The theme of madness in Hamlet has been a widely popular topic in the discussion of the play by both critics and readers alike. It is quite simple to see the reason why, since the play confronts us with evidence to prove the validity of the claim to Hamlet’s true madness, or, rather, a view that the actions and words arising from the apparent madness, is but an feigned "antic disposition" as proclaimed by Hamlet himself. This uncertainty in my view, is the question that has bothered many readers of the play, since a dramatic device like this has it’s purpose. What that purpose is however, is not made clear because of the conflicting evidence of that can be found within the play that supports or contradicts each other. Some have even attributed this uncertainty as carelessness on Shakespeare’s part. My view however is that the unresolved tension these questions bring up, have a part in playing out the plot and also in showing the uncertainties of human nature. Madness in my view, is not an absolute concept. It’s occurrence varies with the situation, or for Hamlet, it varies in the degree he allows his emotions to carry him.

The significance of madness in the plot can be seen on two levels. First, on the more superficial level of the plot itself, where madness on Hamlet’s part seeks to disarm his enemy, Claudius, in order that he may buy time to affirm the Ghost’s allegations. On a deeper level, this madness reflects the true nature of his deeper psychological self, and poses questions of his behavior. It is the fact of these two levels co-existing that brings about the ambiguity of Hamlet’s true nature, since both these ideas seem to contradict and even clash with one another.

The first reason, that to disarm Claudius’s suspicion and any ill intent, comes from Hamlet’s shaky foundation of his beliefs. His trusts for the Ghost wavers throughout the play, because seeking to cling onto solid evidence of it’s allegations is made difficult by the potential evil and abuse that he would come into should he be tricked by the Ghost, and that the Ghost’s command, murder, goes against his very personality. His initial words to the Ghost:

Be thou a spirit of goblin dam’nd
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable

shows his initial confusion of not knowing what to make of seeing his father’s spirit. First, he trusts :

Whilst memory holds a seat in this distracted globe.
Remember thee! …
And thy commandment alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain
…Yes by heaven

and even swears to heaven. The potential for evil, expressed in the appearance of the dead King signals to him that perhaps there is " something rotten in the state of Denmark". This forms the basis of his later belief that the Ghost is evil:

The spirit that I have seen
May be a devil; and the devil hath power
T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me.

We cannot blame Hamlet for this lack of trust. In his view, he has already lost the trust of his mother and Ophelia, the only two women in his life. False friends Rosencrantz and Guildensten, whose arrival at royal request to sound the reason for his madness causes him to become even more cynical of trust in friendship. It is only under the cover of madness that he would be able to discern the situation around him better. This cover also, provides a distraction to his true purpose of exposing Claudius. Claudius is of course, not without his own suspicion:

…what he spake, though it lacked form a little
Was not like madness. There is something in his soul
O’ er which his melancholy sits on brood

Fittingly too since in hidden awareness, both know of the reason to fear each other. Claudius, at Hamlet’s potential revenge and Hamlet, at Claudius precautions of this happening. Claudius’s attempts to console Hamlet on his father’s death, told with great skill, tact and diplomacy are likewise lost on Hamlet. Also, Claudius is not willing to believe the simple reason that Hamlet’s madness comes from the non-reciprocation of his affections to Ophelia.

Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, as a reaction to the madness, does not confront or try to discern her son directly. Instead, although she expresses her concern, she is willing to allow the scheming plots of Polonious and Claudius to uncover him. The manner in which we see how she keeps away from Ophelia when she goes mad, suggests perhaps some kind of deep-seated fear she has of experiencing the disintegration of people around her who she loves. This is in line with her general attitude of liking happiness and not tempting any ill force to destroy it. Like one critic has said, Gertrude’s character is like a "sheep in the sun", enjoying a blissful and untainted life. Gertrude’s belief in Polonius’s reason for Hamlet’s madness is seen when she tells Ophelia:

…I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet’s wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours

Ophelia has often been seen to be weak-willed, unwilling to show or act according to the way she feels. Aside from the threatening dominance of her father, we wonder why she does not want to participate in helping Hamlet overcome his madness? One must note that her knowledge of the situation is shallow, and not as all encompassing as the audience. She has no knowledge of the Ghost’s appearance to Hamlet, or of Claudius’s murder, or Hamlet’s need to feign madness. All she does know, according to her father, is that Hamlet is mad because of her rejection. Such a realization must place a tremendous burden on an innocent girl like her. And it is thus in order that she can render Hamlet some help to overcome his madness does she readily participate with her father by telling him of Hamlet’s appearance to her in her chamber, showing him Hamlet’s letters, and by allowing their conversation to be heard. These things she does out of her love and concern and because she has no one else to turn to for help.

To the main characters then, Hamlet’s madness affects each of them differently, as already shown. Aside from Claudius, it is the rest of them who believe that Hamlet’s madness arises out of his thwarted romance with Ophelia. It is unfortunate that, striving to fulfil the dread command if the Ghost, he has to renounce Ophelia in the manner that causes her so much hurt and eventually her sanity. Hamlet’s mind however is bound by filial obligation. To this end, matters of lesser importance are relegated to the sideline.

Horatio is exclusive however in terms of his non-ambiguity with regard to Hamlet’s madness. After all, he is Hamlet’s closest confidante, and he heard himself, Hamlet’s plan to put on an "antic disposition". Having Horatio firmly rooted to this function; he acts as a testimony that Hamlet, indeed, does have his mind and faculties in order.

Why then do I say that Hamlet’s madness occurs only at certain times? Before the duel with Laertes, he says to him:

  …, I here proclaim was madness:
Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes? Never Hamlet.
If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away:
And when he’s not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it:
Who does it then? His madness. If’t be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong’d,
His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.
 

We cannot say that Hamlet has lied, it is by his very nature, not a thing he does without purpose. Though he has experimented with deceit before, it was only to protect his purpose of revenging his father. Now, having returned from his banishment, Hamlet comes home calmer, with much of his inner frustrations resolved. Most of all, he believes in fate and has no fear in the duel:

Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special
providence in the falling of a sparrow, If it be now, ‘tis not
to come: if it be not to come, it will be now: if it be not
now, yet it will come; the readiness is all, since no man
has aught of what he leaves. What is’t to leave betimes?

The duel by its purpose shows a contrast between Hamlet’s true honour and Laertes’s deceit with Claudius. Having him less true to himself by the utterance of these words does no good in redeeming him before the evil of Claudius and Laertes. Hamlet’s madness is like himself of a more sophisticated and unconventional kind.

It is well known that Hamlet is a philosopher of the world. His powers of reasoning and intellect are demonstrated clearly throughout the play and we have no doubt of this fact. It is however this deep thinking, that has given Hamlet the tool to be sensitive to the unsavory aspects of life, and for that to be filled with discontent. Perhaps we can even say that a probable reason why Hamlet continues to study at Wittenberg is because it is the only escape from a world he finds filled with deceit and people’s strong desire for fame and material wealth. Within the play, we find examples of these kinds of flaws in Polonious, Rosencrantz and Guildensten, and also Fortinbras, who goes to defend a piece of land that is not worth a "straw". Hamlet no doubt, would have been extremely sensitive to these issues already.

In his speech to Rosencrantz and Guildensten, some of these deep-seated thoughts as a result of his meditation find an outlet to spew over. He calls the world, a "sterile promontory", the air, " a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." and man "a quintessence of dust". In another scene, he meditates on the worthiness of Alexander the Great and says that even he when he dies, he can turn into clay whose only purpose is to stop a hole.

This tremendous store of rage and anger that has been built up for a long time, strikes him unexpectedly in the form of his father’s death, his disgusting uncle becoming king and his mother getting married to this monstrosity out of her own lust. Where all the decay in the world had been outside of him and never directly experienced, the sudden realization of it on himself is too much to bear. With this, his theme becomes more specific. Instead of life in general, it becomes more specific. It is aimed back at his state. (" There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark")

Furthermore, from his first soliloquy he graphically describes his frustration: How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! oh fie, fie, ‘tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed: things rank, and gross in nature
Possess it merely…

In his second soliloquy, the famous "To be or not to be" speech, he muses on killing himself, to end the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", instead of "taking arms against a sea of troubles". It is obvious that much thought has gone behind the formation of these ideas. Unsurprisingly, without finding any answer, he carries his confusion into his dealings with other people.

It is the confusion that thus ensues that causes Hamlet to doubt the things around him. Even with his love for Ophelia, he remains confused. On the one hand, he is inclined to believe that women are weak and succumb to lust easily. On the other hand, he wants to find an ally to trust in Ophelia. With Gertrude having proven that "Frailty, thy name is women", from her actions with Claudius, he is less inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to Ophelia. Instead he reasons that her non-reciprocation of his affections, comes from women’s weakness. This is reflected in Ophelia’s account to Polonius, when Hamlet appears before Ophelia in the conventional attire and action of a mad lover. By his action, he hopes that Ophelia will understand, but sighs when he sees the fear that reminds him of her weakness. Having no choice he mentally bids her farewell, in a severance of his ties with her, half out of anger, half out of doubt, and retreats to fulfil his mission.

Hamlet’s action done out of confusion and having no real purpose, shocks Ophelia more than it comforts her. Perhaps we can explain this in conventional terms when lovers are unsure of each other and also that Hamlet feels that he does not deserve Ophelia. When hints of his mentality are read by Ophelia as signals from him, she has no choice but to rise to the occasion and be unsure herself, since are no other positive signs. It is my opinion that it is Hamlet’s fault for not allowing himself to be honest to Ophelia, and having assumptions about her before anything has been done.

Similar to Hamlet though is the process by which the occurrence of Ophelia’s madness is carried out. However, the only stark difference is in of the suddenness. It’s occurrence involves us more directly since we see the complete evolution from start to finish of her madness. In Hamlet’s case, his meditation probably started before the scope of the play giving no possibility of judging its beginnings.

Ophelia’s life revolves around only three people, these being her father, brother, and Hamlet. In all her sweet innocence, she loves them dearly. As shown before, she strives to help Hamlet, is faithful to father’s wishes and shares secrets with her brother. However, Hamlet’s deterioration, coupled with the wrath of his anger made to kill her father, upsets her to her breaking point. As poor Ophelia cannot see why her world changes suddenly with the stabbing of her father by her lover. It is too shocking, unlike Hamlet’s gradual process into deterioration, whose pivotal point was slower. That is why she plunges into a much deeper madness than Hamlet. Her brother, being far away in France is unable to do anything. Her loneliness thus compounds her sorrow further, leaving her no one to turn to.

In conclusion, my answer to whether Hamlet is mad is thus; he was mad, but mad in a way that unlike Ophelia’s more conventional madness of the mind, was that of the heart. Hamlet’s madness came out of rage and emotion that bubbled silently within.