Hamlet Mental Illness

1533 Words7 Pages

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. Hamlet’s depression inhibits his obsession for vengeance due to his inability to take action.
Hamlet has suffered emotional trauma and often uses sarcasm to mask his pain. He pokes fun at the situations he’s faced with …show more content…

He believes that his friends are spying on him. “Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come, deal justly with me. Come, come. Nay, speak” (II.ii.268-270). Hamlet doesn’t think that his friends are visiting him with no underlying intentions. This way of thinking is not uncommon for people suffering from Schizophrenia. “They may have paranoid delusions and believe that others are trying to harm them, such as by cheating, harassing, poisoning, spying on, or plotting against them or the people they care about” (“What is Schizophrenia?” 2). One could argue that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were actually sent to check out Hamlet’s behavior and he was right to question them. His tone suggests paranoia more than questioning. Hamlet’s final symptom is his persistent …show more content…

Death is one of the most prominent themes in Hamlet, appearing in different forms. Shakespeare displays death through the suicide of Ophelia, Hamlet’s own thoughts and eventual suicide, and the murder of King Hamlet and Polonius. Hamlet displays suicidal tendencies throughout the play through his soliloquies. The first time that Hamlet contemplates committing suicide is when Gertrude and Claudius tell him that he has to stay in Denmark in Act one. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! Oh God, God” (I.ii.129-132). Hamlet went on a rant to himself about how mad he was that his mother married his uncle so soon after his father’s death and he thought about ending his life. He later goes on to say how suicide is a sin, which is another thing to fuel his anger; but it does not stop him from killing himself in act