Psychoanalytic View of Hamlet
Hamlet is often viewed as a tragedy, but the character of Hamlet is alsoa portrait of the human condition. It is by focusing on Hamlet's humanitythat Shakespeare is able to create such a memorable character. Hamletcannot reconcile his emotion with his reason, and as a result, becomes theperfect case study for the psychological effects of grief, anger, andindecision. This paper will analyze Hamlet's mental decline and examinehow his circumstances contributed to his condition. We are told the years that Shakespeare wrote were "among the mostexciting in English history" (Mowat xxviii). Due to the invention of theprinting press, literature was becoming available to those who previouslyhad no way to access it. This "literary output fed directly intoShakespeare's plays," says Barbara Mowat. Hamlet's depiction of thesociety he was living in reflects the "Neoplatonic wonderment at mankind"(xxviii), according to Mowat. The Renaissance was a time of "intellectualrebirth and religious reformation in Denmark" (Blits). An important aspectof this movement includes the fact that the pagan beliefs "rediscovered bythe Renaissance and pursued by Hamlet emphasizes the radical inwardness of
the beauty ofthe world, the paragon of the animals; yet to me, what is this quintessenceof dust'" (II. We can even see a subtle hint about Hamlet's future whenHoratio asks Hamlet not to follow the ghost, for it "might deprive yoursovereignty of reason/And draw you into madness'" (I. He tries to deny what theghost is by claiming it is a "goblin damned" (i. Blits also notes that Hamlet is not so much pulled inopposite directions, as simply pulled "away from action" (Blits). This becomes clear when he says, "O, from this time forth,/Mythoughts be bloody or be nothing worth" (IV. He also notes that even "while he thus sets motion andthinking apart, Hamlet tends to collapse the former into the latter"(Blits). The apex of Hamlet's mental state arises when he realizes that he simplycannot avenge his father's death. Many critics recognize that Hamlet's indecision propagates his innerpain. In addition, "justas neither their loves, their memories, nor their vows are constant, so,too, men's appearances and actions are not to be trusted" (Blits). At this point, he is aware thatis suffering, as he bemoans the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"and the "thousands natural shocks/That flesh is heir to" (III. His grief is compounded with the shock of his mother's remarriage and thesetwo components pave the way for the conflicts that will forever hauntHamlet.
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Acceptance Essays
