Loss of Health in Hamlet

A detailed Summary of Loss of Health in Hamlet

Health is an important condition that mankind should be concerned with. Health is commonly linked with youth, although health can be lost or damaged at any age and in many different ways. Because of this, many people take good health for granted. There are many factors and areas contributing to one good health, and when lost, all have various side effects and degrees of severity. Poor emotional health, for one, may be attributed to great stresses in one's life, and side effects may range from unhealthy thoughts to emotional outbursts at inopportune times. This state of mind may lead to mental insatiability, which in most severe cases, can cause insanity. Both of these conditions are greatly affected by environmental factors, such as other people, deaths, and other uncontrollable situations. The loss of (or lack thereof) health is shown at great depth in several of William Shakespeare's plays. The poor state of Denmark contributes greatly to all the characters emotional and mental health in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

As the play begins, the reader is placed in the midst of action, otherwise known as 'med ris'. Therefore, the reader does not see how poor Denmark's situation actually is as there is nothing to compare it to. Th

Denmark's environment has a negative affect on another character, Ophelia. The emotional stress she encounters stems from Polonius and Hamlet. Polonius, her father, knows that he has control over Ophelia, and this causes him to restrict her life in every way possible. Also, and unfortunately, this causes Ophelia to be emotionally and physically imprisoned. Hamlet, on the other hand, seemingly give Ophelia the impression that he wants nothing to do with her. In his own madness, Hamlet turns Ophelia away when he states that he, "' loves [her] not.'" (3.1.129). Whether Hamlet is indeed sane or not, he takes his own shattered emotions out on Ophelia, which contributes to her already fragile state. Also, the severity in which she reacts to this statement gives the reader the notion that Hamlet and Ophelia have experienced premarital relations, which at this time is a large burden on Ophelia and very much frowned upon. Unfortunately for Ophelia, the absence of her brother Laertes and the untimely death of Polonius by Hamlet, only adds to her emotional insatiability and foreshadows her insanity later in the play.

Ophelia has the most severe case of mental disturbance in the play. Unfortunately for her, she loses anyone whom she was close with and trusted in a matter of days. Her brother, Laertes, leaves again for university; her father meets his untimely demise at the hands of Hamlet; and Hamlet himself, who renounced his love for her, has left for England by Claudius' command. In act four, scene five is when the reader first views Ophelia's madness, as she enters the castle appearing distracted and out of character. Up to this point, Queen Gertrude has assumed that Ophelia's madness is caused by her fathers death. However, the reader should assume differently when Ophelia sings, "' To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,/All in the morning betime...Never departed more'" (4.5.48-65). This song suggests that Ophelia's insanity is also caused by Hamlet's departure from Denmark. Furthermore, the reader can confirm that Ophelia and Hamlet have indeed had premarital relations.

banter is an act of intellectual superiority. Yet throughout the play, Hamlet appears to convince more and more characters of his insanity. Since Hamlet is an intelligent man, he is able to easily deceive others of his madness by his actions and his words. An example of this is his first encounter with Claudius in the play, "'A little more than

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Approximate Word count = 1647
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English