Hamlet - Mad?

Fake and Real: The Difference In the Portrayal of Madness A very controversial topic exists in regarding to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Many of those that read Hamlet argue that Prince Hamlet was mad, his actions guided by his ill feelings and weak emotions. Had William Shakespeare been around to answer the question Was Hamlet mad, he would most likely answer that Hamlet, the product of his imagination and creativity, was portrayed in such light as to create this controversy on purpose. However, Hamlet is perfectly sane, guided indeed by his emotions and feelings, which are, in fact, very healthy. Hamlet was not crazy, and this can be shown by the real madness of the one that he loved, or, at least, seemed to--Ophelia, whose craziness, especially in her final hours is unmistakably obvious. The actual reason as to why the audience is easily convinced that Hamlet was sane while Ophelia was mad, is simple: it is the brilliantly skillful way that Shakespeare portrays them that makes it clear, though not obvious, as to who is really the insane one. Hamlet, the young, strong, full of revenge prince is constantly talked about as insane. Most of the characters in the play Hamlet, except for Hamlet's good friend Horatio and a few others believe that Hamlet has lost his marbles. Yet, there is no real evidence which convinces the audience of this--there's no facts, nothing other than the characters' opinion of him. Hamlet commits certain acts which seem irrational and unexplainable to the antagonists in the play, however, to the audience, all of these acts are perfectly explainable and rational. This is because the audience knows the situation that Hamlet is in, having had his father murdered and his mother marrying the murderer of his father. The voiced opinions of the characters are what really clouds the audience's judgement. There are many instances of that. Polonius, for example, attributes Hamlet's insanity to the disappointed love for Ophelia. His hypothesis, which he believes deeply and tries to convince the king and the queen of, is that Hamlet is insane without Ophelia. In fact, Polonius is the one who ordered his daughter to break off any relationship that she might have with Hamlet, believing that would drive Hamlet to frustration, anger, and eventually cause him to loose his wit. Polonius's idea coincided well with the common at the time idea that frustrated love causes melancholy, which is, in itself, fairly close to madness. Shakespeare expresses this idea in many of his works, an example being the frustrated Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Another instance where this occurs is when the king has a good reason to convince others of Hamlet's insanity: he suspects that Hamlet knows something about the murder of his father, and if Hamlet were to spread this around, people would believe him. However, if everyone was convinced of Hamlet's madness, no one would believe him.