Criminality In Hamlet And The Nose

In America around 10.5% of the general population have some sort of impulse control issue, but this percentage tremendously increases when it comes to those convicted of crimes. While the idea of Impulsivity coinciding with criminality in humans is relevant, it is also prevalent in literature too. More specifically “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare and “The Nose” by Nikolai Gogol, in both of these stories there are characters that deal with some sort of high-stress situation in which they could be caught in some sort of crime. In an attempt to try and escape the situation, they resort to an impulsive urge rather than rational thinking. In both “Hamlet” and "The Nose," the authors present the idea of impulse within a character in order to show

The bases of “Hamlet” is set upon the soul fact to catch the true conscience of the king, who is believed to be a murderer. In order to find this out Hamlet sets a play that resembles the occurrences of the murder he believes to have happened, then as expected Claudius reacts abruptly as if he has suddenly become upset by the play. As Hamlet expected the building of tension within Claudius became too much to bear and he reacts impulsively even saying “Give me some light. Away!” (Shakespeare 162). Meaning that Claudius wanted everyone to get out of the room and leave. Preceding this Claudius walks away from the play followed by everyone in the crowd. There was only one reason for this type of reaction and that is the fact that Claudius knew he had been caught and therefore he acted on the first thing that came to his mind, further showing that impulsivity surely relates to criminality. These themes and archetypes are relevant within lots of literature and constantly repeat. Some may disagree with the claims made within “Hamlet”, but there are numerous peer-reviewed studies done backing the information presented, such as one study run by Samuel J West. His research shows that “impulsive, irresponsible, and antisocial behavioral patterns [are] associated with increased susceptibility to both risky and violent behaviors” (West 2). These violent behaviors are one facet of the many that exist when talking about what impulsivity actually does to a person and especially one whos caught in the act of a crime. Throughout the research, there are many instances of people who have some sort of neurological issue such as psychosis and it also shows that psychosis and impulsivity oftentimes parallel one another. This can easily be seen within Claudius’s psychotic nature and it makes