The Cause Of Hamlet's Madness

Brenden Jewsikow
Ms. Walter
LA 12 ACA
1 Apr. 2016
Hamlet Madness

In William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, Hamlet allows his madness to cause him to behave irrationally. Hamlet's madness causes him to make many irrational decisions. Starting with hearing the news about his father's death, and then the spirit of his father appearing in his bedroom. The spirit tells him that Claudius was the one that killed him and that he needs to seek revenge in place of his father. This causes the beginning of Hamlet's madness in the tragedy. His madness continues to build up throughout the play finally until he was not able to take it anymore. When Claudius ended up poisoning Hamlet's mother all the anger inside of him snapped. He killed Claudius and not in any type of polite way either, he made Claudius suffer for all the pain he had caused him. Hamlet’s irrational behaviors which stem from his madness can be explained using principles of behavior economics.
His intention to act strange or odd and to put on a show with his actions is not the only indication of his madness. Hamlet did not allow himself to think situations through, he was so focused on seeking revenge that he did not even realize how insane he was really acting the whole time. Behavior economist Malcolm Gladwell, writes that we don’t realize right away what is occurring so we act rashly (50). This explains why Hamlet acted out so angrily, especially when the ghost of his father told him that it was Claudius that killed him. His first reaction was to believe and seek revenge acting