we can guess that Hamlets insanity results from two causes on his mother’s hasty remarriage and the Ghosts revelation of his uncle, Claudius as the murderer of his father. Ophelia’s description of Hamlet to Polonius, the conversation between Hamlet and Polonius in Act II, Sc II, his talk with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his talk with Ophelia in the nunnery scene, his obscene talk, with her in the ‘play scene’ all prove him to be insane. His act of killing Polonius also seems to be an act of madness. Finally his strange behavior at Ophelia’s funeral is supposed to justify his madness which is supported by the Queen.

However, all the above evidences are not enough to prove Hamlets madness. There are more evidences that his madness is feigned, for he acts normally when he chooses to and in the presence of those with whom it is safe to do so. He talks most rationally and shows great intellectual power in his conversation with Horatio. He receives the players with kind courtesy and his refined behavior towards them shows that he is not mad. His plan of enacting the play The Murder of Gonzago proves his sanity and intellect. His suggestion to Horatio to mark the King’s face and his exultation and future plans of avenging the murder, when the King is proved guilty establish him as a sane man.

Further, all the soliloquies uttered by Hamlet are coherent and logical and full of wisdom and deep thinking. The thoughts he reveals in those soliloquies have a universal appeal for their poetic quality and excellence of language. Through them we come to know about his inner self and the ideas and feelings expressed in them cannot be those of a madman.

To sum up, there are plenty of abnormal behavior and actions in Hamlet, yet there are sufficient evidences that Shakespeare never made his great tragic hero a madman. If Hamlet were mad he would fail to think coherently, to understand his position clearly and to decide his course of action rightly. Finally it is Shakespeare who designed the character of his tragic hero in the way we find him and definitely his aim was not to represent a madman as the hero.

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