Hamlet, Evil or Insane?

Evil Vs. Insane
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, two themes emerge, evil and insanity. Many would argue that Hamlet has one of these themes in his character, but there seems to be more decency and sanity then evil and insanity.   The circumstances Hamlet is forced into give off the faces of evil and insanity but in reality are the reverse. He is burdened with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father’s murder through the instruction of his father’s ghost. In order to correct this wrongdoing, he decides to fake madness and partake in evil as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill King Claudius, the man who assassinated his father and stole the crown.
Hamlet only claims madness because it allows him to speak and perform actions that would otherwise attract unwanted attention, while keeping people from taking his actions seriously.   This would allow Hamlet to murder King Claudius and have people think he acted out of madness. This is shown when he talks to Horatio and Marcellus and informs them of his plan, “To put an antic disposition on-“(Act 1 Scene 5 Line 181). This is further proven when Hamlet talks to his mother and spills everything to her even though his mother still thought him mad because of his talking to the ghost whom she cannot see.
Hamlet does not think as a person who is truly mad would. In the moments where a madman would have lunged at a chance to kill the enemy, Hamlet pauses and rationally     thinks about the effects of his actions. When he sees Claudius praying he thinks very logically, and realizes that he will not attain true revenge if he kills Claudius because by doing so, he

would have sent Claudius straight to heaven. “Now might I do it, now he is a-praying, and now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged…A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.”(Act 3 Scene 3 Line 78).”  
By seeking revenge, Hamlet is not evil. Many good men, if...