The Theme Of Insane In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is perceived as insane by everyone in the castle, but what no one knows he is really acting. This is shown through Hamlet’s soliloquy in the act 2, scene 2, line 578, “May be the devil, and the devil hath power T’assume a pleasing shape. Yea, and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy, “. Hamlet is saying how he will pretend to be crazy, so he can take advantage if his weakness and madness. Everyone in the castle thinks Hamlet has gone mad that they’re trying to figure out the cause of his madness. Another dramatic device Shakespeare uses to communicate the theme madness is dramatic irony. When Ophelia tells her father the way Hamlet has been acting, Polonius concludes that Hamlet is