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How Obsessive Nature Led To Hamlet's Downfall

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How Hamlet’s Obsessive Nature led to his Downfall Just about everyone has probably heard the phrase everything is better in moderation at some point or another, and surprisingly enough this is applicable to more concepts than one would expect, including Shakespeare’s renowned play Hamlet. In the play, the main protagonist Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, struggles with the goal of avenging his father’s death so much so that his obsession with doing so just about drives him to insanity and leads to his ultimate downfall at the end of the play. Hamlet’s determination and lack of reasoning due to his impulsivity not only was detrimental to his own mental well-being but ended up pushing away the people he cared about the most in the process. Shakespeare …show more content…

He is introduced as a somewhat brooding and pessimistic character with little to live for but is soon given a purpose after his father’s ghost requests him avenge his death, and rather than taking immediate action, he ends up overthinking an elaborate plan involving faking his own madness. Although Hamlet initially seems confident and self-assured in separating his feigned instability from his actual beliefs, the two seem to get somewhat intertwined as the story progresses, and Hamlet gets so caught up with keeping up a facade that he ends up becoming the very person he was once only pretending to be. With this gradual change in characterization, Shakespeare attempts to emphasize the way in which obsessive qualities can lead to destructive outcomes, as they can cause a person to do irrational things they once would never think of to carry out their overall goal. Many try to rationalize the behavior of Hamlet and figure out what deeper meaning could have led to his erratic tendencies. In the academic article “Hamlet-The Lonely Only and His Siblings,” author Juliet Mitchel analyzes the way in which Hamlet’s possible loneliness and

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