Hamlet and Melancholia

A detailed Summary of Hamlet and Melancholia

William Shakespeare's Hamlet has always provided literary critics with a rich source for character analysis. This source has grown as critics no longer evaluate Hamlet as an artistic representation limited to the depth of which the author characterizes him but rather evaluate him as a living human being (Lowers 10). As the scrutiny on Hamlet the human being has intensified, many people have been called to wonder if Hamlet is insane.

Before trying to answer this question, it should be considered that this is possibly the wrong question. "Insane" is a legal term, not a medical one. People often mistakenly assume that the word "insane" is interchangeable with the medical term "psychosis", which describes mental sickness. The majority of the U.S. states determine insanity by the McNaghten rule. By this standard, an insanity defense can be established by proving that the defendant did not know what he was doing or did not realize that it was wrong (Davison 592). It is obvious from Hamlet's comments throughout the play that he is aware of what his actions are and what the consequences will be. Hamlet's presence of mind allows him to stay one step ahead of Claudius. He reveals that he has sensed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

The last possible psychological abnormality that I will discuss in this paper is depression. According to the DSM-II, the current diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association, the three categories of depression are major affective disorders, psychotic depressive reaction, and depressive neurosis. People are classified with a major affective disorder if they show affective excess of happiness or sadness. Manic-depression is one major affective disorder and involutional melancholia is the other. The idea of Hamlet as a manic-depressive can be ruled out because Hamlet never exhibits the mood swings from hopelessness to hopelessly optimistic that are characteristic of manic-depressives. Involutional melancholia can be ruled out as it generally affects people who go through physiological changes that make it less likely that they will still be able to reproduce. Psychotic depressive reactions are depressions characterized by delusions. The appearance of Hamlet's dead father leaves this as a possibility, but one must remember that Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus have also seen King Hamlet's ghost. It is unlikely that all four characters would have the same delusion so it is unlikely that Hamlet suffers from a psychotic depressive reaction. Neurotic depression is defined as excessive sadness that is caused by an environmental event (Davison 175-76). This definition fits Hamlet remarkably well.

Before concluding that Hamlet is depressed, however, one should examine the cause of Hamlet's sadness and determine if Hamlet really suffers from depression and not grief. The possible causes of Hamlet's grief are almost too numerous to list. The largest single cause of Hamlet's grief is probably his father's death. In addition to losing his father, he is also denied the throne that is rightfully his. His mother enters an incestuous marriage with his uncle; she not only refuses to sympathize with Hamlet, but also treats his grief as alien. The ghost of his father reveals to him that he was murdered and asks Hamlet to prove his love for his father by murdering Claudius. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, once friends, betray him in order to win favor with the king. Ophelia, whom he loves, ends her relationship with him, and last, but not least, Claudius is plotting to kill him. Basically, Hamlet's father dies, his mother deserts him, all friends except for Horatio desert him, his girlfriend deserts him, his dead father asks him

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Approximate Word count = 1667
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English