Cause Of Hamlet's Insanity example essay topic

Shakespeare's Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values. An identity crisis can be defined as 'a psychosocial state or condition of disorientation and role confusion occurring especially in adolescents as a result of conflicting internal and external experiences, pressures, and expectations and often producing acute anxiety. ' (web) It was apparent that Hamlet did indeed have an identity crisis because of his conflicting internal and external experiences and the pressures and expectations from those in the Royal Court of Denmark. He endures conflicting internal and external experiences such as the ghost of his father requesting him to exact revenge on Claudius and in doing so contradict all of the morals he has formed.

Pressures to accept the dubious marriage of his mother to his uncle, pressure to accept Claudius as the new king and expectations from the court to be emotionally strong in spite of his father's demise and from the ghost of his father to avenge his death by killing Claudius all challenge Hamlet's strength of self. His anxiety is caused as a result of these external pressures. Hamlet lives in a country of different worlds. At the time, Denmark was in a state of transition between three metaphysical worlds; the heroic world, where a man's honour was foremost, killing was not accepted but expected, might was power, the Machiavellian world, an amoral world where politics and mind games were employed ruthlessly, the ends justified the means, and the Christian world of love and forgiveness.

Hamlet was a Christian living in a dying Heroic world which was succumbing to the Machiavellian world. Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, belonged to the heroic world, and so for him revenge was of the utmost importance, shown by the fact that 'but two months' (1: 2,136) after his death he returned to instruct Hamlet to avenge his murder. Hamlet's disgust at his mother's marriage to his uncle before 'the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her galled eyes' (1: 2,154-155), and his uncle's speedy ascendancy to the throne clouds his judgement enough so that he accepts and vows to put into action his father's wishes. After he has had time to think, Hamlet realise's what must be done, he must murder his uncle. He has no qualms about the target of the act but the fact that he belongs to the Christian world means that to appease his father's ghost he must move to the heroic world, thus contradicting the morals and teachings of his Christian upbringing. Further, in order to discover the truth about Claudius's up posed crimes, Hamlet slips into the Machiavellian world and produces a play for the court.

The play is a re-enactment of the murder of his father so that when Claudius saw the murder scene he would hopefully react to it in some way, and in doing so prove his implication in King Hamlet's death. Secondly, Hamlet had to fall again to the Machiavellian world by deceiving Guildenstern and Rozencrantz, which inevitably meant their demise so as to save himself from Claudius' plan. Hamlet has been described as a barbarian by some scholars because of the way he treats women. His hatred for women was launched by his mother's incestuous and hasty marriage to his uncle, Claudius. His mother's behaviour is incomprehensible to Hamlet's belief system that ironically, she helped to create. Consequently, Hamlet lost all respect for women in general and felt alone in the world, for the one last thing he had to love, he now despised Ophelia.

It was not Ophelia herself that Hamlet despised, rather the fact she was a woman, and that, from his point of view, meant she was the lowest form of human being. 'If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go; ... and quickly, too. ' (3: 1,136-141) His abominable treatment of Ophelia, the woman he supposedly loved as 'forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love' (5: 1,279-280), merely consolidates his hatred for women. These contradicting emotions, love for Ophelia and hatred of women, would have Hamlet in a state of confusion about his treatment of her.

Perhaps this show of disgust towards Ophelia is another showing of his antic disposition, real or feigned. His mention of the nunnery could be a plea for Ophelia to escape the tragedy he feels is approaching. The confusion caused by his conflicting emotions towards Ophelia is symptomatic of a crisis in his nature. This crisis became apparent in the first act, when Hamlet tells Horatio that he will 'put an antic disposition on. ' At first his madness is clearly feigned as he would snap back to reality and then to madness again very quickly as easily, but towards the end of the play, his heightened emotional state leaves a blurry line between his feigned madness and his sane actions.

Most of the other characters cannot tell whether he is mad or not, but some give their thoughts on the matter. Polonius is of the opinion that it is unrequited love that drives Hamlet insane, Gertrude thinks that is was the untimely death of King Hamlet and her hasty marriage, Guildenstern and Rozencrantz think that ambition and frustration drive Hamlet to insanity and Ophelia, who becomes mad herself, thinks that Hamlet's lunacy is just pure madness. Claudius is the closest of all the characters as to the cause of Hamlet's insanity, that is, if he is actually insane. He thinks that Hamlet's madness is caused by deep melancholy.

Ever since the death of his father, Hamlet has been deep in sorrow. He has become greatly introspective and muses on his life. Even before the complication of his dead father's request, Hamlet's sorrow at his loss is so great that he wishes his 'too too solid flesh would melt' (1: 2,129), but only because the 'Everlasting... (had) fix'd his cannon 'gains t self-slaughter' (1: 2,131-132). He is disenchanted with the world in which 'things rank and gross in nature possess it merely' (1: 2 136-137).

When he tells Horatio that he 'do (es) not set his life at a pin's fee' (1: 4, 65), it is showing his lack of lust for life due to his melancholy. His new task does not divert his attention from his sadness but complicates and helps it grow until he feels that this world 'is a prison. ' (2: 2,254). When he sees that the players can summon up so much passion over fiction he berates himself for being a coward, for, when he should act he 'like a whore, (must) unpack his heart with words' (2: 2,590). Hamlet's next thoughts of death are not in the usual tone. He debates whether 'to be, or not to be' (3: 1, 56) in a reflective mood.

He does not mention his other tribulations, but rather muses on life and death with a feeling of despair. He yearns for an escape from this life but for 'the dread of something after death' (3: 1, 78), and because his sense of nobility and duty prompt him to act. Hamlet's staging of the play gained the desired result, the king's reaction. Convinced of the truth in the ghost's words, Hamlet has new confidence to act. When he finds the King in prayer he realise's that 'now might... (he)... do it pat' (3: 3, 74), but just as suddenly as his confidence grew, it left him and he began to make excuses that Claudius would 'go to heaven' (3: 3, 75) and so would not be true revenge. Anger, however, is not a foreign emotion to Hamlet.

During his meeting with the Queen, his emotion quickly escalates into a rage and in this emotional state lunges at Polonius, who he took for the King, as soon as he knew of his presence. Hamlet is inspired by the Norse army's courage to fight to the death over worthless land, and through that, is reminded of his own hesitation and resorts to self scorn once again. When he returns from his travel and particularly his macabre meeting with Yorick, the time marks a significant shift in Hamlet's state of mind. Hamlet begins to speak of providence taking a greater control of his life. The tone of his speech shows that he is no longer concerned about life or death as 'there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will. ' (5: 2, 10-11) As Hamlet hears of the wager placed by the King, he speaks of providence with such calm that he no longer cares for revenge and is content to let fate take its course: Hamlet: 'Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a she- coal providence in the fall of a sparrow.

If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come; the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave bedtimes?' (5: 2,221-226) But when his mother falls from the poison he is again incensed with rage, and, in this state of fury stabs the King and forces the king to 'drink off... (the)... poison' (5: 2,330), finally fulfilling his role as revenger without contradicting his morals as it was not premeditated but in the heat of the moment, ironically deeming his apparent cunning in changing his outward appearances unnecessary. However, his actions in switching suddenly from seeming madness to sanity are reminiscent of a bi-polar disorder such as manic depression. It is possible that Hamlet put on his antic disposition to allow himself freedom from the usual constraints and etiquette of the court so that he could use different means to discover Claudius' guilt without being discovered himself. Or his feigned madness may have been a reaction to the stress of his predicament, because in doing so he frees himself from having to make decisions on courses of action and he effectively becomes a spectator in the running of his own life. Hamlet is a man with an identity crisis because of the conflicting emotions he is feeling and expectations being thrust upon him.

His eventual plunge into a state of insanity was a direct consequence of stress. The stress between worlds destroyed his moral base, the actions of his mother and his consequential treatment of Ophelia left him with no 'north point' to follow and his constant changing of moods either caused his crisis or were as a result of losing his way. Hamlet to this day remains a complex character in the centre of perhaps the finest play in the history of the English language.