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The Madness of One

© Jennifer Alpeche

In short, Hamlet cannot be trusted because his madness cannot be. Claudius recognizes the possibility that feigned insanity might be what they have encountered, but to support Hamlet's madness is to have reason for his departure -- "Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England/ For the demand of our neglected tribute" (3.1.168-9).

Gertrude perceives her son's madness, as well. Recall the encounter Hamlet has with his father's ghost while in Gertrude's bed chamber. As she witnesses the conversation between her son and seemingly no one else, her concern grows with increased gravity, and she hopes that he has not become mad -- "This is the very coinage of your brain./ This bodiless creation ecstasy/ Is very cunning in" (3.4.128-30).

Gertrude believes his madness is born from bereavement, while Polonius believes it is from his lovesick state over losing Ophelia. And Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are willing to believe in their prince's madness simply because it serves their purpose by easing their consciences.

As stated, it is possible that Hamlet becomes mad because he is lost within it. We have the pull of two forces, reality and imposed reality, with Hamlet in the middle. In Harold Bloom's book -- Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, he notes - "Tentativeness is the peculiar mark of his endlessly burgeoning consciousness; if he cannot know himself, wholly, that is because he is a breaking wave of sensibility, of thought and feeling pulsating onward."

If I was to assess his mental state, I would say that it grows increasingly unstable as the play nears its end. Though Hamlet is moving towards the resolution of killing Claudius, he almost waits too long. While in control at the beginning of the play, each moment of hesitation wrests a measure of it away. Hamlet must act quickly in the final scene in order to restore the order before it spins into oblivion, removing all the players existing within that had created the madness without.

References:

Bloom, Harold. "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human." New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare. Edited by Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.