Hamlet

Is Hamlet crazy? I would say that Hamlet is much like the character Cash in As I Lay Dying because both seem to hide the fact they are insane throughout the story and it all comes together at the end. Hamlet says at the very beginning that he is going to act insane in an effort to learn if his Uncle is the one who murdered his father. This may explain some of the things Hamlet does like when he shouts at Ophelia about going to a nunnery, but it does not account for the fact that he is the only one who is able to hear the ghost speak which makes me think the ghost isn't able to speak at all. Not only does the ghost cause me to lean towards insane but as does the killing of his two best friends. Those two did not need to die but he felt betrayed by them and had them killed even though they had no clue what was happening and were the most innocent characters of the entire play. Throughout there is not a point where Hamlet makes a cause for himself that he is thinking rationally. Every action he makes seems like he doesn't think it through to completion or it is the hardest and longest way to achieve his goal. Even his soliloquy is a bit crazy where he talks about suicide and the meaning of being alive that is a little deeper than just grieving a death it seems like Shakespeare uses the death of the senior Hamlet to play off the fact that Hamlet jr. is actually crazy.