“Is Hamlet the “Melancholy Dane”, or does he simply use his melancholia to his advantage in his vengeance? When approaching this play many people like to bring up to question whether or not Hamlet is insane, or simply grieving is mischief. Most come to the conclusion that Hamlet has been drawn to insanity. This would be understandable if those people were not giving him the credit he deserved. How long would your sanity last if your father died while seemingly healthy, your mother married your uncle, and not even more than two months later, you’ve seen a ghost, and that ghost looks just like your recently deceased father and it tells you that your new king killed your father. All the while everyone involved but yourself showed no sign of indifference towards anything happening, as if everything was all the same. Hamlet was no tradesman, he was well schooled. He knew how to think deeply, and be methodical and keen. The story begins with tragedy though despite everything, Hamlet is able to …show more content…
Hamlet lets himself almost become lost in his sadness, and depression. The new king, his uncle, looms ever-present for him now, at the worst possible time too. King Claudius says horrid things such as, “A surviving son is obliged to show proper sorrow for a while. But to continue in obstinate woe is to act with stubborn irreverence”, and “It is unmanly grief.”(1.2.92) This incestuous man tries to insert himself into Hamlets life like a parasite. “… I offer you a love no less noble than that which the fondest father feels for his son. As for your intention of going back to school in Wittenberg, it is completely against my wishes”, the King says as he tries to manipulate Hamlet.(1.2.112) All Hamlet could desire at this point in his life would be to be left at peace, to figure things out in his life. His world is turned upside down before he ever gets the chance, though, straining and testing Hamlets
He goes from general melancholy to pretend madness, to this in-between state, to full on hallucinations. It all started in the very beginning, his grieving method was really the determinate of all the following consequences. He chose to deal with his grief through revenge and deceit and hate, partly because he was looked down upon by everyone for dealing with it in any other typical way. Hamlet didn’t start out as a crazy person, I'm not even sure if he was predisposed to the sickness, however, under the right circumstances and in the right mindset, anyone can teeter towards their side of insanity. Hamlet is just one of many examples of a person lingering too long and embodying the madness they once just faked. This is prevalent not only in pieces of literature, but also in
There is a distinct division of opinion among the other characters of the play about Hamlet's sanity and the split is along gender lines. Ophelia and Gertrude both state that Hamlet has gone mad, but the major male characters, on the other hand, like Polonius think that there is "method" in Hamlet's "madness," that his insanity is a surface mask to shield him as he plans the darker purpose of revenge. Since Hamlet is disturbed by the sudden death of his father and his mother's marriage to his uncle, King Claudius, the abnormality of his behavior to some extent is also understandable. Hamlet is naturally withdrawn, dark, and passive in the wake of those traumatic events. He also shows this when he constantly releases his anger with lines like "How (weary), stale, flat, and unprofitable seems to me all the uses of this world!" His self-exile and his self-reproach are essentially normal reactions to a series of events that he must avenge at his dead father's command but without further direction against a powerful chain of power within the guilty King.
Hamlet is very private with his grief. His mourning for his father is long and drawn out. He mulls over how he is going to act and defers action until a perfect moment.
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is laden with tragedy from the start, and this adversity is reflected in the title character. Being informed of his father’s murder and the appalling circumstances surrounding the crime, Hamlet is given the emotionally taxing task of avenging his death. It is clear that having to complete this grim undertaking takes its toll on Hamlet emotionally. Beginning as a seemingly contemplative and sensitive character, we observe Hamlet grow increasingly depressed and deranged as the play wears on. Hamlet is so determined to make his father proud that he allows the job on hand to completely consume him. We realize that Hamlet has a tendency to mull and ponder excessively, which causes the notorious delays of action
Hamlet is as much a story of emotional conflict, paranoia, and self-doubt as it is one of revenge and tragedy. The protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, is instructed by his slain father’s ghost to enact vengeance upon his uncle Claudius, whose treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father gave way to his rise to power. Overcome by anguish and obligation to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet ultimately commits a number of killings throughout the story. However, we are not to view the character Hamlet as a sick individual, but rather one who has been victimized by his own circumstances.
“To be, or not to be: That is the question” (III.i.56). In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet is a young man who has become crazy from his trials and tribulations in life. He loses his father due to his uncle murdering him and then had to watch his mother marry the killer. Hamlets insanity can be demonstrated by his crude language and disregard for the wellbeing of his mother. It can also be shown by his depression, which causes him to second guess everything, including his life. Finally, his love, Ophelia helps to justify his absurdness by acting as a mirror. His foolish behavior worries many in the kingdom and creates a hostile and paranoid environment for those around. While some in the castle may believe that Hamlet is putting on an act, he proves that he is mad through his violent actions, his mental health and Ophelia.
Hamlet’s insanity can be thought of as a tragedy or misconception of reality. The death of his father had shaped the first few impressions of his own persona as well as a new experience with his new aunt. As a result of his genius insanity prince Hamlet has devised a plan to make things more clear to the audience. “Hamlet’s behavior strikes the audience as abnormal on several occasions. For example, Hamlet seems to be really mad when he is in front of Ophelia in disordered clothes. He behaves as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of the horror”. As the progress of the play foreshadows a significant end to his insanity that he acts upon. As the play progresses throughout, Hamlet finds ways in order to give others the impression that he has lost his sanity from his “love” of Polonius’s daughter Ophelia. “(Ophelia)He grabbed me by the wrist and held me hard, then backed away an arm’s length and just looked at me, staring at me like an artist about to paint my
Much has been has been discussed of Hamlet’s madness and insanity. There have been endless arguments of whether his madness is feigned or unfeigned. Although, minimal arguments have been made about Hamlet’s pessimism. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare 's most pessimistic plays, and as such it delivers the message that in a fallen world, reality often fails to match the ideal. The human experiences held up for pessimistic contemplation in Hamlet includes death, grief, loneliness, insanity, loss of meaning in life, breakdown of relationships, and the corruption of the basic institutions of life. Hamlet, as the main character, is the embodiment of such pessimism throughout the play.
The play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, when broken down to its essence, is about a man who seeks fulfillment in life or death. Hamlet’s life before his father’s death was one of ease and comfort as seen by him living in Germany as a college student. However, with King Hamlet’s death, his complacency is destroyed, and he is left feeling unsatisfied with life. He returns to Denmark and his family to mourn the loss of his father, but in less than two months the rest of the palace has moved on while Hamlet continues to mourn (1.2.138). This causes an emotional response from Hamlet to do something to ease the pain of his misfortune, that something being either suicide or murder. While many emotions and people motivate and persuade Hamlet’s course of action, such as depression, the ghost, Laertes, and revenge, in the end, revenge pushes Hamlet into action with support from Laertes.
Hamlet faces challenges throughout the play that try his inner strengths and test his ability to handle the situation. He is torn between wanting to seek justice, and avenge his father’s death. Hamlet is also caught up in an intricate web of lies and deceit, he is considered mad by most characters when in all actuality it is just playing off of the actions of others to benefit himself. He puts on different acts trying to hide the truth, which makes him seem sincerely mad to the people around him. The truth of the matter is that Hamlet can’t decide whether or not his convictions are accurate. This dilemma ultimately leads to not only the deaths of the main characters, but the downfall of the kingdom.
Hamlet’s predicaments have caused him to descend into depression and now that he is depressed without anyone to love and support him, he cannot escape his melancholy. Feeling trapped by his circumstance, Hamlet seeks to end his worldly pain and find happiness by ending his
Hamlets father was king married to Queen Gertrude but Hamlet had to return home to attend his funeral. He was a loving son; mourning, only to figure out his mother (the queen) had already married once more. The Queen’s new husband is King Claudius who is Hamlets uncle and the deceased King’s brother. This betrayal was like none other in Hamlet’s eyes. He knew right anyway from a feeling that Claudius was responsible for King Hamlet’s death. Hamlet even worried and sometimes assumed that his mother was part of the planning or even killing of his father. Returning home immediately became about getting revenge on the people that hurt his family and even in some cases that meant his mother. Hamlet was a smart man and very cunning but in the end it doesn’t work out for anyone.
Hamlet is obscure and surprising, and, therefore, confounding because he subverts others’ expectations and never reacts with a predictable response to his own emotions or the expectations of other characters. In addition, it is worth noting that it is not only Hamlet’s curious speech that alienates others. Hamlet’s obsessive pessimism also begins to affect all of his relationships and becomes a large part of who he is as a character. In an otherwise superficial conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet insists that the world has become a prison with “Denmark being one o’ th’ worst” (2.2.265), and he presses the men to explain why they would want to visit him in the place that torments him. Hamlet’s relationship with his mother is also troubling. While he is justified in questioning her decision to marry Claudius before her husband’s corpse has even cooled, Hamlet is sarcastic and demeaning towards her, provoking her to ask “What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue/In noise so rude against me?” (3.4.47-48) These brief and often sarcastic interactions with other characters help define Hamlet as a pessimistic character and cause the reader to anticipate that his perceptions of events will be, almost always, clouded with this characteristic darkness of
First we can analyze hamlet being devastated by his fathers death. It is only fair to understand the pain he must have felt, and on top of that he is supposed to be the heir to the throne of Denmark. Instead, his uncle takes it from him by marrying his mother, Gertrude, so quick. By looking through the psychoanalytic lens, we first look at his id or unconscious, which are our most desired dreams or hopes that are deep within our mind, also known as the “pleasure principle: is the