Prince of Paranoia: A study of Hamlet?s Personality Disorder

Shakespeare fancies the application of ghosts in his plays, Hamlet is no exception. Scholars argue that the ghost in Hamlet is only a figment of Hamlet’s imagination, but how does that explain others witnessing the apparition. Hamlet’s mental state is declining throughout the play, but what is the true cause? From an external view Hamlet appears insane, whether or not he is insane is left ambiguous. If he is insane, is the traumatic loss of his father causing Hamlet to see a ghost or is the ghost real indeed?

In the beginning of the play the main character, Hamlet, gets a visit from the ghost of his father that has recently deceased unexpectedly. His father’s ghost appears throughout the play but only Hamlet has the ability to see this spirit which leads to the conception that he has gone insane. He grieves his father’s death in very unhealthy

He told Horatio, one of his really good friends, to play along with him acting insane so he can hide the fact that he is going to get revenge on his father by killing King Claudius, so this is why he wanted people to think he was going insane. Hamlet tries to explain to Guildenstern, another good friend of his, that he is just simply acting and there is no reason behind it. Hamlet's attempt to pretend to act insane backfires, resulting in his actual symptoms of schizophrenia. One of Hamlet’s first symptoms of Schizophrenia is that Hamlet assumes this hallucination is actually the ghost of his dead father. During the encounter with the ghost, Hamlet's mind begins to see what he wants to see: his dead father.

Hamlet went through a series of events that depict his character, two of them were events that show this through the reactions he had in the situations. In act 3 scene 3 Hamlet had the opportunity to kill Claudius but does not, this is only due to the reason he gave himself, this was because he was praying. “And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d…”(Hamlet).This quote really signifies his choices. Furthermore, he comes to show why he does not hesitate to later kill Polonius because it was due to his impulse. Hamlet did not realize that it was Polonius behind the arras and not Claudius, he was actually going for Claudius at the time, so he gave a fast reaction by putting the sword through the

When Hamlet puts together this information he goes and tells his closest friend “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on”(I,ii). He is going to act insane for the purpose of getting into Claudius's head for a better shot at taking out the king. This just proves that he is not insane but actually sane. He has a plan made and only wants his one trustworthy friend Horatio to know about it. He informs his mother that he is not mad, but “mad in craft” (III, iv). Above all of this Hamlet only changes his mood and actions around certain characters in the play such as Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, and Polonius. Eventually even working his way to blocking out his two good friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When he is in the presence of Horatio or Bernard he acts like himself and can be totally normal. In addition, Claudius even admits to Hamlet not being insane and that his “actions although strange, do not appear to stem from madness” (III, i). Polonius also confesses to Hamlet's strange actions, that there seems to be some sort of reasoning behind

In the act of attempting to determine why Hamlet is acting irrational and whether Hamlet is suspecting of him, Claudius has an abundance of people spy on Hamlet. Anyone that helps spy for him ultimately ends up getting lured in by his poisonous Machiavellian ways and die. Hamlet was appearing to be going mad, thus Claudius chose Ophelia to investigate him and find a reason for the nonsense; potentially, the cause was love for Ophelia. That was not the case, instead Hamlet said he was never in love with her, saying that she should enter a nunnery rather than becoming a "breeder of sinners" (III.i.131-132). Now as Ophelia is gradually introduced to Claudius' poison, she starts to believe that she is a terrible person, putting her in a delusional state. Later on, Hamlet is in Gertrude's chamber to talk with her. Claudius has Polonius spy on them behind the arras in the chamber. Hamlet knows that Claudius killed his father, and for that he was poisoned in the mind to be ready for revenge. During their time together, Hamlet starts to yell at Gertrude, and gets to a point where she cries out for help. In a desperate state, Polonius yells out for help too, which ends up killing him. Hamlet stabs the arras, unknowingly

Before this, Hamlet was accosting Gertrude with the truth and harsh accusations of being part of the plot to kill his father, angry at her betrayal of his trust and her marriage. In this instance, Hamlet’s true insanity is shown, for he goes from yelling at Gertrude for something that she denies being apart of, to hallucinating a ghost that is pushing him to take revenge in a quicker and bloodier way. Hamlet is completely insane at this point, raging and hallucinating as a

In the beginning Prince Hamlet is not the only person to see the Ghost. Horatio, Bernardo, and Francisco also saw the ghost. In scene one, act five he also declares that he is going to pretend to be mad when he has Horatio swear “Never, so help you mercy, how strange or odd soe’er I bear myself,” (1,5,167) shall he ever “note that you know aught me”(1,5,176). This clearly shows that after that point in the story irrational actions were intentional. Furthermore, it is only in the presence of certain characters that he pretends to act crazy, and with others such as Horatio he is more rational and collected.

At the end of Act 1, scene 5, Hamlet is talking to the Guards who said they saw a strange shadow in armor. Hamlet decided to go and see what they are talking about. Hamlet believes that they are just going to see someone lurking around the Kingdom but instead he sees King Hamlet's ghost for the first time. Hamlet’s dad just died at war so he was wearing all of his armor, so they knew it was him. After talking with the ghost for a little while, Hamlet finds out that Claudius, his uncle, killed him and he can not go on until he does something to avenge his death. Hamlet is enraged and decides he needs kill Claudius in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet is also mad because right after his father died, Claudius married Gertrude, his mother. As Hamlet says, “How strange or odd some’er bear myself/ (As I perchance hereafter shall I think meet/ to put an antic disposition on (1.5.190-193).”\. After seeing and talking to his deceased father in the woods, Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus that he is going to be acting insane. He does this because he is using it as a tactic to avenge his father's death and kill Claudius. He also says that if he sees them, they can not say anything to hint that he is faking insanity. By telling Horatio and Marcellus this, it tells the readers that he is not actually insane. If Hamlet is actually crazy, he would not be able to come up with an

In Hamlet’s case him being sad due to the death of his father let to a buildup of stress which then leads to his hallucinations. The hallucinations of Hamlet are obvious. He says he sees the ghost of his father that both appears and speaks to him. Notice that the ghost only talks to Hamlet alone when no one else is around to hear it, others have perceived the ghost but none have spoken to him. In that occasion the ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, demands to be avenged by Hamlet.

As the play opens, we see Hamlet depressed from his father’s death and angered by the fact that his mother married his uncle only two months after his father’s death. Then, once Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, who reveals that Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, murdered him, he is overcome with rage and vows to take revenge while putting on an antic disposition to fool his uncle into thinking he is crazy, so that his uncle will not get suspicious. During Act 3, we see Hamlet continue to focus mainly on revenge while still maintaining an antic disposition. By now, everyone except Horatio and Marcellus, who know about his feigned madness, believes that Hamlet is truly insane; some, including Claudius, thinks there is no way to help him. In Scene 4 of Act 3, we see Hamlet confronting his mother about her marriage to his Claudius. While Hamlet try to make her see what she did is wrong, she takes it as a threat and as more proof that he is insane and calls for help, which in turn makes Polonius (who was hiding behind the tapestry) call for help as well. Without a moment of hesitation, Hamlet stabs Polonius before he looked to see who it was. While his mother is distraught at this sight, Hamlet seems fine, and wants to know who he killed. Once he sees that it is Polonius, he says, “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger.”

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet tells the interesting tale of a prince put in peculiar situation. After his father has been murdered by his uncle, he watches as his uncle then marries his mother becoming the king. As upsetting as this is, Hamlet does not act until given orders to kill his uncle by the ghost of his father. After the meeting with his father’s ghost, Hamlet starts to act crazy. Contrary to published criticisms, Hamlet is faking psychosis throughout his journey to cover up his true plans.

He met with actors traveling into town and expressed the importance of how they used movement to portray their thoughts but not to be eccentric in doing so. Hamlet explains his distaste for this. During the scene of the murder his friend Horatio is directed to watch Claudius’ reaction. This is not the actions of a crazy person. Hamlet is being very thoughtful to details and reactions of others. He was waiting for the truth to be revealed.

First, Paranoid Personality Disorder describes a person who doesn’t trust people easily and reads other people’s innocent acts as a threat to themselves. Psychology Today states, “The disorder, surfacing by early adulthood, is manifested by an omnipresent sense of

Right after king Claudius’s speech, Hamlet ponders about committing suicide. Speaking to himself: “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew/Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon ‘gainst self slaughter!” (1.2.129-32). The imagery of decease in this quote paints a vivid picture of Hamlet’s feelings and describes them to the reader. The initial cause of Hamlet becoming crazy is a meeting with the ghost of King Hamlet, who affirms that Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, has killed the king to claim the throne of Denmark and Queen Gertrude. Overwhelmed with mixed feeling of frustration, fright and passion for vengeance, Hamlet decides to become a mad man from now on; as it would be advantageous for him. Hamlet warns his friends: «How strange or odd some'er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/To put an antic disposition on)» (1.5.172-73). A cunning plan of revenge that involves him pretending that he is crazy, imposes on the already melancholic state of Hamlet’s mind after the death of his father. In addition, with the wedding of his mother with a person who killed the king, it can be assumed that this would not lead to anything