Mental Illness In Hamlet Essay

The novel by William Shakespeare is a very famous piece of literature. There is a lot of controversy on whether or not Hamlet is truly insane. Everything he does throughout the whole play is well thought out in great detail. In my opinion I believe Hamlet is actually not insane but rather an intelligent person that thought everything through in great detail. Some of the things he does have good and reliable reasons to be done.

“Mood disorder: although Hamlet worries a lot, he doesn’t avoid situations that cause him to worry. He confronts the ghost of his father as it appears before him. Also, he presents two symptoms namely restlessness or feeling on the edge and irability.” (Character Analysis of Hamlet, Psychological Disorders, Sept. 22, 2012).

Hamlet had a lot of things in his life gone wrong. For an example his father (the king at the time) was murdered by his own brother the new king. At the end of the book his mother and ophelia end up dead to. Hamlet was obsessed with his father being murdered and tried to seek revenge upon his murderer. At the end of the book hamlet ended up killing polonius because he thought it was Claudius (the new king). He was putting other people in harm's way too make claudius too confess. Hamlet has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of depression, self-destructive behavior, and unwanted memories of the trauma.

While it is true that Hamlet was merely playing the role of someone who had gone mad, many people may say that Hamlet’s madness was brought upon himself simply by the fact that he was trying to fulfill the orders from his dead father yet couldn’t because of his lack of acting upon a plan. It is strongly possible that Hamlet became extremely frustrated because every chance he got to expose Claudius and capture him in this enormous secret, he failed to do so. Therefore, Hamlet’s madness could be judged as reasonable but most likely for different reasons than one may think. Rather than going mad over the concrete facts that his father died and his mother remarried his uncle less than two months afterwards, he drove himself mad over his own flaws. Hamlet’s tragic flaw absolutely led to his tragic downfall as a

In the playwright Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet often shows many signs of depression. It is argued whether he is putting on the act, or if he is actually severely depressed. I believe after the death of his father, Hamlet becomes very emotionally unstable. Three things affect Hamlet, the death of his father, the remarriage of his mother, and Ophelia. Hamlet contemplates death, and becomes prepared to die near the end of the play.

One of William Shakespeare's most well- known characters is Hamlet. This story has a great plot and entices the reader throughout the entire play. A controversial part of the play is whether the main character Hamlet is sane or insane. Readers may argue that Hamlet is insane, but, due to his cunning remarks and decisive plans, Hamlet is not mad, but instead completely sane.

Hamlet went crazy throughout the play in a number of ways. Hamlet saw his father's ghost and he didn't know what he was supposed to do. He was told by the ghost that his dad was murdered and that the death was not from natural causes. Right away, he starts plotting his revenge so that he can avenge his father’s death. So that he could even the score. Hamlet says, "Haste me to know ’t that I, with wings as swift as mediation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge" (I. v. 30). At the point in the play where Hamlet is in his mother's room, Polonius makes a noise from behind the curtain where he was hiding. Hamlet thinks that it is Claudius and since he really wants to kills him, he goes and stabs the curtain with Polonius behind it and he dies. Right before he stabs Polonius, he says, “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!”(Stabs his sword through the arras and kills Polonius)(III, iv. 24). Hamlet goes insane in this part because the need to kill Claudius is so great that people around him are dying and he is

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one of the most evident and important themes is the theme of madness. The theme is apparent throughout the play, mainly through the actions and thoughts of Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes. Madness is defined as the quality or condition of mental illness or derangement (being insane). Madness is at the center of the conflicts and problems of the play and is conveyed through Shakespeare’s elaborate use of manipulation and parallels between Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes to contribute to Hamlet’s tragic character.

Did you ever notice there are many characters in Hamlet that have mental disorders? Hamlet has a few characters that could possibly be diagnosed with a mental health disorder. At the beginning of the story, Hamlets dad is possibly murdered and Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, takes over the king spot. Hamlet's father's ghost arrives in the castle, it causes suspicions with the whole remarrying right after the death. He becomes very confused on how and why his father passed away. Due to the confusion and questions Hamlet wants answered, he could have developed a mental health disorder in the process of trying to figure things out.

   Shakespeare's Hamlet is a master of deception. Hamlet decides to make Claudius believe that he is insane, but the scheme backfires when everyone, except Claudius, falls for it. Ophelia is one of those who believes Hamlet lost his mind, and when he does not return her love, she is so brokenhearted that she commits suicide. Near the end of the tragedy, Hamlet plays the part so well, that he convinces himself he is insane. Clearly, Hamlet's plan to put on an antic disposition is a tragic error.

Great authors can develop the same idea in different ways. Shakespeare introduces the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia to mental illness throughout “Hamlet”. Hamlet a, Depressed and Monomaniacal Psychopath, runs off of the vengeance of his father to kill his uncle, King Claudius. Ophelia A victim of, hysteria and depression, cannot function without the support of her father and lover without this support she can loses the will to live. Shakespeare uses metaphors, gender, tone, and word choice to develop the progression of mental illness in his characters throughout “Hamlet”.

His diminishing outlook on women is, in fact, not the only attribute that affects Hamlet throughout the play. There are various conclusions in academic journals regarding Hamlet's mental state, all of them agreeing or refuting the theory that Hamlet is mad throughout the play. Despite having sufficient evidence, the analyzation of this play is subjective and no definitive conclusion has been made. Nonetheless, one opinion remains to be the most popular: Hamlet is not mad, yet encounters various feelings regarding mental and emotional health.

     When we first meet Hamlet, he is a sad, dark, loathsome figure; the loss of his father and the whoring of his mother have upset him indefinitely. Like a ticking time bomb, Hamlet’s noticeable temper reflects the storm of emotions and thoughts brewing in his head, and then like a catalyst, his meeting with the Ghost of King Hamlet brings his anger to a boil. With revenge in mind, Hamlet plans to fake his madness so that he may be free to pursue his father’s killer. Everyone, except his close friend Horatio, seems convinced that he is mad. Claudius however, fearful that someone will discover his evil deed, has also had his perceptions heightened by his guilt and he experiences chronic paranoia throughout the

As stated by Ms. Turk, “If a person in a rational state of mind decides to act crazy, to abuse the people around him regardless of whether he loves those people or hates them, and to give free expression to all his antisocial thoughts, when he starts to carry out those actions, its it possible to say at what point the stops pretending and starts actually being crazy?”. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the way others interpret Hamlet’s behavior is different from the way Hamlet views himself.

After the murder of his father, the main character in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has seem to gone crazy. Many readers of the widely-loved play say that Prince Hamlet was just acting like he had gone mad. On the other hand, Hamlet showed his genuine mania throughout the length of the play. Depression is a reason a person may swing into the loop of insanity. Hamlet was dealing with a lot of triggering situations that could lead to depression.