Hamlet (The Madman) Essay #1

     Hamlet is not a madman, he is a genius. Hamlet expresses himself through his soliloquies and that is all that the background information we get, but those glimpses of knowledge only reveal Hamlet's feelings, the real magic still happens behind the scenes, inside Hamlet's mind.Through inductive reasoning we can infer that Hamlet's actions come from deep thought even though the audience isn't exposed to the thought process. We must work backwards to find that Hamlet actually knows exactly what he's doing because we've been trained to think that he's crazy from the stigma attached to the name of the play. Hamlet's actions and words don't go unplanned, through body language and crafty speech Hamlet is able to fool the other characters and even modern audiences that read the play.
     All of the reviews and "crap notes" tell us that Hamlet is crazy. They do so because the other characters in the play think so, too, and they're not going look deeper into the story. Hamlet, in Act I scene V, states "I have sworn't" after the ghost of old Hamlet tells him to get revenge. Young Hamlet had agreed to kill Claudius from the start. He had his head on straight and wasn't crazy. His first soliloquy was dramatic because that's how he truly felt and some of his early actions were due to his grieving a father and dealing with a betraying mother. He stated that to Rosecrantz and Guildenstern in brief when he caught them in their act of work for the king. He wasn't sure whether or not to trust them so he told them part of the truth. Some of his other actions like going to Ophelia half-dressed and seemingly confused were crafted. He knew that Ophelia was going to tell her father everything and therefore let Polonius into the know, or so the other characters thought. Hamlet wanted to plant an idea into Polonius' head so that he could tell King Claudius, who was going to believe Polonius. In no part of the play is the audience directly told of his motives, but he had sworn to kill his uncle and by making Claudius and everyone else around think that he's not all there anymore they're not going suspect that Hamlet is actually knowledgeable of pertinent information and has a plan.