Is Hamlet Insane? Parker Coleman 12th Grade

Insanity is defined as doing something over and over again and expecting a different outcome. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the young and not fully mature Hamlet might be thought of as insane. However, although he says and does things that are out of the ordinary, he is not doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. It is a given that he does rant on about wild things that may not be true, and he expresses his own personal opinions that are slightly deranged, but he is not insane. Hamlet is a man who is experiencing a very hard, gut wrenching time in his life, and he’s just trying to make it through the present moment.

Hamlet is overwhelmed by his father's death, as any other son or daughter would be. It is not expected for a human being to just get over a familial death without having some outbursts or troubled times, as stated in the text by Hamlet: “But two months dead- nay, not so much, not two. So excellent a king” (1.2 142-143). As Hamlet says here, his father, the king, was a great man. It has not even been two months yet and people are expecting him to forget about the death and carry on as if all is well. Previous to this quote from...