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Diagnosing Hamlet With Schizophrenia In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Ever wonder what a Schizophrenia patient acted like back in the 1300s? Well in this paper, you’ll learn the facts about Schizophrenia and what it was like to have it based on a character from Hamlet. Hamlet is a play about a man who lost his father when his uncle poured poison into his ear to kill him so he could take over the throne. This paper will be diagnosing Hamlet with Schizophrenia.

There are many different types of mental health health disorders. Here are just a few. First, there is Schizophrenia, which is a disorder affecting a person’s ability to think, feel, and behave clearly. There are over 200,000 U.S cases of the disorder. Schizophrenia is commonly genetic.
Second disorder is Dementia which is a disorder with a group of thinking and social symptoms that interferes with daily functioning. There are about 3 million U.S cases for this disorder and it is not genetic. The last disorder is Depression which is a disorder that is characterized by a current depressed mood and a lost interest in activities. There are about 3 million U.S cases a year and about 40% of it is genetic. …show more content…

In hamlet, his uncle had poured poison into his father’s ears killing him instantly. We can gather this information when a ghost of his father appears in Act 1, scene 1. Another part in the play where Hamlet expresses anger about something in his life is when he realizes that his uncle had killed his father by having these actors perform a play showing exactly how his father had been killed. Hamlet realized that after the play the uncle had gotten up and left. Hamlet was showing signs of anger when he found out that his uncle had slipped poison in the cup to kill him but ended up killing his

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One definition of madness is “mental delusion of the eccentric behavior arising from it.” However, as Emily Dickinson once wrote, “Much madness is divinest Sense/ To a discerning Eye.” In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Prince Hamlet, shows apparent madness which proves to serve an important role throughout the story. This erratic behavior consists of his seemingly senseless dialogues, his loss of care for Ophelia, and his increasingly aggressive nature. Such behavior often proves justified by the play’s audience due to its convincing nature despite Hamlet’s predisposition towards insanity.

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While he did claim to be putting on act and only pretending to be psychotic, part of me strongly believes that someone of 100% mental stability would not be able to pull off a psychotic act without a little mental illness helping lead the charge. I feel it is only fair to diagnose Hamlet with Bipolar Disorder. Online health blog, WebMD, defines Bipolar Disorder as a mental illness that brings severe high and

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Shifts in emotion is commonly seen in Hamlet numerous times throughout the play when interacting with different characters. When conversing with his mother in Act Three Scene Four, despite his mothers pleas for Hamlet to stop, Hamlet is ruthless and unceasingly shouts about his dead father and his incestuous mother and step-father. Through the continuous shouting Hamlet intensely declares, “ A murderer and a villain, A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings, A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket” (3.4.99-102). Hostility and anger to his mother and Claudius is evident as Hamlet accosts his mother for her ill-willed relationship wither her dead husband's brother. Anger, being the most necessary aspect of Hamlet’s diagnosis, reveals that his shifts in emotion from an emotionless state to a state of sudden animosity.

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Can people choose their fate, or are we all at the mercy of circumstance? In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the main character Hamlet shows that people are just a victim of circumstances. Hamlet was fine when his father was still alive; he only started going crazy when unexpected events in his life occurred such as; his father dying and his mother marrying his uncle. Hamlet is not to blame for his own downfall, how could he choose how his father dying would affect him. Hamlet is a Schizophrenic with the worst luck in the world.

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