The Hamlet Project

There’s a line – or a chapter maybe even – in Backwards and Forwards, that boils down to “everybody’s lunacy about Hamlet.” It’s about the question of whether Hamlet is really crazy. There are those who believe he is. They’re little Poloniuses- little Poloniui – asserting that Hamlet goes crazy in this play. They seemingly look at the play through Polonius’ eyes by seeing that:
1) Hamlet acted a bit crazy towards his daughter
2) He does act crazy every time he talks to Polonius. That whole camel/whale/fishmonger bit.
Now that I think of it, most of Hamlet’s crazy scenes seem to be designed for Polonius’ benefit. He puts his antic disposition primarily for Polonius, who falls for it, hook line and sinker.