William Shakespeare is widely known for his works that tend to create controversial, easily misunderstood characters who have more to their role than the reader can grasp at any one reading. They could come across as authoritarian, or immoral, while in the real sense they are not. Shakespeare in most cases develops these kinds of characters for his characters as a means of survival, especially if the environment in which the characters are developed in is hostile and requires the characters to find what would be termed as survival tactics. The same case can be said about Hamlet, the chief protagonist in Shakespeare's Hamlet play. In this play, the character finds himself amidst liars and traitors who in most cases smile to his face but stab him in the back. To find out the truth amidst all the lies pretense and betrayal, the character Hamlet has to make the tough choice of seemingly appearing insane to remain unmoved by the different individuals in his life who try to trick him into silence and even plot to murder him.
The play Hamlet is a revenge story about the character Hamlet whose father, the King of Denmark, is murdered by his brother who later remarries the queen. Hamlet is not happy with this arrangement because he feels that his mother is a weak woman who cannot stand for her rights but instead cows to the masculine pressure. That is why she willingly agrees to marry the wicked king instead of mourning for her husband and living in his legacy. This situation is made worse when a ghost in the form of his late father appears to Hamlet to warn him about his evil uncle. The spirit blames the uncle for his father's death since he allegedly killed the good old king. The ghost comes with the message of revenge in which he tells Hamlet to avenge the death of his father. Confused about what is going on, it is correct to point out that Hamlet decides to go into a state of solitude which is characterized by crazy tendencies (Shakespeare, Holderness, & Loughrey, 2014) . The people around him assume that he is insane, while in the real sense he wants to be left alone to think through whatever is going on and plan his next move.
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Hamlet is the protagonist and the Prince of Denmark, next in line to the throne after his father's death although his wicked uncle hurriedly marries his mother to secure his alleged right to the throne, which means that after his death; only his son can be crowned king. This leaves Hamlet out of the picture. His father before him was the King Hamlet, and his mother is Queen Gertrude. He is the nephew of the new wicked king, Claudius. After the ghost charges him to avenge the murder of his father, Hamlet is instead caught up in his own intellectualizing and self-doubt to act on this duty. He comes across as being indecisive and questions on so many occasions his motives and fears the consequences of his actions. Once a caring person, Hamlet is plunged into the state of self-doubt. He doubts his abilities to avenge his father. He questions the authenticity of the ghost that informed him of the cause of the death of his father. Hamlet's situation is made worse by the fact that he has no one to confide in or seek advice from. Being an only child, his mother is the only person he can open up to about what the ghost told him and his own confusion, but he hates his mother for the fact that she could not stand up for herself, or even defend his right to the throne, but instead agreed to be remarried.
It is right to point out that Hamlet's confusion is caused by the fact that he is placed in a tough situation that he had not prepared for. His mother's character and vulnerability have made him hate women and despise all of them for their weakness, but deep down he loves Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius who is Claudius's close friend, confidant, and aide in his evil plans. This twist surrounding Ophelia and Hamlet's love life confuses him even more. According to Hamlet, women are weak creations incapable of standing up for themselves but instead are entirely dependent on the men in their lives (Showalter, Shakespeare, & Wofford, 1994) . The same case can be said to be true of Ophelius who is so much dependent on her father and her brother Laertes. They control every aspect of her life, including her relationship with Hamlet. Her father and brother think that Hamlet is only using her to gather information about the evil king by convincing Ophelia to snitch on his father. On the other hand, Ophelia's father tries to use her to get close to Hamlet so that he can learn of his weakness and use it with the evil king to plot evil against him since he represents a threat to Claudius. It is apparent that Ophelia and Hamlet love each other, but are caught in a web that forces them to doubt their love for each other and instead mistake it for being part of a bigger scheme in the fight between Hamlet and his uncle. As can be seen, this situation that is messed up confuses Hamlet even more n ad makes him act indifferently towards Ophelia, which in the end contributes to her death.
It can be said that these circumstances confuse Hamlet so much that he almost loses his sanity and needs a moment of solitude to think things through, to differentiate between the facts and the acts he sees that seem to be contradicting in nature of each other. For example, when he decides to act indifferently towards Ophelia, it does not mean that he does not love her, but he only needs a moment to establish whether or not she loves him too. Unfortunately, his manner of handling situations leads to more problems as Ophelia is emotionally manipulated by his brother and father to believe that Hamlet did not love her from the beginning, else he would have never treated her the way he did. It is this state of confusion, and not taking any action that plays a significant role in contributing to the fall of the kingdom, and creating chaos that eventually leads to the death of so many characters, long before Hamlet starts his revenge. Hamlet does not act until Laertes moves him to an inevitable duel. Hamlet's confused state does not allow him enough room to gather enough proof against his uncle as being behind his father's murder. Instead, he prefers to go the long way of snooping and ultimately challenging his uncle to a staged play to determine his innocence or lack thereof in the murder of his father. The long path that Hamlet chooses to follow can be misunderstood to mean he either lacked the strength and the gut to use more appropriate means of finding out the truth sooner, or that he feared his intentions being discovered. But either way, the method he chose proved to be destructive in the end since it entailed to a great extent plying and using the emotions of other characters, mainly Ophelia whose death gave way to more confusion and fatalities (Neely, 1991). It is correct however to point out that Hamlet's confusion was contributed by the fact that he had no one to confide in, or partner with to achieve other alternative mediums.
It is right to point out that any given moment in the play, Hamlet's state of mind lies somewhere between sanity and insanity. This is because he displays a high degree of mania and instability. But upon closer look, it is apparent that is madness is purposeful and in such a manner that is staged to convince the characters around him that he has lost his mind. However much his language is wild, beneath the insane words lie acute observations showing the sane mind working bitterly beneath the surface (Raman, 2015). At this point it is correct to point out that decision to feign madness is a calculated move taken to confuse his enemies and hide his intentions, giving him more room to plot his next movements. He speaks bitterly after enduring the unpleasant scene of Claudius and his mother at the court which prompts his mother and uncle, now his stepfather to hold him in Denmark, and prohibit his return to Wittenberg for his studies after he shows tendencies of committing suicide. He desires for his flesh to melt, and wishes that God had not made self-slaughter a sin, observing that the world is weary, stake, flat, and unprofitable. It is incredible to point out that his mother and uncle may have interpreted his behavior and words to be suicidal, therefore preferred for him to remain in Denmark where they could keep an eye on him to make sure he is safe and ok. But deep down Hamlet uses this as an avenue to ensure he is not sent back to Wittenberg, but instead is allowed to remain in Denmark where he will comfortably continue with his investigative digging to find out information about his uncle he can use to expose his wicked deeds.
Hamlet could have been dejected and irate at the death of his father and the remarrying of his mother respectively, but this was mainly out of the deceit and treachery tainting Denmark more than it was out of his inability to handle his emotions calmly. The insanity act, as has been established already, was just an instrument Hamlet used to allow him the liberty to accomplish his objective of vengeance. It is correct to point out that Hamlet is perfectly sane when he is introduced in the first act, before his mother remarries, and before the ghost of his father appears with a revelation. This is mainly seen through the conversation he holds with his mother during the mourning period of the old king. When Gertrude questions him about his black attire and disposition, Hamlet replies quite eloquently, "But I have that within which passeth show…. these are but the trappings and the suits of woe" (Shakespeare, Holderness, & Loughrey, 2014). Here he gives the meaning of the black attire he is in as being the symbol of his grief, an expression of his broken heart. These are not the words or the observations of an insane man. It is even more important to point out that the fact that this discussion takes place before Hamlet learns of his father's cause of death, and before he discovers the intentions of his uncle, he did not need to hide his intentions by pretending to be insane (Raman, 2015). It is essential to point out that if he were to go crazy out of his father's death, he would have been insane during the mourning period, and would not have been able to hold such a deep conversation as he did with his mother at that moment.
References
Neely, C. T. (1991). "Documents in Madness": Reading Madness and Gender in Shakespeare's Tragedies and Early Modern Culture. Shakespeare Quarterly , 42 (3), 315-338.
Raman, I. M. (2015). Living Science: Triaging Shakespeare. eLife , 4 , e07157.
Shakespeare, W., Holderness, G., & Loughrey, B. (2014). Hamlet-The First Quarto (Sos) . Routledge.
Showalter, E., Shakespeare, W., & Wofford, S. L. (1994). Representing Ophelia: women, madness, and the responsibilities of feminist criticism . Macmillan.
