Hamlet (Shakespeare) : The problem of Hamlet's madness

The problem of madness is perhaps the most maddening problem in Hamlet. Some critics are of the view that Hamlet is sane throughout but feigns insanity. Others hold the opinion that Hamlet’s madness is less than madness and more than feigned. Before the play begins, Hamlet is clearly a sensitive and idealistic young man, who conceives the finest thoughts and exhibits great intellectual quality. Some critics are of the opinion that under the pressure of these two circumstances – his mother’s hasty marriage ,and the Ghost’s revelation – Hamlet lost his reason.

He talks rationally and shows great intellectual power in his conversations with Horatio. He receives the players with kind courtesy and his refinement of behaviour towards them shows that he is not mad.
In the first act we are told by Hamlet himself that he is going to feign madness to carry out his entrusted task of avenging his father’s murder.

When Polonius wants to pluck out some information from him, Hamlet distracts him by his witty remark, “Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in the shape of a camel?”
The next to suspect the real nature of his madness is his own school fellows Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. Guildenstern finds crafty madness in him and Hamlet himself reveals the truth to them.
He tells Guildenstern that he cannot make him a “wholesome answer”, as his “wits are diseased”, and it is of no use if he expected to “ pluck out the heart of his mystery/ And sound him from the lowest note to the top of his compass.” When Rosencrantz is unable to comprehend his witty remarks, Hamlet simply states:
“A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.”

Hamlet enacts the ‘Mousetrap’ play to confirm Claudius’ guilt. This does not sound like a mad man’s action. Only a man of wisdom could plan everything systematically and arrive at the expected conclusion.

One can trace the glimpses of the true insanity in Hamlet’s actions. For example his actions of rushing headlong towards a beckoning ghost, rashly running his rapier through Polonius without seeing him, speaking to Yorick’s skull, and leaping into Ophelia’s grave to grapple with Laertes hardly fit the description of one within the control of his senses. We can sum up above discussion in the words of Bradley:
"Hamlet is not mad, he is fully responsible for his actions. But he suffers from melancholia a pathological state which may develop into lunacy. His melancholy accounts for his nervous excitability, his longing for death, his irresolution and delay.”