Hamlet's Madness

HAMLET’S MADNESS

Helmet’s madness is the greatest enigma of the play “Hamlet”. Maynard Mack, a famous critic, calls Hamlet’s madness a riddle. He thinks:

“Hamlet’s mind plays restlessly about his world

                                       twining up one riddle upon the other”.

We have to find whether his madness is real or feigned. In Shakespearean tragedies, appearance and reality often merge into each other. The madness of Hamlet as he himself tells us a mask and a kind of self-protection. But under the surface of this feigned madness, there may lie hidden disturbance.

Hamlet is an intellectual person. He is also an emotional person. About two months after the death of his father, his mother marries his uncle. Of his two beloved parents one is taken away by death forever and the other is dishonoured by the act of hasty marriage and the world is now an “Unweeded garden” for him.

Hamlet sees the ghost of his father and the original pain is intensified when he hears the terrible news that his father has been murdered by his uncle.

He is asked to take revenge of his father’s murder. He is very emotional and intellectual person. He has to take revenge from the usurper. He makes a plan to put on an “antic disposition” in order to deceive the court. He cries out against the cruel fate that has laid on him:

                  “O Cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!”

The king suspects Hamlet’s antic disposition. He judge madness sometimes through Ophelia, sometimes through Polonius and sometimes through Gertrude.

All the characters of the play try their level best to know the root cause of Hamlet’s madness. But they cannot reach the definite conclusion.

The Queen thinks that Hamlet has lost his senses due to his father’s death and her hasty marriage. So she states the cause of Hamlet’s madness due to:

“His father’s death and our hasty marriage.”

Polonius thinks that Hamlet’s madness is due to this fact that Ophelia has repelled his letters. He comes to the conclusion:

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in it”.

Ophelia thinks that she herself is the main cause of Hamlet’s madness. So everyone thinks according to his own mental approach.

Hamlet’s madness has been a subject of prolonged controversy among the critics. A group of critics says that Hamlet is not really mad while some of the critics say that Halmet’s madness seems to be real.

The critics, who are of the opinion that Hamlet’s madness is not a real one but a feigned madness, give the following arguments to support their opinion.

Firstly, Hamlet appears to be mad only before those whom he wants to cheat. He shows great courtesy and wisdom to the players and always talks to Horatio wisely.

Secondly, Hamlet’s soliloquies are the evident proof of his wisdom. His soliloquies show that he is an intellectual and a wise man. As he says on different occasions in the play:

                                  “Frailty, thy name is woman!--”

                                    “That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;”

                                   “To be, are not to be-- that is the question;”

L.C. Knight says:

“The disguise which he had adopted was not accidentally chosen.

                    Even in this disguise his intellectual supremacy is manifested”.

Thirdly when his mother sends for him, he goes before her though he looks mad yet he talks very wisely.

Fourthly, Hamlet condemns his mother for her marriage to Claudius in such an effective and convincing manner that she is compelled to say:

              “O Hamlet, speak no more!

Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul:”

Fifthly, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not think him to be mad. Guildenstern describes Hamlet’s condition as “a crafty madness” which means that Hamlet is merely trying to create an impression of madness. Harry Levin says:

“This crafty madness provides him with the means of expressing pent up emotions”.

Sixthly, Hamlet, himself tells his friend that his madness is a mask, a kind of self-protection.

Seventhly, when Halmet is going to England accompanied by his two school fellows, he traces out the plot against himself and changes the content of the paper, writes down his sentence of death for his companions. This is the thing that a mad man cannot do. So it is clear that Hamlet is not really mad but his madness is just to judge others and to deceive others. Johnson points out:

“The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth”.

The critics, who argue that Hamlet is really mad, give the following reasons in their support.

Firstly they say that there are many instances in the play that show that Hamlet is really mad as says:

“Making night hideous and we fools of nature

                                    So horridly to shake our dispositions”.

Secondly Ophelia discusses his real condition with her father as he appeared before her. She says that he is really insane because he has behaved her in such a way that he seems to be a really mad man. Ophelia herself says:

“O, what a noble mind is here o’er-thrown!”

Thirdly Hamlet’s strange behaviour at Ophelia’s funeral is supposed to show the genuineness of his madness. When he sees Laertes leaping into Ophelia’s grave, he too follows him and they fight with each other. The queen tries to explain to Laertes the nature of Hamlet’s outbursts of passion:

“This is mere madness”

Modern psychological criticism has given a very interesting theory about Hamlet’s madness, based on psychological grounds. Psychologists say that Hamlet’s pretended madness is a defensive mechanism. If he did not do so, he would really get mad. It is the best way to protect oneself from against the real madness.

Secondly, by pretending to be mad, Hamlet kept his safety intact and could do anything, could speak anything he liked. In this way, he was able to relieve the pressure on his mind. T.S. Eliot says:

“Hamlet’s madness is less than madness and more than feigned”.

The phrase means that such pretence was necessary.

To conclude we can say that no one can claim that he has understood Hamlet’s character fully. Hamlet’s character is mysterious and complex one. But in the end we can conclude in words of A.C. Bradley who goes to the root of the matter and says:

“Hamlet could make no other defense except pretending to be mad.”

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