Hamlet: "Madness, or Is it?"

William Shakespeare could have started an endless debate between psychologists in his play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Hamlet does such a good job feigning madness there are times that it is almost believable. The reader is frequently reminded that the apparent madness is just an act, which is obvious because no mad person could carry out a plan for revenge so precisely. Hamlet?s word were constructed so cleverly that nobody else in the story …

…had had the guts to kill Claudius when he had the chance. Hamlet?s character flaws show through even during his time of feigned madness. The fact that he over thinks every situation that he is in makes it so he is unable to take the revenge that he has planned for. If Hamlet would have truly been mad, he would not have been able to rationalize letting Claudius live, even if he was praying.