Hamlet-
Mad or No?
William
Shakespeare was a master of tragedy. In Hamlet, Prince
of Denmark, Shakespeare spins a tale of murder, madness,
and lies. The character of Prince Hamlet is burdened by
the assassination of his father and must avenge the King’s
death while protecting his own life. Many have contemplated
whether or not Hamlet’s sanity was flawed. Hamlet
told the audience that he was not insane, but it is clear
that his mourning and melancholia were taking over his
world.
Hamlet,
in a stagnant state of mourning, struggles to stay composed.
He is grieving his father’s death. Theodore Lidz,
author of Hamlet’s Enemy, leans to the theory that
Hamlet believes he must pretend to be insane because he
feels that he must resist to retain a “modicum of
self-control.” Lidz describes Hamlet as a man pushed
to the “breaking point” (59). The decision
to feign madness was not entirely thought out, but it
is not insane. With the weight of his father’s death
upon him, Hamlet did the best he could to save himself
from the possible wrath of his uncle’s hand. Felice
Zilberfein, a professor at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in
New York, suggests that the circumstances of death are
important to understand. Whether the death is due to a
long illness, or if it is sudden, people are never equipped
to lose a person they love. Death is more or less always
unexpected. Even after a drawn-out illness, a person cannot
entirely plan for death; grief is unbearable and surrounded
by loneliness (4). Hamlet’s grief is a plausible
reason for his abnormal behavior. Rev. Howard R, Gorle
BA, from the Bereavement Education and Counseling Center,
gives more insight into the loneliness and heart ache
described by Felice Zilberfein. He explains that the loneliness
combined with the loss of a loved one can shatter the
person’s delicate world. It can change his perception
of life events, and cause them to question their own emotions,
thoughts and coping mechanisms-in short, their sanity.
In most cases, this disturbance of normality is normal
(1). It is undeniable that Hamlet is going through this
process.
Hamlet
is morning the death of his parent’s marriage. Critic,
Ruth Perry, in the article “Madness in Euripides,
Shakespeare, and Kafka: An Examination of The Bacchae,
Hamlet, King Lear, and The Castle” describes Hamlet,
as a child of a broken home. His mother, Gertrude, has
moved right into a new relationship that has nothing to
do with Hamlet. In the short time of four months, he has
been almost completely excommunicated from his family
and is looked upon with distrust because of his position
in the public (4). This is a lot to deal with; any man
in this position would have few possibilities to explore
to alleviate these issues. When Hamlet runs into his friend
Horatio, Horatio denies that he has come to see the wedding
but to come for the funeral of the King. Hamlet uses sarcasm
to play off his feelings for his mother’s expedient
nuptials; “Thrift, Thrift, Horatio! The funeral
bak’d meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage
tables. Would I have met my dearest foe in heaven or ever
I had scene that day, Horatio” (I. ii. 180-182).
Perry goes on to explain Hamlet’s condition even
further:
Hamlet is much more about the sullen, withheld, depressed,
conflicted relation of a child to both his parents.
The anger is not clean and cathartic…it is dirty,
sullied. Hamlet's ‘imaginations are as foul
/ As Vulcan's stithy’ (III, ii). He is haunted
rather than furious. He does not vituperate Gertrude
and Claudius; he embarrasses them in public and makes
snide remarks. (4)
These
are not the actions of a person who is insane; these
are the actions of a person who is using pettiness to
get over his grief.
In
Sigmund Freud’s book Mourning and Melancholia,
he laid what would be known as the “Blue print”
for “Grief work.” Rev. Howard R, Gorle BA.
simplifies the six propositions of grief work:
1.
Grief is an adaptive response to loss. It facilitates
the gaining of peace of mind and reintegration into
society.
2. Grief work is difficult and time consuming
3. The basic goal of grief work is to accept the reality
of the loss and work through the process of decathexis.
Decathexis must be achieved on both an emotional and
intellectual level.
4. Grief work occurs through a long series of confrontations
with the loss.
5. Survivors naturally, or instinctively, resist 'letting
go' of the attachment.
6. Failure to complete grief work results in misery
and dysfunction (1).
Hamlet
is slowly going through this grief work, but many obstacles
stand in his way. In the meanwhile, he is caught in his
own misery and his abnormal behavior is legitimate.
Many critics argue that Hamlet is mad from the start.
Mental disorders were everywhere during the middle ages.
Alison Findlay, in Hamlet: A Document of Madness, suggests
that Ellsinore was vulnerable to madness, or at least
the idea:
Renaissance
physicians, preachers and astrologers commonly cited
fear and grief as the principle causes of mental disorder.
These emotions abound in Denmark, imperiling the sanity
of society at large. Excessive mourning was regarded
as particularly dangerous, so the moderate show of grief
evident in I. ii. is a safeguard against madness as
well as a disguise for crime. (1)
Hamlet
falls within the criteria of excessive mourning. Claudius
sees the danger in Hamlet’s madness and seeks to
rid himself from what he calls “diseases desperate
grown” (IV. iii. 9). Perry takes the view of Michael
Foucaucly, who claims: “that there was a growing
conviction in the late middle ages that the line between
folly and sanity was tenuous—that fools could be
a great deal closer to the truth than so-called sane people,
or that all people where fools”(1). Many critics
such as P.J Aldus note that mental disorders did not have
the terminology then that they have today (4). Schizophrenia
may be a plausible explanation to Hamlet’s erratic
behavior. Aldus notes that generally the schizophrenic
is caught up in primal myth-making patterns. The schizophrenic
moves into states of direct response to “intimations
and forms of meanings in surrounding phenomena that [appear]
to correspond to his emotional, physical, and psychological
forces” (4). Gradually the person believes himself
to be enlightened through conscious consideration of “formal
realities in such phenomena” (4). The schizophrenic
is pushed into dominating the insane half of his personality
which is frantic absorbing all that is seen, heard, touched,
smelled, tasted (4). There are strong similarities to
the schizophrenic and Hamlet. Much like Hamlet, when the
schizophrenic talks, he talks without restraint except
for short periods of mute depressions. He is caught in
the phenomena of the reality of everything he feels and
sees (Aldus 5). Hamlet may not have been able to escape
the rampant mental disorders that plagued Ellsinore.
Hamlet’s
outward mental state does not reflect his sanity within.
Hamlet tells Gertrude and his closest friends that his
madness is but an act. After seeing the ghost of his father,
Hamlet confides in Horatio that he is going “to
put an antic disposition on,” and that Horatio may
see him but who he sees will just be a mask of his true
self (I.v.166-180). Hamlet must put on this act to protect
himself from the wrath of the new King. If Claudius were
to discover that Hamlet knew how the King met his demise
then Hamlet would most surely be killed just the same.
T.S. Elliot in “Hamlet and His Problems” suggests
that, “for Shakespeare it is less than madness and
more than feigned. The levity of Hamlet, his repetition
of phrase, his puns, are not part of a deliberate plan
of dissimilation, but a form of emotional relief”
(4). While in his mother’s chamber, after the untimely
death of Polonius, Hamlet unburdens his heart: “Make
you to ravel all this matter out, that I essentially am
not in madness, but mad in craft” (III. iv. 188-192).
Considering the circumstances, Hamlet has no reason to
lie to his mother; he must be speaking the truth.
To
keep up with his “antic disposition” hamlet
had to be on his toes constantly. Eric Levy, the Author
of The Problematic Relationship between Reason and Emotion
in Hamlet, explains “Though Hamlet is linked with
the vulnerability of reason to emotion, he nevertheless
displays extraordinary emotional control, despite extreme
provocation” (2). Levy explains that the control
is evident when Hamlet teases Polonius about the shape
of a “yonder cloud” (III. ii. 368) and during
the clumsy attempts of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to
probe Hamlet's "mystery” (2). Hamlet has such
mental control, that to others he does not lapse into
his game of madness but is completely normal. This is
evident with his encounter with the clown in the role
of the gravedigger. Hamlet speaks freely with the man
in a morbid but sane conversation on the topic of mortality
(IV. ii. 5-155). Findlay explains that Hamlet's capacity
to substitute an experience from one language to another
is revealed at several points. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
state that he is “distracted” but using a
“crafty madness'” to protect himself (III.
i. 5, 8). Hamlet tells them he is “but mad north-northwest”
and “that he can distinguish his sane speech from
that of lunacy, knowing the difference between a hawk
and a handsaw” (II. ii. 374-5). Polonius and Claudius
also make out method in Hamlet's lunacy, which to Claudius,
indicates a degree of self-awareness on Hamlet's part
(Findlay 5). These are all instances where Hamlet’s
madness is questioned, but he perseveres. Perry suggests
that “It is not his manic nonsense, the jumbled
things he says to Polonius or Ophelia, or his contentious
punning which are the signs of his madness. His word play
is a smokescreen that he throws up deliberately, a form
of passive resistance when he feels manipulated or when
his real reaction is inaccessible or impolitic”
(5). This smoke screen is what kept Hamlet alive and out
of Claudius’ reach.
Hamlet
is suffering from melancholia, or what is commonly referred
to as depression. He is not insane. Paul A. Jorgensen
in an essay titled “Hamlet’s Therapy”
quotes directly from Freud’s essay “Mourning
and Melancholia” to describe the characteristics
of melancholia:
The
distinguishing mental features of melancholia are a
profoundly painful dejection, cessation of interest
in the outside world, loss of the capacity to love,
inhibition of all activity, and a lowering of the self-regarding
feelings to a degree that finds utterance in self-reproaches
and self-revilings, and culminates in a delusional expectation
of punishment. This picture becomes a little more intelligible
when we consider that ... the same traits are met with
in mourning. (2)
Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, sees that Hamlet is not
himself and shows distress toward his extended mourning
of the King’s death. The Queen acknowledges her
son’s melancholia and even gives him advice to “cast
thy nighted colour off, and let thine eye look like a
friend on Denmark” (I. ii. 68-73). She reminds him
that everything that lives must die eventually (I. ii.
68-73). Unfortunately, Hamlet is so distressed he cannot
heed his mother’s advice. Inner exploration is key
to the development of Hamlet’s character. In Hamlet’s
famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be,” he
plays with the ideas of sleep and death.
To
die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come (III.
i. 61-66)
These are not thoughts of someone who is going threough
the healthy stages of mourning. These are the thoughts
of a man who is severely depressed. The repeated use of
the term “To sleep” is insightful to Hamlet’s
desire to end his life. Eric Levy explains that: “In
Hamlet, thought or interior apprehension not only engenders
inward pain (as postulated in the Aristotelian-Thomist
system), but tends also as we have seen, to brood on the
need to terminate that pain. Indeed, in referring to Hamlet's
inward pain” (5). Levy goes on to explain that in
order for Hamlet to rid himself of these suicidal thoughts
he must look within himself to understand his pain so
that he may overcome it (5). Hamlet is experiencing an
inner exploration within his soliloquies. This is a healthy
step to relinquish himself from his melancholia. The irony
is that the soliloquies do not lead Hamlet out of his
depression, but push him further into darkness. Levy continues:
“Hamlet castigates thought for inhibiting the implementation
of an enterprise (suicide) designed to eliminate inward
pain. But as the examples just cited suggest, the proper
means of allaying inward pain is not recourse to ‘desperate
appliance’ (Claudius' term), conceived by thought
under the influence of emotional pain, but modification
of the mode of thought creating that pain” (5).
Hamlet does not show signs of insanity; he is just stuck
within an endless circle of depression.
The
melancholy character of Hamlet gives much to the imagination.
When contemplating whether or not he is sane, three factors
must be taken into consideration: Hamlet is in a state
of morning multiple losses: his father’s death and
his mother’s marriage. He has clearly stated that
his insanity is only a ruse, clearly stating this several
times and he is severely depressed. When combined, this
evidence makes clear that Hamlet’s “antic
disposition” was just that.
Works
Sited
Aldus, P.J. "Madness," in Mousetrap: Structure
and Meaning in Hamlet, 1977, pp. 209-19. Reprinted in
Shakespearean Criticism, Vol. 35.
http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu
Elliot,
T.S. “Hamlet and His Problems”
Bartleby.Com. 23 Oct. 2004
http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw9.html
Findlay,
Alison "Hamlet: A Document in Madness," in New
Essays on Hamlet, edited by Mark Thornton Burnett and
John Manning, 1994, pp. 189-203. Reprinted in Shakespearean
Criticism, Vol. 35.
http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu
Rev.
Gorle, Howard R, BA. “An Introduction to Death and
Dying”
Death and Dying- and Introductory ‘E-book’
for Students. 14 Nov. 2004
http://www.bereavement.org
Jorgensen,
Paul A."Hamlet's Therapy," in The Huntington
Library Quarterly, Vol. XXVII, 1963-64, pp. 239-58. Reprinted
in Shakespearean Criticism, Vol. 35.
http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu
Levy,
Eric "The Problematic Relation between Reason and
Emotion in Hamlet." Renascence 53, no. 2 (winter
2001): 83-95.
http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu
Lidz,
Theodore. Hamlet’s Enemy.
Madison, Connecticut: International Universities Press,
Inc. 1975
---.
“Sigmund Freud”
Death and Dying- and Introductory ‘E-book’
for Students. 14 Nov. 2004
http://www.bereavement.org/sigmund_freud.htm
Ruth
Perry, "Madness in Euripides, Shakespeare, and Kafka:
An Examination of The Bacchae, Hamlet, King Lear, and
The Castle," in The Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. 15,
No. 2, Summer, 1978, pp. 253-79. Reprinted in Shakespearean
Criticism, Vol. 35. http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu
Shakespeare,
William “Hamlet: Prince of Denmark.” Making
Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers.
Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. 2nd. Ed. Bedford/St.
Martin’s.
1185 – 1283.
Zilberfein,
Felice. “Coping with Death: Anticipatory Grief and
Bereavement.”
Generations, Vol. 1 Issue 1 (Spring 1999)
http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.librus.hccs.edu
