Throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet the young prince struggles with his sanity and eventually gets eaten up by his own act of madness. During the beginning of the play he wishes that he could cease to exist because of his depression. He witnesses other actors being very passionate about their roles and wonders why he is not so passionate about his acting. Throughout the play Hamlet exhibits signs of manic depression by expressing suicidal thoughts then being very energetic and happy.
Hamlet has a very important soliloquy in the beginning of act one, scene two spoken by Hamlet himself. King Hamlet had passed, “But two months dead-nay, not so much, two” (1.2 139) ago and the death was still very much affecting the young prince. After his mother and uncle/father had been lecturing him putting down his sadness he was toying with the idea of suicide in the way, “that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew” (1.2 129). Needless to say, “depression carries a high risk of suicide,” (WebMD Depression Guide) and Hamlet very much displays thoughts of suicide. Hamlet displays these signs of depression but also has some very manic moments throughout the play.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet has some very interesting scenes displaying Hamlet’s energetic, clever, and loud personality (very well displayed by Kenneth Branagh). He has certain scenes where he seems almost too happy, he acts as if the best things in the world are happening. Hamlet often talks to Polonius in a way that’s very energetic. While it’s hard to see this while reading script, the movie directed by Kenneth Branagh in 1996 shows his manic episodes very well. Hamlet is often characterized as being full of emotion and always having some little remark directed at someone.
After Hamlet decides to act crazy in the beginning of the play he hears of some actors called the Players are coming to his kingdom. He asks one of the more elder actors to perform a scene about King Priam’s murder. The player acts on how Priam’s wife, Hecuba was paralyzed with fear and wonders how he had, “a broken voice and his whole function suiting,” (2.2 515) about something that he didn’t actually care about beyond the play. Hamlet was deeply affected by the fact that this actor could show so much emotion over something that doesn’t matter at all while he couldn’t really even get it up and step up to the plate. He was struggling with his insanity from the first act of Hamlet and this scene puts the thought into his head that he needs to be crazy to act crazy. Hamlet realized he was much like, “a whore, unpack my heart with words and fall a-cursing,” (2.2 548-549).
The main thing this play reminds me of is the AMC show Breaking Bad, about a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer that starts cooking meth to help his family but gets carried away and eventually a lot of people die. Hamlet is much like this in the way that he tries to do something good for the world and himself, ends up getting carried away and almost everybody dies. Hamlet, of course, gets carried away in his “acts.” Hamlet definitely had signs of bipolar disorder but still showed he had a clear head at times which begs the question: was he acting or actually crazy?
TuckFran 