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Is Hamlet Mad?

"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a
handsaw" (II.ii.369-370). This is a classic example of the "wild and whirling words"
(I.v.134) with which Hamlet hopes will persuade people to believe that he is mad. These
words, however, prove that beneath his "antic disposition," (I.V.172). Hamlet is sane.
Under his strange choice of imagery involving points of the compass, the weather, and
hunting birds, he is announcing that he is calculatedly choosing the times when to appear
mad. Hamlet is saying that he knows a hunting hawk from a hunted "handsaw" or heron,
in other words, that, very far form being mad, he is perfectly capable of recognizing his
enemies. Hamlet's madness was faked for a purpose. He warned his friends he intended to
fake madness, but Gertrude as well as Claudius saw through it, and even the slightly
dull-witted Polonius was suspicious. His public face is one of insanity but, in his private
moments of......

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Approximate Word Count: 1576
Approximate Pages: 7 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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