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Hamlet Essay

The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is regarded as one of the greatest plays ever written. It is by far Shakespeare’s longest play, and one of the most powerful tragedies in the English Language. The play has a strong dramatic structure and vividly characterizes the persons within the play. These qualities allow the play to be analyzed, interpreted, and argued from many different perspectives and standpoints, which cause many to question the motives and actions of the main character of the play, Hamlet. This is what sparks the question known as the “Hamlet mystery:” Is Hamlet pretending to be crazy, or has he actually lost his sanity? This question has puzzled scholars since the plays creation, which is estimated around the very beginning of the 17th century. Shakespeare leaves many clues in the play to help the reader interpret what is going on in Hamlet’s head, but I feel that despite the different interpretations of Hamlet, he is only pretending to be insane.
There is not much emotion revealed in Hamlet until after he is met by the ghost of his dead father, who claims to have been murdered by his brother, Claudius. Not everything in the play is skeptical, however, as it is made perfectly clear that Hamlet wishes to prove that Claudius actually did kill his father, and that the ghost is actually that of his dad and not a work of the devil. He also at this time directly tells Horatio and Marcellus, both of whom are with Hamlet at the time, "As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on... to note that you know aught of me--this do swear".   (AI:S5   l. 191-192, 201) By saying this, Hamlet was warning Horatio and Marcellus that they should not be panicked if Hamlet is acting crazy in the future, as he will only be pretending. He will pretend to lose his sanity in order to

reveal that it was truly Claudius that murdered his father so he does not doom his soul to hell by killing an innocent man.
In the third act of the...