Is he mad, or is he not mad - that is the question.
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet was thought to have gone mad or insane. There is reason to believe that he was mad, however, there are clues that suggest other wise. Hamlet truly was not insane because of his physical and emotional abilities that he was able to maintain throughout the play. There are several clues within the text that show quite obviously that Hamlet's madness was not true madness. .
The physical aspects that prove that Hamlet was not mad was that he was able to take care of his appearance. The only exception to this was when he was with Ophelia in the bedroom. This was the only time his appearance had been disregarded. He looked affright "with his doublet all unbraced,/ no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,/ ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle" (II i 97-90). The reason for this was that if he was going to be able to fool people into believing that he was insane, he would have to convince Ophelia of this since she was closest to him. She would have been able to see right through him. He had to put on a better act for Ophelia if he was going to convince people that he was truly insane. Another clue was at the burial of Ophelia. He could have stayed hidden, yet when he found out that it was Ophelia that was dead, he went .
out to say good bye to his love one last time. Seeing Ophelia dead was a reality shock to Hamlet, and his true feelings were brought out. The things he told Ophelia about not loving her were not true, he actually "loved Ophelia" (V i 285). He also stated that "forty thousand brothers/ could not with all their quantity of love/ make up [his] sum" (V i 285-287). The other clues that shows that Hamlet was not mad was that he was able to write a play to fit the crime that Claudius did to his father. He did this to prove to himself if the ghost was telling the truth or not. This helps to show that he is not really insane, not only physically, but mentally as well.
