Hamlet Act I

The main question that is always asked about Hamlet is whether he is insane or not. I personally do not understand why this question first came about. Is it because Hamlet saw his father's ghost and critics believed he was having crazed hallucinations? Is it because Hamlet is obsessively protective over his mother? Or is it because Hamlet is extremely paranoid and kills without regret? That aside, on reading Hamlet I personally do not feel he is insane. For instance, I would be upset if my mother married my uncle less than two months after my father's death. I do believe in the possibility of ghosts, so I don't hold Hamlet seeing his father's ghost against him. Plus, if I found out that my father was murdered, I would also be paranoid and probably desensitized towards death if I killed someone to protect myself. During the time period that Hamlet was written ghosts were also viewed as real entities and it was encouraged to avenge the wrongful death of a loved one. Therefore, the storyline and character development of Hamlet would be acceptable. The only thing that Hamlet did wrong was that he waited too long to invoke his vengeance, which obviously had drastic consequences. Also, in comparing Hamlet to Shakespeare's other texts, there are plenty of characters who are similar to Hamlet, such as Othello's paranoia and rash actions or Macbeth's encounter with three witches. Othello acts rashly because of male jealously. Macbeth acts rashly because of the words of witches, who are also mythological creatures along with ghosts. Consequently, both Othello and Macbeth are practically the same as Hamlet, yet they are not viewed as insane. How can that be? All of these characters are obviously modeled after a single Shakespearian template. I think it would be interesting to determine whether there is any evidence that Shakespeare had Hamlet performed as an insane character or if the interpretation of Hamlet’s insanity was put into play by later directors, which resulted in the continuance of that specific interpretation. Whatever the case may be, Hamlet’s acts and psychological instability are completely understandable for the stressful situation he finds himself in.