Was Hamlet Insane?

Title: Was Hamlet Insane?
Category: Literature / English | Words: 1926 | Pages: 8.2 (approximately 235 words/page)

Was Hamlet Insane?

Was Hamlet Mad? "I am but mad north-northwest: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" (Foakes 213). This is a classic example of the "wild and whirling words" (I.v.134) with which Hamlet hopes to persuade people to believe that he is mad. These words, however, prove that beneath his "antic disposition," Hamlet is very sane indeed. Beneath his strange choice of imagery involving points of the compass, the weather, and …showed first 75 words of 1926 total…

You are viewing only a small portion of the paper. Please login or register to access the full copy.

…showed last 75 words of 1926 total…the audience believing that he was still very sane underneath. Hamlet puts on his antic disposition very well. He is, in fact, “sane throughout the entire play” (Boyce 239). Works Cited Boyce, Charles. Shakespeare A to Z. New York: Roundtable Press Inc., 1990. Burton, Philip. "Hamlet." 1999. April 1, 2000. . Foakes, Mary and Reginald. The Colombia Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare. New York: Colombia University Press, 1998. Kirsch, Arthur. William Shakespeare: His World, His Work, His Influence. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillian, 1985.

Need a custom written paper?