Hamlet

Hamlet Hamlet Essay Madness is a very interesting thing. It is described by doctors as an “illness” of the mind. Webster’s College Dictionary defines the state of madness as being mentally disturbed or deranged. Because madness is not something physical (it is simply a state of mind or a case where there is something wrong with one’s mind) it is extremely difficult to tell when someone is mad. There is no definite point where someone crosses the line from sanity to madness. There is a very large gray area where someone could be considered either mad or sane. Also, the fact that madness cannot be measured or calculated by some standardized test (like they use to test for IQ) makes it extremely difficult to discern whether someone is truly mad or not. Since madness is just a state of mind, it is easy for someone to fake being mad simply by acting very strange and not like themselves. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, one of the questions central to the plot of the story is whether Hamlet is truly mad or just acting mad to get revenge for the death of his father. Since Hamlet is such a complex character, he might actually fool some hamlet, mad, hamlet’s, claudius, madness, play, someone, father, being, very, simply, polonius, king, just, death, acting, able, while, whether, truly, out, mind, killed, fact, cause, thinks, something, sane, readers, people, ophelia, murdered, mother, later, insane, himself