Immediately after seeing the ghost of his father, hamlet makes his friends swear that they will never tell anybody what they saw. Hamlet then warns Horatio that “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ to put an antic disposition on.” (I. 5. 191-192) This passage indicates that Hamlet is planning on acting bizarrely, and he does not want his friends to worry about him. After seeing his father’s ghost, Hamlet also realizes that Claudius, the new King of Denmark, murdered Hamlet’s father. All throughout Act I, Hamlet seems to be thinking and acting rationally. Hamlet is only concerned about his father’s death and his mother’s marriage. This changes when he realizes that spies surround him. He acts strangely around Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, because he knows that she is not allowed to talk to Hamlet by will of her father. Also, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come to Elsinore, castle of the royal Danish family, unexpectedly. Through his friends turning against him, Hamlet knows he is being spied and he acts bizarrely to wait for his revenge.
Even while pretending to be crazy, Hamlet’s thoughts manage to shine through. To indicate that he knows Polonius to be a spy, Hamlet states that “To be honest, as this world goes, is to/ be one man picked out of ten thousand.” (II. 2. 194-195) This statement shows that Hamlet knows he is being lied and spied upon. Hamlet asks his friends if they are honest. Through this, if they answer, they are friends, but if they are hesitant, then Hamlet knows that they are there to spy on him. The spies in fact are so obvious that Hamlet mocks them by pretending to be shocked that a book would say “that old men have gray beards…” (II. 2. 215) At first glance, the statement seems to show that Hamlet is truly insane. The statement, however, proves that Hamlet is sane and mocks his foes. In addition to mocking the spies by using witty words, Hamlet acts very odd around Ophelia. The last conversation he has with her where Polonius and the King scheduled the meeting, Hamlet talked as if he was an insane man. Little does Polonius and the King know, Hamlet knew that Ophelia was not to speak with him any longer. Hamlet then knew that Ophelia must be a spy, working for Polonius and Claudius, and expresses himself in a wittiness, but shows himself in true madness.
Another reason Hamlet pretends to be insane is that he feels trapped in his situation. He is afraid to take action against the King. He is also afraid to sit idly by. Hamlet is very indecisive about his actions, and wants to wait for the perfect time to take his vengeance. The emotional and psychological repression causes Hamlet to think “Denmark’s a prison.” (II. 2. 261) Hamlet uses his trick of madness to deceive others. He only acts mad because Hamlet’s plan is to deceive others, make sure they do not know of his plans. Hamlet does not want to act, and he does not want to run, so Hamlet decides to buy time by pretending to be crazy. He uses this time to think, which in a sense, is the very opposite of actions.
Hamlet acts crazy because he does not want the conspirators to know what he is really thinking about. As long as people see Hamlet as crazy, they will not think that he knows as much as he does. This allows Hamlet to test various people to see how honest and truthful they really are. Hamlet’s wit shining through the insanity, and his apparent cunning through testing various individuals, proves Hamlet’s insanity to be fictitious. The insanity is merely a cover to buy time and to learn of peoples’ true intentions.