The extent to which Hamlet suffers from depression

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The extent to which Hamlet suffers from depression

Hamlet prince of Denmark, an astute young man whose character seems to be experiencing sadness, mixed with grief and anger due to recent events. He is also a student attending the University of Wittenberg who is being pressured in to dropping out of university by his mother, Queen Gertrude, and his uncle Claudius (Shakespeare 1.2.110-119). Hamlets mother soon marries his uncle Claudius, shortly after the death of his father King Hamlet (Shakespeare 1.2.175-183), whose ghost is now being seen by Hamlet himself and urges him to defend his death by killing his uncle Claudius who he claims to have murdered him (Shakespeare 1.5.30-43).

The main events which have recently occurred in Hamlets life causes him to show a tendency of being gloomy and depressed. This is the main reason why his character is termed to be melancholy, which in modern term is the equivalence to the meaning of depression (Blazer 251).

Hamlet considers the marriage between his mother, Queen Gertrude and father’s brother, Claudius to be adulterous and the highest form of disloyalty from his mother, which appears to be the main source and fuel for his intense sorrow and hatred for his uncle. This only takes Hamlet into a further state of depression to the extent where he begins to feel hopeless and starts to consider his suicide, and the only reason he doesn’t go through with it is because good made a law against it;

“Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable...” (1.2.129-133)

Hamlet also refers to his life as being point less which is al...

... middle of paper ...

...hing, 2003. Print.

Timbrady, Navin. "Message of Hamlet." Free Hamlet Essay. 2004. 123help, Web. 5 Feb 2010.

.

Smith, Melinda. "Signs, symptoms and treatment of manic-depression." Understanding Bipolar

disorders. 2009. Helpguide, Web. 5 Feb 2010.

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Grand, Branch. "Bipolar affective disorder." Understanding Manic Depression. 2007. Canadian

Mental Health association, Web. 5 Feb 2010.

fault.aspx>.

Hibbard, G.R. "Mild to severe manic-depression." Types of depression. 1998. Oxford Univ.

Press, Web. 5 Feb 2010. .

Blazer, Dan. The age of melancholy. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2005. 251. Print.

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