Circles

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. In Shakespeare’s play entitled “Hamlet” the main character Hamlet spends most of the play contemplating whether or not he will avenge his father. He does this by investigating Claudius to see if he is guilty, even though he already acknowledged the fact that Claudius is guilty, by constantly putting on a show of madness for everyone in the court, and by speaking performative utterances. All of these actions display a level of insanity that transcends sociopathic, psychopathic, and schizophrenic behavior. Hamlet isn’t mad in the traditional sense; he is mad in his own sense. In each instance he is expecting, maybe even hoping, for a different result to alleviate him of the obligation he has to his father, but he gets none and the knowledge of what he has to do viciously cycles around in his head making him crazier and crazier.

One method to Hamlet’s madness is his investigation of Claudius. Hamlet doesn’t want Claudius to be guilty because then that would mean he would have to kill him. The fact that he learned of Claudius’s guilt from the ghost of his father gives evidence to the fact that he isn’t in his right mind, and maybe the apparition was a product of his knowledge of his father’s death. No one except Hamlet ever actually spoke to the ghost so maybe it was a form of his conscience appearing to him in a hallucination. The insanity of the whole thing is evident in the fact that he orchestrated the mouse trap even though he knew of Claudius’s guilt. He wanted the players to elicit some emotion from Claudius that disproved his theory so he wouldn’t have to take action. That’s why he was so moved by their outward performance. Again Claudius’s guilt was evident, and yet the distress of having to choose to take a human life unhinged Hamlet. Before the play he said, “Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damned ghost that we have seen, And my imaginations are as foul As Vulcan's stithy.” In this quote he is recognizing that the thoughts in his brain are foul and unwelcome adding even more to his hope that Claudius is innocent. This hope fuels his insanity as he expects a different result every time.

As the play progresses Hamlet puts on a show of madness to the whole court because he wants them to recognize his cry for help. He expects a different outcome every time he says something crazy because he wants the people around him to tell him he’s not crazy and that he doesn’t have to kill Claudius, but they can’t. His utterances aren’t taken lightly, and like De Boer said in his paper, “Polonius is vulnerable to Hamlet because of this mechanistic vision of human nature; madness, for him, is “madness”, and decent, sane behavior is as formalized and conventional as the various ceremonies of state that orbit around him.” The people around Hamlet are vulnerable to his performance because of their pre-existing ideas of madness, which constitute exactly the methods Hamlet uses to act out his madness. In his own way Hamlet is preserving his insanity by carrying out the same “experiment” and expecting people to realize that he’s stuck in a mad cycle. This might give evidence to the fact that Hamlet knows he’s insane and he doesn’t want to be sane, because sane people have to stick to convention. Hamlet uses his insanity to escape his situation and the constrictions society has put upon him. “This gives him the rhetorical space to explore various presentations of his own identity, and what better time for such exploration than within a performance of madness?” This quote supports the fact that Hamlet is using his madness to explore himself and show his true visage.

Hamlet explores his inner thoughts through speech, which contributes to Bloom’s theory of self-hearing which states that by listening to one’s own speech that person can discover things about themselves. Hamlet has many lines in the play which reveal to him the truth of himself and his situation, yet he doesn’t act on those revelations. This is because he continually reveals his thoughts with the intent of changing his own mind. He never succeeds in his venture because almost every time he ponders, he feeds his insanity and convinces himself that killing Claudius would be the right thing to do. It is a constant theme that Hamlet can’t translate his thoughts into actions. “Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, A scullion!” In this quote Hamlet is bashing on himself because he can’t take action which only strengthens the argument that he knows Claudius is guilty and he should take action. The fact that he is prompted to these lamentations proves that he is insane because he is trying to spur himself into action, but he keeps getting the same result which is no action at all. He is stuck trying to convince himself not to kill Claudius, and trying to prompt himself to do the actual deed.

When people think of circuses and Rumpelstiltskin they associate those two symbols with insanity and the abnormal. The spinning of the carousel and the spinning wheel are just two examples of endless circles that people can get stuck in. They are never ending cycles that produce no new results. Hamlet’s circles are his speech, his investigation of Claudius, and his outward show of madness. Each time he presents his insanity he expects a different result, whether it be to convince himself not to kill Claudius or to get the people around him to notice his dilemma. This feeds his inner torture as he tries to break the cycle of avenging his father’s death and get his life back.