The Essays I wrote

Cruncher 4

Throughout Hamlet, madness and sanity is a prominent theme as Hamlet's plan for confirming his Uncle's guilt for the murder of the former King, Hamlet's father, is founded on Hamlet pretending to be crazy. However, as time moves on, Hamlet's pretend madness starts to get real as he loses his sanity.

The first time we hear about Hamlet's supposed madness, if him seeing a ghost is excluded, is when Ophelia describes Hamlet's strange actions to her father, who would no doubtedly tell the king in Act II. For the rest of this Act, Hamlet is focused on convincing Polonius, who will convince the king and queen, that he is mad in love for Ophelia.

In Act III, Hamlet seems to be slowly losing his sanity for real. He is obsessed with confirming that his uncle killed his father. On top of that, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are spying on him, and poor Ophelia is being manipulated by everyone. His depressing, yet provoking "To be or not to be" soliloquy shows that his madness is real and has a firm hold on him. Right after that is the betrayal of Ophelia. Then, when he fights with his mother, sanity has truly escaped Hamlet. He is so obsessive against his uncle, and he sees the ghost of his father again. He kills Polonius.

Hamlet realizes that to gain his sanity back, his obsession with his uncle and father must end. In Act IV, Ophelia ends up crazy but knows that Hamlet is not. Later, Hamlet admits to everything, including and proving that he was faking madness, to a point, but has regained sanity.

Then he dies, going to Hell with everyone else. And the story ends with smiles, roses, rainbows, and madness everywhere.