Hamlet's sanity has been questioned since there has been a Hamlet. There is a great deal of evidence to support one of the many options about Hamlet's sanity; therefore, there are are a profuse amount of opinions and arguments about Hamlet's sanity. Is he insane or sane? Is he pretending to be insane, which in turn actually makes him insane? Is he sane the whole way through the play, but acting insane to only some of the other characters? All of these are examples of what one may argue for, and there are many more examples outside of these as well. When a character such as Hamlet is put under the microscope to be scrutinized, it can be difficult to determine his actions or thoughts. This scrutinization makes it hard to determine whether Hamlet is sane or not. Nonetheless, it is clear that Hamlet is merely acting insane throughout the play, making it easy for himself to calculate and solve the problems at hand. .
The first reason for arguing that Hamlet is only acting insane is that he warns the people he is close to of his future actions. In the first act of the play, Hamlet tells Horatio that he is going to pretend to be mad. Hamlet tells Horatio he "perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on, " meaning "I may act crazy or mad within the near future " (Shakespeare I.5.171-172). Hamlet also reveals his plan to his mother, furthermore telling her that he is not mad, but "mad in craft " (III.4.188). Additionally, to add to this point, Hamlet's "insanity"" is only revealed when he is around specific characters. Hamlet acts irrationally when around Claudius, Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, .
Ophelia, and Gertrude, however he is fine when he is with his close friends such as Horatio. The ability to control his preposterousness when he is around these particular characters makes it believable that Hamlet is only pretending to be mad.
Another piece of evidence in support of Hamlet's sanity is his conscience and his mindset, which also reveal him to be sane.
