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Psychological aspect of hamlet
Psychological aspect of hamlet
Deception against hamlet
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There’s always a price to pay for revenge
What you plan may not always come out the way you desired in the end. Although Hamlet was intellectual when it came to his plans, he was overly obsessed with vengeance to kill Claudius, however is very indecisive whether or not to go on with his plan to kill him. In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Prince Hamlet lost his father and has been depressed ever since. His uncle Claudius took over the throne and married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. Hamlet’s dead father appeared to him and said how Claudius killed him by putting poison into his ear. Hamlet seeks revenge for his dead father and wants to kill Claudius for his crime. Hamlet deals with many adversities with his family, friends, and himself.
In many cases Hamlet suffers from psychotic depression, in the article psychotic depression is when a person is delusional or is hearing or seeing things that others can’t; also known as hallucinations (“Depression”.1). When Hamlet confronts his mother, a ghost appears and Hamlet speaks to it and Gertrude very concerned says, “To whom do you speak this?”/and Hamlet replies, “Do you see nothing there?” (3.4.149-150). Gertrude doesn’t see or hear the ghost, however only Hamlet does. It’s possible that the ghost is just a figment of Hamlets imagination; he might have been hallucinating. Hamlet has many symptoms of depression such as hearing or seeing things that no one else sees and acts differently from when his father passed away and when he hears information about his father’s
Just a little after Claudius and Polonius left to spy on Hamlet, Hamlet speaks to himself, “To be or not to be -that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer…” (3.1.65-66). Hamlet believes life is not worth living, and in this soliloquy it mentions why people don’t have the will power to commit suicide. He says people don’t kill themselves because they are afraid of what happens after death. This tells us that Hamlet is looking for a reason for why he should or shouldn’t commit suicide. He thinks about why people avoid it and he hates the fact that’s it’s a sin to commit suicide. Hamlet’s depression has overcome his thoughts and is too focused on his revenge. His insanity caused him to have reckless behavior and has already hurt his mother by making her feel guilty for her actions. Therefore, Hamlet’s characteristics show that he’ll do whatever it takes to kill
He is mentally disturbed by the thought of his uncle killing his father to the point where he loses touch with sanity. Hamlet is a tragedy that will never have a straightforward answer as to if he faked being crazy or not. My belief is that Hamlet had in fact lost touch with reality. The slow decline of his mental health throughout lead me to believe he did go crazy, even if he might have been faking it at first. After seeing his father’s ghost, I believe he started acting like he had lost his mind to blame his future actions on the fact that he was crazy. I also believe he truly did lose his mind shortly after when he found out about Claudius murdering his
In the play “Hamlet” and the novel The Things They Carried the main characters both suffer from a psychological or mental disorder. Throughout the play “Hamlet”, Hamlet exerts signs of suicide, loss of interest in the things, and poor logic and reasoning. While in The Thing They Carried, Tim O’Brien describes himself suffering from stress, memory problems, and life-like flash backs. All of these are certain signs of a particular psychological condition.
I truly believe Hamlet was having depression issues and did not know how to cope with everything that was going on but one thing is for certain, is that he would not kill himself being it’s a sin. What this quote is stating is that he’s not suicidal by any means but he is ready to die, whether it’s now or later but it’s bound to
He cannot decide on anything in his life and this a result of his inability to know himself. Being inconclusive about a matter is an internal battle that can only be solved by the victim. It is a sickness that is inside a person and continues to affect them. Depressed people tend to be indecisive to avoid the burden of their decision. They know that once they make a choice, they will be committed to their decision. In addition to feeling burden, depressed people don’t want to feel regret. The University of Pennsylvania Press elaborates on this thought by saying, “Depressed patients anticipate making the wrong decision: whenever they consider one of the various possibilities they tend to regard it as wrong and they will regret making that choice” (29). Hamlet struggles to make a choice on whether or not to commit suicide, on when to get revenge, or when to take action. He cannot make these decisions because he is afraid of the results. As The University of Pennsylvania Press states, he does not want to make the wrong conclusion and regret it. As Hamlet stands looking at Claudius he decides to get revenge and says, “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying” but then changes his mind and states, “And so he goes to heaven / And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned” (Shakespeare III.iii.74-76). Hamlet first thinks he should kill Claudius, but quickly changes his mind, which shows his extreme indecisiveness. He
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet the king of Denmark is murdered by his brother, Claudius, and as a ghost tells his son, Hamlet the prince of Denmark, to avenge him by killing his brother. The price Hamlet does agree to his late father’s wishes, and undertakes the responsibility of killing his uncle, Claudius. However even after swearing to his late father, and former king that he would avenge him; Hamlet for the bulk of the play takes almost no action against Claudius. Prince Hamlet in nature is a man of thought throughout the entirety of the play; even while playing mad that is obvious, and although this does seem to keep him alive, it is that same trait that also keeps him from fulfilling his father’s wish for vengeance
Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...
Hamlet is questioning if it worth living in such misery or not because he is encumbered with trying to avenge his father’s death every day. At this setting, Hamlet is self-destructive and risks alienation from his religion as he begins to think of suicide. If he were to kill Claudius, he would violate a central religious principle against murdering another human being. Although it is easy to dislike King Claudius for his actions, we wait and hope that he confesses his crimes but he never does (Stockton & Shakespeare, 2000, p. 09). Both suicide and murder would make Hamlet feel guilt by violating his religious quota, thus representing alienation at the level of his religious consciousness (Knights, 1966, p. 14). Hamlet has the duty to avenge his father by killing the murderer, the king, risking being alienated at a religious level.
At the beginning of the play Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost who asks Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius. Hamlet then states: "How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on..." (Crowther 1:5) From this we learn that his madness is only part of his plan to kill Claudius. Only a sane man could devise such a thought-out, rational plan.
In discussion of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one controversial issue had been whether Hamlet was completely sane or not when he went about his objective. Some critics argue that Hamlet is considered as “someone who is naive and irrational”. My own view is that Hamlet’s demise was due to a serious psychological disorder. Even from the beginning of Hamlet’s “ordinary world” he’s been thrown into depression. His depression helps Hamlet accept the “call to adventure” without much delay, it gives him whim of his “tests, allies and enemies”, and his depression even has influence on the “approach” to the matter at hand. Unfortunately, his depression creates an “ordeal” and even manipulates the conclusion of the “resurrection
Hamlet is a melancholic young man who does not value human life; however, he will do anything it takes to accomplish his main goal: revenge on Claudius for the death of his father. In his seven soliloquies we learn that Hamlet has become melancholic, violent, and suicidal. There are several incidences where these emotions are expressed. His melancholic attitude is very apparent in the second scene of Act I, when he suggests that his mother, in mourning his fathers death, is simply acting the part of a grief stricken widow, while he is a truly heart broken son. Another example from his first soliloquy of his melancholic state occurs when he discovers the rapid marriage of his mother and his uncle, where he finds himself both sad and mad at the fact that his mother could move on so quickly. Hamlet’s violent attitude can be blamed on the fact that his father was murdered and he wants revenge. An example of his violent attitude is in his sixth soliloquy where he sees the king praying in the church. Hamlet feels as though he should just kill him in that same instance, but then decides not to. Another instance of his violent behavior is when he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths and feels no remorse in doing so. Hamlet’s suicidal state can be accounted for because he is a confused young man. Throughout the play his father had been murdered, his mother almost instantly re-married, he himself had gone mad, and thus he is confused because he has so many negative feelings towards himself and the easiest way out is suicide. Another example occurs in his forth soliloquy when he reasons whether suicide would be the better and quicker solution. All of Hamlet’s emotions cause him to have a clo...
Hamlet is depressed from the exposition of the play. Why? It is a month after his father’s death. Why can't he just continue on with his life? Hamlet’s overwhelming depression first manifests itself after the visit from his father as a ghost. His father warns him of the deceptive and wretched qualities of his uncle Claudius. Hamlet suffers a great deal of sadness, feeling helpless in his father's request to exact revenge against Claudius and becoming distrusting of the incestuous nature of his mother. Hamlet, however rational, normal, and capable he may have been before the play begins, is unable to think rationally, instead over-analyzing every detail. This meticulous analysis cripples him, rendering him unable to make any sort of rational decision. This inability to make decisions is rooted in the intense internal struggle Hamlet must overcome: he cannot imagine himself killing someone and he cannot imagine himself not avenging his father’s murder. This duality of conscience causes Hamlet to spiral into depression and he must examine the depths of his soul before he makes a decision. To make a decision Hamlet must answer the quintessential Hamlet-ian question, “To be or not to be?” (Shakespeare 3.1.56). Hamlet is depressed and unable to act until he has an epiphany in Act V, wherein he must just “Let be”.
The way we see ourselves is often reflected in the way we act. Hamlet views himself as different to those young nobles around him such as Fortinbras and Laertes. This reality leads us to believe that over time he has become even more motivated to revenge his father's death, and find out who his true friends are. How can you be honest in a world full of deceit and hate? His seven soliloquies tell us that while the days go by he grows more cunning as he falls deeper into his madness. This fact might have lead Hamlet to believe that suicide is what he really wants for his life's course.
Both men plot, and kill, but before acting they take a great deal of time to think about their actions. Hamlet likes to set up and get everything right before acting on his suspicions or ideas. He thinks about how his actions will affect everyone and this is because of the substantial amount of common sense he has. Before killing Claudius, he came up with a plan to take him down and exploit him for killing his father. He knows that he cannot just kill him right away because people will be confused and blame Hamlet, so he plans to crack him first. He puts on a play portraying a young man poisoning his uncle, which riles Claudius because he poisoned Hamlet’s father. By putting on the play Hamlet alerted Claudius about how much he knew which scared Claudius. Hamlet goes on to a more elaborate plan to act “mad” which instills much fear into Claudius because he thinks Hamlet now poses as a threat to him which is what Hamlet wants. Claudius’ reaction to Hamlet’s madness is shown when he...
With his thinking mind Hamlet does not become a typical vengeful character. Unlike most erratic behavior of individuals seeking revenge out of rage, Hamlet considers the consequences of his actions. What would the people think of their prince if he were to murder the king? What kind of effect would it have on his beloved mother? Hamlet considers questions of this type which in effect hasten his descision. After all, once his mother is dead and her feelings out of the picture , Hamlet is quick and aggressive in forcing poison into Claudius' mouth. Once Hamlet is certain that Claudius is the killer it is only after he himself is and and his empire falling that he can finally act.
Throughout Shakespeare’s career he superficially wrote about love, ironic tragedy, drama, and so much more. In his play, Hamlet, he wrote about a character, that I think, could be diagnosed with a psychological disorder, known as Bipolar disorder. In this play there are many signs of his bipolar-ness including: being happy, then all of a sudden being furious, “Behaving impulsively and engaging in pleasurable, high-risk behaviors.”(Bipolar Disorder) Hamlet’s behavior in the play relates to a story that took place in Texas, in 2004. A 35 year old named Dena Schlosser killed her 11 month year old daughter for no apparent reason but later still wanted to take it to court to say plead that she was innocent. Both of these stories are interesting in the sense that neither of them realized that they had such a disorder