What Is Hamlet's Mental State Of Mind
Hamlet Essay
Period: 5
November 15, 2013
“But come, / Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,/ How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself/ (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on), …” (Act 1, Scene 5, Ln. 169- 173). With this one phrase Shakespeare sparked a debate that has lasted for centuries and have left literary analysts no closer to deciphering Hamlet’s “mental disorder” now than the analysts were in Shakespeare’s time. The second act of any Shakespearean tragic play is an act of choice. In this act the tragic hero chooses to involve himself in evil, while everything seems to be going well for him. Through the recitation of the death of Priam, Hamlet’s third soliloquy, and Hamlet’s seeming deteriorating mental state the reader is gaining all of the insights that the second act of any Shakespearean play are supposed to provide. …show more content…
The play that Hamlet asks the players to perform is a reflection of Hamlet’s own preoccupations with his father’s death (Hamlet Notes). In one part of the play Hamlet recites, “… That lend a tyrannous and damned light/ To their lord’s murder” (Act 2, Scene 2, Ln.441-442). The play reflects how hamlet believes his father died; murdered by the hands of his own brother as his wife stands by helplessly grieving at the sight of her dead husband. The play also emphasizes that a revenger is at first unable to commit revenge, but can only act wildly (Hamlet notes). This play helps Hamlet descend into evil because it awakens his desires to punish Claudius for Claudius’
Period: 5
November 15, 2013
“But come, / Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,/ How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself/ (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on), …” (Act 1, Scene 5, Ln. 169- 173). With this one phrase Shakespeare sparked a debate that has lasted for centuries and have left literary analysts no closer to deciphering Hamlet’s “mental disorder” now than the analysts were in Shakespeare’s time. The second act of any Shakespearean tragic play is an act of choice. In this act the tragic hero chooses to involve himself in evil, while everything seems to be going well for him. Through the recitation of the death of Priam, Hamlet’s third soliloquy, and Hamlet’s seeming deteriorating mental state the reader is gaining all of the insights that the second act of any Shakespearean play are supposed to provide. …show more content…
The play that Hamlet asks the players to perform is a reflection of Hamlet’s own preoccupations with his father’s death (Hamlet Notes). In one part of the play Hamlet recites, “… That lend a tyrannous and damned light/ To their lord’s murder” (Act 2, Scene 2, Ln.441-442). The play reflects how hamlet believes his father died; murdered by the hands of his own brother as his wife stands by helplessly grieving at the sight of her dead husband. The play also emphasizes that a revenger is at first unable to commit revenge, but can only act wildly (Hamlet notes). This play helps Hamlet descend into evil because it awakens his desires to punish Claudius for Claudius’