Is Hamlet mad?
Is Hamlet Mad?
"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a
handsaw" (II.ii.369-370). This is a classic example of the "wild and whirling words"
(I.v.134) with which Hamlet hopes will persuade people to believe that he is mad. These
words, however, prove that beneath his "antic disposition," (I.V.172). Hamlet is sane.
Under his strange choice of imagery involving points of the compass, the …
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…d he realizes he is being spied on. He reacts the way any hurt young
rejected lover would. In the end, it is surprising that he is able to keep up the charade of
faking madness for so long, and part of his tragedy is that it doesn't help him anyway; in
the end, he avenges his father by killing Claudius not through an act of madness, but as a
result of Claudius's own treachery.
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