Shakespeares Hamlet?

Question

Through Hamlets soliloquys we are supposed to learn the truth about whether or not he is feigning his madness, do we ever find out the truth or do these soliloquy seem ambiguous? If so what quotes would support the ambiguity of them? Any help would be greaqt thanks

Answer 1

Hamlet may not reveal in his soliloquies whether or not he is mad, but he says several things in other places that suggest he's just pretending:

In 1.5.118-21 he refuses to tell Horatio all of his thoughts because Horatio might "reveal it."  He also tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is only a little mad, "mad but north-north-west" (2.2.402-403), and that he can still "tell a hawk from a handsaw" -- he can distinguish things and therefore still has his wits about him.  Later, Hamlet tells his mother that his isn't really mad, just "mad in craft" or acting mad for a specific purpose (3.4.188-199).

Answer 2

My understanding is that the very cause of hamlets madness was his inability to act on what he wants to do. He erases all his memory and fixes his intentions on one goal

1. Act 1 Scene 4: I wipe away all fond trivial records and thy commandment alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain etc.

2. Conscience makes cowards of us all

3. How like a w***e I must unpack my heart with words

4. Nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take up arms against a sea of troubles