hamlet essay

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Hamlets Insanity

Hamlet ‘s first impression was when he told is father/uncle “A little more than kin and less than kind”(1.2.65) he first comes off as angry. From the beginning Hamlet is brought to the picture due to a bad occasion. Later it is begun to be seen that all the chaos begins to get to him. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet , Hamlet looses his sanity over time for the reason of the multiple incidents that happen consecutively such as: his fathers murder, his mother and uncles marriage, and his father appearing as a ghost to him revealing his murder.
Hamlet’s insanity started within himself he no longer knew whether he belonged in this world or not and this is when it was first seen that he did not know how to cope with all the chaos that surrounded him. Hamlet first thought of suicide was when he said “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.133-138). Hamlet is saying he wishes his flesh would melt away, but he knows that this is a mortal sin towards God so he doesn’t know what to do. Suicide is clearly not a thought that comes to a sane person. It usually comes to a person that cannot handle what they are going through. This was not the only place we see Hamlets insanity through wanting suicide. We see this in Hamlets second soliloquy when he says ”To be or not to be-that is the question:…To die to sleep-No more and by a sleep we end”(3.1.64-69). Again Hamlet is showing insanity through suicide, but also at this point others are starting to realize his insanity. Hamlet has no idea that Claudius and Polonius are watching him through the other side of the door. Hamlet realizes at this point that he doesn’t have enough courage to commit suicide but he turns to the point of not caring who he is anymore which leads to insanity.
Others begin to see that Hamlet has begun to be mad. One of the first people to see this is Ophelia. This shown in the scene with Ophelia and Polonius, when they are discussing how Hamlet stormed into her room half dressed and began to harass her. Polonius says to this “Mad for love?” (2.1.96) . Polonius doesn’t know whether or not he Hamlet is madly in love with is daughter or he is just in general mad. Mad is the route Polonius and Ophelia begin to take regarding to Hamlet. Another instance were Hamlet shows his insanity to others is when he is talking with Gertrude and begins to look at ghost of his father
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