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Madness and Melancholia in Hamlet Essay

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Madness and Melancholia in the Play

In William Shakespeares Hamlet the connection between madness and melancholia is very significant. The themes of madness and melancholia drive the plot of the play. Hamlets grief causes him to suffer from depression when he is mourning the loss of his father and the recent marriage of his mother to his uncle. At first, his madness only appears to be an act, as he himself details, but eventually Hamlet spirals downward into a state where he truly seems to be mad.

It is only when Ophelia is dead that he expresses the love he felt for her. In sadness he yells that he loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quality of love make up [his] sum.(V.i.263-265) To the reader this may all be very confusing as Hamlets attitude towards Ophelia has always been a negative one. His drastic change in his feelings for her may make one question his true intentions. Hamlets relationship with his mother is troubled as it lacks love and respect. From the beginning of the play he refuses to show any affection towards his mother. When he says to his mother,no, by the rood, not so. You are the queen your husbands brothers wife, Andwould it were not so!you are my mother,(IV.iv.15-17) he is making it clear that he wishes his mother was not in fact his mother. His relationship with Gertrude much like his relationship with Ophelia is one plagued with outrage caused by his melancholy. This state of depression eventually situates Hamlet on the fine line between being sane and insane.

Hamlets state of madness caused by his grief instigates him to act out irrationally, enforcing him in a state where he seems to be crazy. Freud once said that, grief involves grave departures from the normal attitude to life. Hamlet is suffering everyday of his life as he mourns the death of his father and the marriage of his mother to his uncle Claudius. It is in this state of grievance that Hamlet acts out unusually. This fall into madness is extremely evident in the climatic moments of the third act, when Hamlet confronts his mother in her closet. Lashing out wild and vulgarly, in an attempt to make Gertrude see her wrongs he says, Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stewed in corruption, honeying and making love.(III.iv.94) He is demanding that his mother stay away from Claudius bed. His use of force is inappropriate and unusual as the roles of mother and son are reversed. As a mother, Gertrude is supposed to keep watch over her children but in this scene Hamlet declares that he is taking over and watching every move that she makes. His attitude is far more intense than it was earlier in the play. Even after the murder of Polonius, Hamlet crazily excuses himself, distinguishing his crime to his mother as being almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother.(III.iv.30-31) Hamlet is unable to coordinate his thoughts and actions due to his melancholy, and the murder of Polonius is an end result of that. When the prince is questioned about the whereabouts of Polonius body he says that it is, not where he eats, but where he has eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are een at him.(IV.iii.20-21) Hamlet seems to have no remorse what so ever for the killing of Polonius. The prince is obviously not in the right state of mind because those with a conscience would take the time to contemplate on such a horrid act and realize that what they did was wrong. Hamlet sees the murder of Polonius as nothing more than an accident in his trek to avenge his fathers murder. His mania has now become the dictator of his actions causing him to go out of control. He is a victim of his own grief; grief which plagues his mind and provokes his lunacy.

Hamlets depression induced madness flourishes throughout the play. It controls not only the way he looks at the world around him and his capacity to love, but causes him to act out irrationally in such a way that he does in fact seem to be insane. While his melancholy restricts him of almost all activity, Hamlet believes he is now able to see the world with all its faults and villains. This state of depression affects his relationship with both his lover and his family, making him a very lonely individual. His madness is a repercussion of his misery. It is this state of supposed mental illness that eventually controls everything Hamlet does and fails to do. The consequences of his irrational actions eventually lead to his downfall. While it is highly debatable that Hamlet is actually insane, it is his condition which makes him one of the most complex characters found in classic literature.

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