56), these words were uttered by Hamlet himself in his famous soliloquy as he views himself in the mirror. This turning point signifies the battle that rages on today on whether or not Hamlet snaps here and goes completely insane. Was it true or false that he was pretending to be crazy, truly in anguish, or maybe it was a combination of the two? First off, what is insanity? Insanity is classified as a deranged state of mind, or lack of understanding signified by a peculiar demeanor without self-awareness of such. While Hamlet is under an incredible amount of stress and grief which causes him to give off several signs of insanity, he also shows a heightened level of understanding in his actions which lead me to believe he was not completely mad. .
If Hamlet was not portraying to be crazy, Claudius (the king), would surely have noticed that Hamlet had some knowledge of his murder. This would have been extremely obvious during the "Mousetrap" play where Hamlet has his actors, (even himself at one point), act out the Kings murder of his father. The only way for Hamlet to not arouse the suspicion of the King was to be passed off as being overcome with insanity; due to the death of his father. Had Hamlet not done this, it is certain that the king would have had him murdered as well to silence him. At this point he has already proven that he is more than capable of murder. Acting crazy was just the thing to avoid suspicion. Let's take a minute to think about this in the world today, if you are classified as being insane, you can pretty much say or do anything without facing any serious replications. Certainly not the same as someone else doing the same actions but with a solid state of mind. For example, think of today's view on sexual harassment. Someone can express their opinion towards another individual which is viewed as sexual harassment and in turn, they are punished severely by the court system.
