Hamlet, a well-known play written by Shakespeare is a story where a fair amount of ink has been spilled. Hamlet acts outwardly mad to conceal a violent plan to avenge his murdered father. However, many people wonder if Hamlet's madness was real. Based on the article Hamlet's Grief by Arthur Kirsh, I believe that Hamlet really only feigned madness; any additional instability came from bereavement and not from true mental illness. This article not only discusses the story and character of Hamlet, but it tells the reader about Hamlet's madness. This tells them that Hamlet's emotional characteristics make him do what he does, which is go mad or pretend to be mad. He talks about how his ideas are affected by inner consciousness and his neuroscience. Basically this article is trying to prove that nothing can be done without emotions and that one's madness is caused by one's emotions. In this source, the author shows how crazy Hamlet was by repeating his strategy of trying to expose his father's murder through the play “Mouse Trap”. This source states that Hamlet's grief can be traced to many events in the play, with the greatest influence being the death of his father. Other influences discussed by this source are the fact that her newly widowed mother married her uncle only about a month after her father's death and the fact that Ophelia let her brother and father influence her love for Hamlet. Another interesting theory was that no one gave Hamlet any money. sympathy in his moments of grief when he really needed it, which led to his madness. As Arthur Kirsch writes, “If revenge composes the plot of the revenge play, grief composes its essential content, its substance” (17). As Kirsch notes, from his first appearance...... middle of paper ......e driven only by passion and the desire for revenge, while Hamlet only seeks a "match d “friendly fencing”. Ultimately, Hamlet only deals the final blow to his uncle after his betrayal has become known, when there is no longer any doubt left to question Hamlet's morality. Hamlet's judgment was clearly clouded, but not because of psychosis. In response to emotional trauma: a call for vengeance from the ghost of his father and immoral behavior from those around him, Hamlet acted out of a passionate sense of morality: his conscience was still there, just temporarily silenced. Any rash action Hamlet may have taken was caused by external factors, rather than his own folly...and was perhaps even justified! Works Cited Kirsch, Arthur. “Hamlet’s Sorrow.” Johns Hopkins University Press 48.1 (1981): 17-36. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Internet. March 23. 2011.