"Hamlet is not an abstract thinker and a dreamer. As his imagination betrays us, he is rather a man endowed with a greater power of observation than others. He is capable of scrutinizing reality with a sharper eye to penetrate... to the core of things"Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay-Wolfgang Clemen (1951)The question of Hamlet's madness or his façade of madness has been the central question of discussion among "Hamlet" readers throughout the centuries. Yet no one ever takes into consideration the sanity of the surrounding characters in the given conditions and circumstances of the play. How credible is Claudius in declaring Hamlet mad when there seems to be a clear lack of sanity and decency in his brother's murder and his sister-in-law's marital union? Furthermore, if Hamlet is mad, how sane is Gertrude since she almost immediately remarries her deceased husband's brother? And the Danish court? The expression of indifference and expressed consent to such an incestuous act must grant this society the sanity and credibility needed to label someone crazy, of course. If Hamlet is sick with madness, it is the madness of his perspicacity. As Clemens had said, Hamlet possesses "greater powers of observation... and a keener eye of penetration" than the others. It is precisely Hamlet's ability to see the depth of his time and his people that allows those who are not so intelligent and perceptive, therefore intolerant of his seemingly "mad" or radical opinions, to call him mad. a revolutionary thinker and philosopher of his time is the cause of his famous "madness". Hamlet is able to see beyond his time and criticize "down to the core of things" (Clemen, 1951) the defects and weaknesses of Danish society. Because of such iconoclastic, perhaps even precocious, views as his criticisms of “a custom (drinking) more honored in violation than in observance…this…makes us slandered and taxed by other nations…. they believe we are drunks and with swine phrases we dirty our addition" ("Hamlet", act 1. sc. 4), other characters who conform to the beliefs and behaviors of the time and setting perceive Hamlet as a dangerous man with "crazy" ideas. Perhaps even more evident in Hamlet's isolation due to his elite intelligence is his solitary stance against marriage. In his soliloquy in which he criticizes hasty marriage, "why she (O God, a beast that wants the discourse of reason would have cried longer) married to my uncle, my father's brother, but no longer like a father than I was with Hercules. Within a month... he remarried... with such dexterity towards incestuous sheets" ("Hamlet", Act 1. Sc 2), Hamlet demonstrates enormous frustration, as it seems that he is the only one who sees the lack of ethics and prudence in this marriage. Hamlet's exact and unconventional belief in maintaining marital fidelity even after the death of his spouse confirms Clemen's analysis of him as a "gifted" thinker who is beyond his time.2EPPerhaps, what most exemplifies Hamlet's superior thinking is his famous soliloquy of life and death. While others foolishly give in to the ambition of affected honor, such as sacrificing 20,000 soldiers for a worthless portion of Polish land, Hamlet ponders "to be or not to be" ("Hamlet", Act 3. Sc. 1). intelligence speaks of the suffering and problems of life, and of the "sleep" that everyone desires, because it puts an end to these problems, but repels them, for fear of the unknown. If Hamlet had been an ignorant brute, the encounter with the Ghost would have already spurred him to action.