Part one of term paper
"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" (II.ii.376-7). This is a classic example of the "wild and whirling words" (I.v.134) with which Hamlet hopes to persuade people to believe that he is mad. These words, however, prove that beneath his "antic disposition," Hamlet is very sane indeed. Bene ...

Part two of term paper
... of recognizing his enemies. Hamlet's madness was feigned for a purpose. He warned his friends he intended to fake madness, but Gertrude as well as Claudius saw through it, and even the slightly dull-witted Polonius was suspicious. His public face is one of insanity but, in his private moments of soliloquy, through his confidences to Horatio, and in his careful plans of action, we see that his madness is assumed. After the Ghost's first appearance to Hamlet, Hamlet decides that when he finds it su ...