How Is Hamlet Losing His Mind

Losing his mind and out of control Hamlet is a lost cause, or that's what he wants people to think at least. In this Elizabethan play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the main character of the story is Hamlet, a young prince and the rightful heir to the throne after his father's death. In an unfortunate turn of events his uncle Claudius and the murderer of his father, the late King Hamlet, becomes the new king and marries his mother. Just when Hamlet is about to give up he meets the ghost of his father who tells Hamlet to revenge his death and kill Claudius, in an skillful effort the prince creates a plan to hire actors and reply his father's death in front of the new king in order to make him give in and admit to his wicked murder.
Claudius has no idea Hamlet is there and the prince thinks of this as an advantage to him, this is where he plans to kill the King. Lost in thought, Hamlet decides that if he does kill Claudius he does not want it to be in a confession booth, he says “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, And now I'll do 't. [He draws his sword.] And so he goes to heaven And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.”(iii iii 186) Many Hamlet scholars think that Hamlet is scared to kill Claudius and the only reason he even thinks of this is because the ghost of his father tells him too. This decision that Hamlet makes prolongs the death and gives him more time to think, this in the end is not a good decision for the young prince and keeps the play very suspenseful. During the time after this part in the play Hamlet is talking to his mother in her room, he hears a noise and thinks it is the king so without thinking he rushes to the curtain and begins to stab what he thinks is Claudius ese dropping on their conversation. The mysterious noise in the curtain turns out to be Polonius, Hamlet then becomes a murderer and uses this accident to his advantage against the