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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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Throughout the play, Hamlet is forced to make difficult decisions; as he is conflicted with almost every decision he makes, his uncertainty and unsophisticated thoughts will eventually lead to his downfall. Man vs. Self is a common theme in Shakespeare’s work, and Hamlet is no exception. The most distinct example of this sophisticated concept is Hamlet himself. When analyzed thoroughly, Hamlet is his greatest obstacle and enemy. The earliest of his internal conflicts is when his mother married his uncle, Claudius, in such a short window of time after his father’s death.

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It was told to everyone that old king Hamlet was killed by a mysterious poisonous snake while he was asleep. When mindful Hamlet found out about his father's death, he could've easily become depressed. While being depressed he could've been mentally ill and needed support from his family members to keep him calm. He never got the attention he wanted to get which was probably the main cause of Hamlet being insane. Hamlet was in a stage where he needs to get love and attention and he never got that.

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Readers are convinced in the opening act that Hamlet would do anything to help his friends out. Meanwhile, characters in the play portray that he is a depressed maniac, “where sadly the poor wretch comes/ reading” (Shakespeare 2.2.183-184) because he is feeling the burden of losing his entire family. The imagery describing Hamlet as he is in a depressive state helps to develop the idea that he is hurting from the betrayal within his family and that is why he is making rash decisions without thinking of the people that are currently in his life. A main characteristic that has played into this idea of Hamlet being crazy is his inability to make decisions, “To be or not to be- that is the question” (Shakespeare 3.1.64). Over the course of the play, we see Hamlet make many decisions that end poorly because he doesn’t think it through entirely.

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It is that persona that makes it such a challenge to understand him, but in fact, it can be that the reason that his feelings are widely unknown are not because he is completely inexpressible as he is portrayed, but can be the outcome of a plot that besmirched his character. Shakespeare’s fault was generating a story that unsettled Hamlet’s emotions, and so his madness is perceived as “a deliberate dissimulation” – a trick to gain revenge on his

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