Plucking Out the Heart of His Mystery: Was Hamlet Mad? "I will be brief. Your noble son is mad," states Polonius (II.ii.92). "O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown,” Ophelia exclaims (III.i.142). "Alas, he's mad," concludes Gertrude (III.iv.107). “ I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw,” professes Hamlet (II.ii.331). Four hundred years later the debate still rages. It seems odd Hamlet’…showed first 75 words of 641 total…

…showed last 75 words of 641 total…Friends and Families. NewYork: Oxford University, 1978. Montano, Rocco. Shakespeare’s Concept of Tragedy: The Bard as Anti-Elizabethian. Chicago: Regnery-Gateway, 1985. Siegal, Paul N. Shakespearean Tragedy and the Elizabethan Compromise: A Marxist Study. 1957. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983. Scott, Mark W., ed. Shakespeare for Students. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 2 vols. Mack, Maynard. “Overviews.” Shakespeare for Students. Ed. Mark W. Scott. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 2 vols. Bloom, Harold., ed. Major Literary Characters: Hamlet. New York: Chelsea House, 1990.