Madness in Hamlet
DRAFT- NOT MLA-LACKS FORMATTING/REFERENCES
Hamlet-Melancholy, Madness and Sanity
Hamlet, a play by William Shakespeare, is as much a mystery as a tale about depression, madness and sanity. Shakespeare reveals how the scourge of corruption and decay rapidly spread; and the emotional consequences that follow. Insanity, madness and depression are as intolerable as corruption and deceit; and just as intertwined. The play makes one ponder if it is possible to be sane in an insane world full of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption? By examining the themes of melancholy, madness and sanity in Hamlet, Shakespeare details his character’s descent from depression to madness. Additionally, Hamlet’s psychological state can be analyzed by utilizing modern psychological diagnoses, in order to understand his mental state.
Throughout the story, Hamlet exists in a melancholy state, "essentially not in madness, / But mad in craft" (3.4.204-205). Hamlet states to Horatio “as I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on” in order to deceive the king that he is insane (Act I, Scene V, Line 190). However, was Hamlet acting or was he already mentally disturbed? Did Hamlet go mad in the end, or was Hamlet insane from the start of the play, and his mental condition only worsened as the play unfolded? The world in which Hamlet existed appears hostile. The king is a murderer; his mother the queen lusts after her deceased husband’s brother; friends spy and deceive one another; and Hamlet’s lover Ophelia literally loses touch with reality. Hamlet believes that only suicide can free him from his misery.
Hamlet is not the only person struggling with depression. From the beginning, Francisco says, “’Tis bitter cold, / And I am sick at heart”. Marcellus states that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (). Fear is spread by the ghost of King Claudius wandering the city streets. Reoccurring themes of corruption result in Hamlet stating
Hamlet-Melancholy, Madness and Sanity
Hamlet, a play by William Shakespeare, is as much a mystery as a tale about depression, madness and sanity. Shakespeare reveals how the scourge of corruption and decay rapidly spread; and the emotional consequences that follow. Insanity, madness and depression are as intolerable as corruption and deceit; and just as intertwined. The play makes one ponder if it is possible to be sane in an insane world full of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption? By examining the themes of melancholy, madness and sanity in Hamlet, Shakespeare details his character’s descent from depression to madness. Additionally, Hamlet’s psychological state can be analyzed by utilizing modern psychological diagnoses, in order to understand his mental state.
Throughout the story, Hamlet exists in a melancholy state, "essentially not in madness, / But mad in craft" (3.4.204-205). Hamlet states to Horatio “as I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on” in order to deceive the king that he is insane (Act I, Scene V, Line 190). However, was Hamlet acting or was he already mentally disturbed? Did Hamlet go mad in the end, or was Hamlet insane from the start of the play, and his mental condition only worsened as the play unfolded? The world in which Hamlet existed appears hostile. The king is a murderer; his mother the queen lusts after her deceased husband’s brother; friends spy and deceive one another; and Hamlet’s lover Ophelia literally loses touch with reality. Hamlet believes that only suicide can free him from his misery.
Hamlet is not the only person struggling with depression. From the beginning, Francisco says, “’Tis bitter cold, / And I am sick at heart”. Marcellus states that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (). Fear is spread by the ghost of King Claudius wandering the city streets. Reoccurring themes of corruption result in Hamlet stating
References: Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Ed. Floyd Dell and Paul JordanSmith, NewYork: Tudor Publishing Co., 1941. Morin, Gertrude. "Depression and Negative Thinking: A Cognitive Approach to Hamlet." Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 25.1 (1992): 112.