Hamlet, Psychology and Madness

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the question of whether Hamlet from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was mad or if he was simply feigning insanity. The paper looks at the Freudian nuances in Hamlet's insanity and also examines how madness was treated and confronted in Elizabethan England as to better understand this problem. Specifically, the paper places the many representations of madness in Hamlet in a historical as well as a psychological perspective.

From the Paper:

"And says all men, including himself, are "arrant knaves" (3.1.127). Hamlet's hatred of women which manifested after his mothers unfaithfulness, seems to have made him self-destructively insane. Hamlet detests that women veil the reality of their faces behind makeup: it makes beauty deceitful, hiding age (and death) behind a pleasing but dishonest mask. He then goes on to state that there would be no more marriages--and that one person who's married already will die and storms off, leaving Ophelia heartbroken. Toward the end of the play, Hamlet comes around and regains his composure in time for the great final scene where he will die."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Kirsch, Arthur. "Hamlet's Grief." ELH 48 (1981): 17-36.
• Sacks, Peter. "Where Words Prevail Not: Grief, Revenge, and Language in Kyd and Shakespeare." ELH 49 (1982): 576-601.

More papers on Hamlet, Psychology and Madness:

• Book Review # 100096 : "Freud and "Hamlet"
• Analytical Essay # 9011 : "Madness in "Hamlet"
• Analytical Essay # 62335 : "Hamlet Character Analysis"

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