The Tragedy Of Hamlet

A few months before finishing middle school in Venezuela, my parents told me that we’re moving. They said something along the lines of “the economical situation here is going from bad to worse. We want to give you the best chance at life, so we’re moving to The United States.” Although I now see that moving was a wise choice, at the time I did not want to leave. I have never been one to have many friends, so I valued the few that I did have. These friends had stuck with me during tough times: My sister passed away a few years before and my girlfriend at the time broke up with me because her brother told her I cheated on her. If my friends had not been there for me, I have no idea what I would have done. Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet was depressed and suicidal when his father died, possibly killed by Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, who happens to be marrying Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, a few months after the King’s death. Then, Ophelia, his love interest, breaks up with him on her father’s orders. All these factors contribute to Hamlet’s depression and suicidal inclinations. Hamlet did not have friends to help him through these problems; therefore, he did not have anyone that could do for him what my friends did for me: provide support and encouragement.

Suicidal thoughts are often linked to depression, but they can also be linked to hopelessness. Someone will feel hopeless if they believe that there will be no improvement on the situation at hand and there is no way to change that. Hamlet has lost hope in this world when he says “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world;” (1.2.133-4) therefore, he contemplates the idea of committing suicide when he says “to be, or not to be...

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... betrayed Hamlet’s trust, but Hamlet does not know this. Hassel does not mention Ophelia when he argues that “Hamlet’s sadness has to do with the wicked speed of a mother’s remarriage and his father’s death,” (612) but there is enough evidence to consider the hypothesis that one of the factors of Hamlet’s melancholy is Ophelia breaking up with him.

It is disturbing to see what happens to Hamlet: A man consumed by his thirst for revenge, yet he is hesitant to act on this thirst. There is enough evidence to support the hypothesis that Hamlet is depressed and suicidal. Hamlet is his own greatest enemy; if Hamlet had not hesitated to kill Claudius when he had the chance or if he had communicated his problems better, then all the bloodshed could have been prevented. If Hamlet had confided in someone, like Ophelia, maybe someone would have advised Hamlet on what to do.