Madness in Hamlet

DRAFT- NOT MLA-LACKS FORMATTING/REFERENCES crossroads-Melancholy, Madness and Sanity critical point, a play by William Shakespe be, is as much a mystery as a tale about depression, p eachidness and sanity. Shakespeare reveals how the castigate of corruption and decay quickly spread and the delirious consequences that follow. Insanity, unwiseness and depression are as unacceptable as corruption and deceit and just as intertwined. The play makes one ponder if it is possible to be sane in an insane humanity full of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption?By examining the themes of grief, madness and sanity in village, Shakespeare details his characters descent from depression to madness. Additionally, crossroadss psychological severalise place be analyzed by utilizing modern psychological diagnoses, in order to understand his psychic state. Throughout the story, juncture exists in a melancholy state, essentially non in madness, / But mad in craft (3. 4. 204-205) . small town states to Horatio as I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To puzzle an antic disposition on in order to deceive the king that he is insane (Act I, scene V, take up 190).However, was juncture acting or was he already genially disturbed? Did settlement go mad in the end, or was Hamlet insane from the start of the play, and his mental condition only worse as the play unfolded? The world in which Hamlet existed appears hostile. The king is a murderer his mother the female monarch lusts after her deceased husbands brother friends spy and deceive one another and Hamlets lover Ophelia literally loses touch with reality. Hamlet believes that only felo-de-se 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 life. Marcellus states that Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (). Fear is spread by the ghost of King Claudius wandering the metropolis streets. Reoccurring themes of corruption gist in Hamlet stating The dram of evil / Doth all the noble substance of a doubt / To his own scandal (Shakespeare 51). One evil person can contaminate an entire kingdom. As the kingdom decays, emotional trauma increases. Hamlet concludes that the world Tis an unweeded garden / that grows to witnessd.Things rank and gross in reputation / Possess it merely ( ). The weeds represent decay in a world of evil and sin. The things are symbolic of man and his temporary dominance over himself, his fellow man and nature. Pessimism permeates the screenplay and the reader is led to attach the dysfunction with the resulting mental states of depression that infect Hamlet. Hamlets psychological status can a comparable be analyzed from a modern perspective. Today we collect the diagnostic tools to identify and treat the disorders that struck Hamlet.Though Hamlet presents as melancholy passim the play, there are three additional disorders that afflict Hamlet including post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar depression. Three traumatic events contribute to Hamlets descent into madness the remainder of his father, the incestuous marriage between his uncle and mother, and the discovery of his fathers murder by Claudius. These emotional traumas contributed to Hamlet suffering from what we would now diagnose as Post-traumatic stress disorder.Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by the inability to powerful construct emotional appropriate resolutions to situations and an emotional blunting. Throughout the play, Hamlet had issues with people in his social circle. Hamlet becomes enraged with Laertes because of his dramatic sorrow over the death of Ophelia (Act V, Scene I). Soon thereafter, Hamlet realizes his reaction to Laertes was foreign and later apologizes to Laertes. Hamlet demonstrates impulsive behavior and lashes out at people without considering the ramifications.In addition to Laertes, Opheli a, Hamlets beloved, is also not immune to his rage. Hamlet is susceptible to highly reactive emotional responses, and suicidal ideation is mentioned by means ofout the play. Symptoms of PTSD often include changes in self-perception, relationship stressors, and frequently revenge fantasies. Hamlets emotional state deteriorates over the duration of the play. These changes include increased helplessness and the inability to make decisions as he becomes more than ill. Hamlet exhibits other PTSD symptoms. Hamlet feels inferior to Fortinbras and Horatio, and in his attempts to carry off Claudius.Hamlet also isolates himself and becomes more paranoid as the play progresses. Not that being paranoid would be an inappropriate emotional response to the environment he is in, but his paranoia takes over. flushtually Hamlet becomes obsessed with revenge after he is compelled by his fathers ghost to avenge his death. Symptoms of schizophrenia also present in Hamlet. The symptoms of schizophren ia can include hallucinations, isolation from others, a loss of reality and paranoia. While berating his mother about her rapid remarriage, suddenly Hamlet begins addressing an invisible specter. What would your gracious figure? QUEEN Alas, hes mad (Act III, Scene IV, Line 116-117). Hamlet has visions, or hallucinations, of his dead fathers ghost. The ghost was seen once by Horatio and some guards at the start of the play, but not by anyone else. The appearance of the ghost may have been reality or a hallucination. However, the second ghost to appear, that only Hamlet could see and hear, was confirmation of Hamlets insanity. schizophrenic psychosis is often symptomatic with visual, but more greennessly auditory hallucinations. After the death of Hamlets father, Hamlet began to withdraw and became reclusive in nature.He didnt combat be forced to leave to embarkation school, he spent less time with Ophelia, and he became very isolated. Hamlet appears to have been in the initial s tages of schizophrenia where the real and unreal become blurred, but he is not yet incapacitated by his disorder prior to his murder. Perhaps if he didnt die young the disease would have progressed. Even Polonius questioned Hamlets state-of-mind when he said, How pregnant sometimes his replies are a happiness that often madness hits on (Act II, Scene II, Lines 213-215). Throughout the play, evidence of bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) is identified.It is hard-fought to distinguish if Hamlet is bipolar or having a schizophrenic break since both diseases have commons behavioral features. Bipolar disorder is known for manic or escalated behaviors coupled with severe depression when the craziness recedes. Manic behaviors include pressured (or rapid) speech, grandiose beliefs, insomnia, and hyper or frantic behavior, followed by periods of extreme anergic depression that is emotionally and physically debilitating. Hamlet escalates between periods of excitement and ki netic activity to states of absolute misery and unproductivity.Hamlet procrastinates, but it may be due to the depressive period he cycles in and out of. Hamlets soliloquies all contain themes of suicide and hopelessness (depression), but his manic states are more difficult to define. Hamlet creates a plan to nurture Claudiuss guilt while justifying his own rage and revenge. When Hamlet discovers that the players are coming to the castle, he speedily goes from melancholy to a state of over-excitement. He becomes highly focused and implements a detailed plan to kill Claudius. Hamlet quickly abandons his plan and slips back into his depression (sparing Claudius).If Hamlet was able to execute all of the schemes and plans he devises, the play would be disorganized. Another incident suggests another bipolar episode when Hamlet, on the boat to England, facilitates the proceeding of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and also plans an attack on a pirate ship for revenge. Grandiose thoughts a re a common feature while in a manic phase. Hamlet quickly forgets or fails to follow through with his plan and falls back into a depressive state. Hamlets manic depression is referred to as rapid cycling because the mania and depressive states change quickly.Ultimately, Hamlet may not be procrastinating at all like is assumed throughout the play. Hamlet may be incapable of fulfilling his grandiose plans while in a depressive state. In Hamlets time people had no concept of mental illness or mood disorders. People believed that behavior was deliberate and labeled unacceptable behaviors as character defects. Hamlet was a deeply disturbed individual. Author Gertrude Morin suggests that a cognitive approach be used to understand Hamlet. Hamlet, Morin says, is a portrayal of a tortured, depressed young man who loses his way in the labyrinth of his negative thoughts. He not only suffered from negativity, mania and depression the environment in which he lived was highly dysfunctional for a nyones mental health, let alone an ill man. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is depressed but the events that fall in during the play exacerbate his descent into madness. Not many people in the Kingdom of Denmark escape the toxicity of the world in which they lived. Ophelia may have suffered the most, and was also tormented by Hamlets illness, and at long last by saw no other option but to end her life. Depression and despair apparently became as contagious as the small pox- and just as untreatable.Hamlets mental state and the events in his life may have finally drove him to madness. The reader may first believe that Hamlet is faking his dementia, when in fact, his mental dysfunctions were both organic (of biological origin)and very real. Among the mentally ill it is common to see a mentally vulnerable individual succumb to the pressures of his environment. That person may have been able to deem their illness in check in a stable environment, but when external stressors mou nt- they may not have the coping behaviors to cope and they escalate out of control.Suicide, in our modern world, is often a result of life stressors the vulnerable person could no longer manage. Had Hamlet not been murdered, his suicidal impulses may have caused him to self destruct. Psychiatry was just emerging as a science during the time Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. Robert Burton, the most illustrious author on melancholy from the Renaissance, first published his Anatomy of Melancholy in 1621. Burton, who was afflicted with melancholy himself suggested treatments from taking hellebore to boring a hole in the skull to let out the fuliginous vapours, while adding his consolations (Burton ).Had Hamlet received the services of Burton, it is probable that if the hellebore didnt work, the hole in the skull would have left Hamlet disabled or dead. In conclusion, the question persists Is it possible to be sane in an insane world full of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption? It appears that the majority of people is somewhat resilient and can cope with chastening to a certain degree. However, there are people like Ophelia and Hamlet who are vulnerable to chaotic conditions. These people tend to internalize the trauma and dont have the coping mechanisms to deal with cold emotional situations.It is fascinating that Shakespeare had the insight to connect intolerable conditions with states of mental vulnerability. Madness was a catch-all term for all mental disorders in Shakespeares time, but through his dialogue and scenery, he was able to identify numerous mental states of dysfunction- centuries before we had terminology to describe these illnesses in diagnostic terms. Shakespeares acuity in describing a mentally-ill prince is why Hamlet has endured over time. The issues, diseases, desires, fears and dreams remain constant over time among humanity. To be, or not to be will always be relevant in more ways than life and death. Our views on mental illness an d physical ailments that relate to Melancholia are endless, and therefore so is our application of each possibility to Shakespeares work of Hamlet. Sources Diagnostic Manual DMV-IV Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Ed. Floyd Dell and Paul JordanSmith, NewYork Tudor Publishing Co. , 1941. Morin, Gertrude. Depression and banish Thinking A Cognitive Approach to Hamlet. Mosaic A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of literary works 25. 1 (1992) 112.