Hamlet’s Troubled Mind
“ …To be, or not to be: that is the question…” Probably the most quoted line in the history of dramatic literature, not bad, for a madman. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, our hero is haunted by the ghost of his kingly father who was viscously and premeditatedly murdered by the King’s own shameless wife and coveting brother. Imagine if you will a specter of your dead father appearing before you and divulging a secret so intense it plants the seeds of insanity. Tragedy is defined as a form of drama in which a person of superior intelligence and character, a leader of the community, is overcome by the very obstacles he struggles against. Never has there been a more fitting definition written for one character, never has there been a more sorrowful, pitifully tormented human being than Hamlet. Our hero walks on the cliff’s edge of sanity and insanity through out his single-minded task of bittersweet revenge, drifting closer to the edge with every turn of the page. Nothing it seems will veer him from his path of righteousness, not understanding, not reason, not friendship or family, or the mightiest emotion of them all, love. Hamlet is faced with the knowledge that his own mother stole
Why has Hamlet lost his mind when he has the love of his good mother and caring uncle who so quickly replaced his father at his mother’s side? It seems unreasonable that such a loving family be ripped apart by something as trivial as murder. The callous way King Claudius dismisses Hamlet’s grief as childish is astonishing and sickening. King Claudius in Hamlet offers these words of wisdom to his nephew: Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, to give these mourning duties to your father: But, you must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound filial obligation for some term to do obsequious sorrow: but to persever in obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubbornness; tis unmanly grief; It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, a heart unfortified, a mind impatient, an understanding simple and unschool’ld. For what we must be and is as common as any the most vulgar to sense (8). In the closing act, all who died are deserved. The new King kills his Queen in his feeble attempt to qualm his nephew. The King in turn is forced to drink from the same cup of death meant for Hamlet. Even the son of Polonious, Laertes is given his just deserts for secretly planning to best Hamlet by poisoning the tip of his sword. Although he is successful in his attempt, Hamlet lives long enough to see all who have conspired against his father die before he himself perishes. In the end Shakespeare’s Prince never finds peace from his troubled mind, neither in his friends or lover, nor certainly not in family, but only in death. How easily the pious King Claudius dismisses the death of his brother. Hamlet knows his uncle’s dirty secret and the vile taste in Hamlet’s mouth begins to poison his heart. G. Wilson Knight puts it this way, “Hamlet is inhuman. He has seen through humanity. And this inhuman cynicism, however justifiable in this case, an the plane of causality and individual responsibility, is a deadly venomous thing.” (8-9). This venomous thing is what in the end will kill our tragic hero. Hamlet is but a simple man faced with a tragedy of loss and the knowledge of treachery by his own mother. All this and the ghostly sire beckoning him to right the wr
Some topics in this essay:
Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
AC Bradley,
Wilson Knight,
Claudius Hamlet,
Wolfgang VonGoethe,
Horatio Hamlet’s,
Hamlet Ophelia,
King Claudius,
Guildenstern Rosencrantz,
Samuel Johnson,
king claudius,
love hamlet,
father father,
father father lost,
hamlet hero,
father lost,
own mother,
hamlet follow,
lost father,
king claudius dismisses,
wilson knight,
guildenstern rosencrantz,
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Approximate Word count = 1514
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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