The Customary And The Ethical: Understanding Hamlet's Bad Habits

Depression and sadness affect some people harder than others, and how it affects them determines what they will do with their lives from that point on. Michael Bristol, in his article, “The Customary and the Ethical: Understanding Hamlet’s Bad Habit’s,” claims that Hamlet’s suit of solemn black is anything but customary in the Danish court. He adds that it “is a bad habit that is ostentatious, confrontational, and slovenly” (Bristol 70). Bristol notes that the word custom often refers to something idiosyncratic in the play and says that Hamlet has forgone all custom of exercise when he reprimands his mother cruelly for her enjoyment of his uncle’s embraces. In Michael Bristol’s, “The Customary and the Ethical: Understanding Hamlet’s Bad Habits,” Hamlet’s attire is seen as not customary in the Danish court; however, this argument obscures the reality of mourning loss and depression. Hamlet does not try to gain attention by the way he dresses in the play and does not go out of his way to try and get people to notice him. It is not attention prince Hamlet seeks when dressing in dark, dreary clothes, but mere sadness that his father has died and his mother did not think twice about getting remarried. His mother even

It takes some people longer than others to cope with this loss and these people have different ways of doing it. Hamlet chooses to express it through his dress without caring about what outsiders would think. Contrary to popular belief, he did not do this to gain the attention of his mother or his friends, but rather because he was distraught and saw it as a personal way of coping with the loss of his father. He is unique in his ways and this is obvious in the way he dresses and carries himself throughout the play, but who can blame him? He went through a lot more in a year than most people have to go through in their entire