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Irreversible Insanity Relatability In William Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Irreversible Insanity Relatability is key in growing to like a character and Shakespeare demonstrates this beautifully through every person. Sensing some empathy for everyone, we find that following the unfolding events can create suspense that causes our own palms to sweat too. We twist our minds alongside theirs in order to see where they’re coming from and truly feel what they are. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603) focuses on the psychological consequences that the events cause in characters such as Hamlet, Ophelia, and Claudius. Growing to understand them on a deeper level, we gain a sense of empathy for them due to their mental struggles. As we delve deeper into the plot of Hamlet, there’s an innumerable amount of events that can mentally harm all of the characters in different ways. Coping mechanisms …show more content…

Hamlet, our main character, shows us anger; his suicidal ideation, apathy, indifference, and habit changes are all forms of responding to traumatic events. He internally feels an unconscious desire for his mother, and a hatred for King Claudius as Gertrude grieves in a way that didn’t align with Hamlet. This makes him the most similar to Laertes, as Polonius raised him in a way that shows the lack of boundaries and trust that, similarly, Hamlet unknowingly had with his mother. Polonius states, “You shall do marvelous wisely, good Renaldo, before you visit him, to inquire of his behavior,” (Shakespeare 2.1.3). This would set up the scene for the downfall of these characters as we see that their minds overrode their conscious actions that they had lost control over. When we consider each character at the beginning and end of this play, they were all impacted negatively—some more than others—by their psychological thought processes. Representing femininity, Ophelia was driven to the point of death that was deemed suicide by the

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Her initial denial comes from the rejection of her love by Hamlet, leading to anger and confusion. She then begins to bargain with herself, trying to understand why Hamlet has treated her so coldly. As the play progresses, Ophelia's depression deepens. She becomes overwhelmed by the events around her, ultimately leading to her tragic demise. Ophelia's story shows how grief can be not only a response to loss but also to rejection and disappointment.

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However, as society had evolved, there has been a shift away from these traditional norms. Instead, resilience for men now includes the ability to acknowledge difficult emotions to overcome them, rather than indefinitely burying them. In contrast, Ophelia's resilience is compromised by the social constraints placed upon her as a woman, leading to her premature tragic death. Like Ophelia, many young women are pressured to keep a demure, submissive, and agreeable demeanor because society pushes the idea that to be regarded with dignity and respect women must avoid behaving in a manner that can cause others to perceive them as unvirtuous. The play emphasizes the strength and resilience individuals can possess, as well as the detrimental effects of societal constraints on their ability to handle the unforeseen circumstances of

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By verbally harassing Ophelia and estranging himself from her, Hamlet provides the apparent image of losing his prior care without a great amount of consideration. Additionally, Hamlet further displays his anger for his father’s death through this display. By dissolving his relationship with Ophelia, Hamlet furthers his image of insanity to further illustrate himself as incapable within Claudius’s eyes while still communicating distaste for his loss of his father. With Hamlet’s intentionally swift change of heart for Ophelia, Hamlet’s procedure warrants a certain level of sanity. Regardless of the sudden nature, Hamlet’s continual barring from Ophelia possesses procedure which causes further doubt of Hamlet’s mental instability from the audience of the

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Throughout the play Hamlet continues to act insane and even dies with the act continuing. Even after Hamlet gathers all the evidence that proves Claudius is the murder, Hamlet continues to behave in a strange way. When he mistakenly murders Polonius he does not react as a sane person would. This act enrages Laertes, who then wants to avenge his father’s death. Driven to madness by the murder of his father, Laertes, with the help of Claudius conspires to kill Hamlet.

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Mental health is rarely portrayed in a positive light in o=modern media let alone in literature produced four centuries ago. That being said, many of Shakespeare’s plays can be analyzed for its depiction of various social issues, including the treatment of those with mental health exceptionalities. Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores mental health and the perception of mental health through characters such as the protagonist, Hamlet, and his love interest, Ophelia. Not surprisingly, Hamlet creates a damaging image of those with mental health exceptionalities and either portrays them as props for another character’s development, going through a “phase,” or as violent villains.

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Crawford states that Shakespeare includes Hamlet’s fits of madness were deliberately used to make Claudius and his attendants confused and for them to think Hamlet’s mental health is deteriorating. Crawford analyzes, “The fact that he [Hamlet] has made it appear like real madness to many critics today only goes to show the wideness of his knowledge and the greatness of his dramatic skill” (Crawford. 1916. p 1.). Crawford states that Hamlet is merely acting insane and he is extremely clever for doing this.

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Hamlet's Insanity The human mind is an extremely sensitive and frail thing. Sometimes when you act like you are something you actually do become it. Insanity is an inky endless hole to fall into. In the play "Hamlet" the lead character Hamlet is in a very terrible situation.

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Every person has events that shape their life story, many of us learn to handle these situations, but others succumb to the stress and results of these events. In Hamlet, Shakespeare develops many complex characters in order to create quite an attention grabbing and complex storyline. The characters have many levels of traits that reveal details about who they are and what their role is in the story. Hamlet and Ophelia provide intricate details on motives that affect the important parts of the play. Although they are quite different they have traits that prove them to be quite similar, the traits of love, loss, and madness spin these two into a web that although complicated and different proves to be connected in many ways.

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In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many references to sanity and insanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet goes back and forth between sanity and insanity, whether pretending to be insane just to mess with those he does not like or to save himself from getting in trouble. Hamlet is actually one of the smartest characters in the play, which is why he can pull off acting crazy so well. Shakespeare uses this idea of sanity and insanity to help the plot change and take a different directions. One of the most discussed topics of the Hamlet is whether Hamlet is insane or if he was just pretending the whole time.

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Insanity comes through a number of causes or events that one goes through at one point of one’s life or in several cases. These problems pile up and distort one’s mind and behavior, forcing them to move quickly on it. In most cases, it may do more harm than good, since the individual concerned can cause havoc and to innocent citizens. However, not everyone is courageous enough to confront their fears or concerns, but prefers to use manipulative means as a way to undermine the survivor. This is what happens in Hamlet, a play by Shakespeare, about a young prince, and his vengeance for his father is a killer.

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Insanity is an idea that has been examined for a long time in numerous mediums such as films, music, plays, and even works of literature. William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is no exception to that rule. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters, and many scholars have been debating for centuries whether or not Hamlet is truly insane, or whether there is a particular reason for his odd behavior. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet merely pretends to be mad but in reality is sane.

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At the beginning of the play, Ophelia didn’t have the strongest mind in the room, but she certainly wasn’t broken as she was towards the end of the tragedy. There were certainly clues of Ophelia’s downfall, as she was easily broken and constantly used as a political tool instead of being treated as a human being. Shakespeare has the reader notice this, which makes them uneasy from the start about Ophelia’s character. There are constant moving parts in this play, most of which have the consequence of being negative to Ophelia. The suspense in the play builds regarding Ophelia’s character when Hamlet admits that he never loved her, making the reader worry about the girl since it was cruel and Ophelia truly loves Hamlet.

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