Hamlet: Hamlet's Sanity “Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.” Though John Dryden's quote was not made in regard to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, it relates very well to the argument of whether or not Hamlet went insane. When a character such as Hamlet is under scrutiny, it can sometimes be difficult to determine what state he is in at particular moments in the play. Nonetheless, Hamlet merely pretends to be insane so that he can calculate his moves according to the situation at hand. There are many situations throughout the play that are enough to bring Hamlet to insanity. Take, for example, Act IV, scene II, after Polonius's death. Ham