Hamlet: Emotional States Essay, Research Paper

Hamlet: Emotional States

Hamlet went through various emotional states because of different

unfortunate circumstances that confronted him. Yet Hamlet never went so far

over “the edge” so as to not come back from reality, yet for reasons

psychological, he procrastinated actions that he should have taken, until it was

too late. I will first discuss Hamlet, the origins for his queer behavior and

if it twas feigned or not.

In the first act we see that Hamlet is a sort of idealistic man coming back

to the world from university in Wittenburg. Coleridge described Hamlet in this

point of the play as a “Renaissance” man, who has never really come in contact

with the dark side of humanity. In the very beginning of Act 1 scene i the

guards dialog reflect that “there is something rotten in the state of Denmark”.

It is full of corruption, deceit, passion, ruthlessness, and ambition that

Hamlet is not used to (Lidz, 71). His mind temporarily can not handle his

situation because, as I will mention later, his mother is at the center of it.

He has to try to find meaning, direction and a stable identity in the midst of

all the evil about him (Lidz, 73).

We clearly see that Hamlet is quite upset by his mother’s quite hasty

marriage to is uncle, and this causes some deep seeded emotional problems for

Hamlet. I can not talk about Hamlet’s emotional state without also going into

the fact that Hamlet already suspects the King of killing his father, before the

ghost tells him so (Leavenwoth, 34). First I will go elaborate on how Hamlet,

at certain times, was clearly not feigning insanity, but that insanity only

lasted for brief periods of time because of the emotional blows that Hamlet

undergoes.

I and many literary folk believe that Hamlet suffered from a Oedipus

complex. Freud described this as a desire for a young boy to kill his father

and become sexually involved with his mother. Now that Hamlet’s father is

eliminated, he believes that he will now be the number one person receiving

affection from his mother, Queen Gertrude (Lidz, 48). This is the principal

reason of why even though Hamlet should have grown out of the Oedipal, it gets

reawakened (Lidz, 48). But, to Hamlet’s great disappointment his mother has

remarried and he will not be the number one person to receive his mother’s

affection and his superego is greatly damaged (Leavenworth, 95). He feels like

his mother has betrayed him in, by marrying, and to boot that she married with

great haste. It is this anger that gets pent-up inside of Hamlet and he

releases it by way of lashing out at Ophelia and his mother. However, while

this anger is still brewing inside him he is truly mad until it is released by

some cleansing means (Babcock, 112).

It can be clearly stated that Hamlet really is in love with his mother,

and expects her to be a supporting mother figure that is going to cradled Hamlet

and take care of his needs, basically mother Hamlet. I think that Hamlet also

needed the comfort of a loving mother badly because he returns home to find his

father dead and the world he once thought would be so perfect, collapsing around

him and the only thing that can make him feel truly safe and out of harm’s way

is his mother. That yearning and extreme need for the comfort of his mother is

a pivotal point of why Hamlet feels betrayed by his mother, when she can not

afford him the love he expects.

Besides Hamlet’s desire to find comfort in his mother, it is evident

that he is sexually attracted to his mother in a sexual fashion. Because of

some of Hamlet’s actions in the “closet scene” it is first apparent that he is

making some sort of sexual advance towards his mother the Queen. This is where

Hamlet’s Oedipus complex really bears itself completely, we know exactly what

Hamlet wants, but like in the rest of the play his words seem haphazard and

spurned on by disillusionment (Lidz, 130). He is here making an attempt to not

only regain the love of his mother, but a passion whose flames were ignited by

Gertrude’s hasty marriage.

The dear and lovely Ophelia is another person who plays a pivotal part

in confusing Hamlet even more than he already is. Hamlet, me thinks, is truly

in love with Ophelia through the duration of the play. Even though is seems

that Hamlet’s love for her wanes at certain times, he needs her in his live.

She (and I’m going out on a limb with this one) in Hamlet’s mind might be

considered a temporary substitute for his mother. He needs her as a support for

his life. He is desperately grasping for something to hold onto and someone

that will hold onto him.

Hamlet at one time admitted that he was mad, but only because of how the

events that transpired effected him and how he felt he was extremely wronged by

his mother (V, ii). As I stated before, this feeling of betrayal is because

Hamlet did not have primacy with Gertrude’s affections. He just becomes very

disillusioned and hostile toward the one person he thought would support him in

his time of need (Lidz 230). He was in fear of reality (because of how badly it

shattered his dreams) and he needed the one person he thought he could trust.

But it also could of resulted from the fact that Hamlet has suspicions that

Gertrude might have been in the plot to kill his father. However Shakespeare

keeps this thought in the air by not having Hamlet outright ask his mother about

it. (Charlton, 67). I think this also can be seen as an attempt to return the

mother he loved so much back to the “good side”, because subconsciously he

doesn’t care if she did it (killed his father), he just wants his “mommy” back;

this is due in part to his Oedipal feelings. Proof of Hamlet’s hostility and

manic behavior observed by his remarks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about his

mother’s message that she wants to speak to him. His remarks are too bitter and

upsetting, unlike some of his other witticisms, to be humorous and they appear

to be very like manic behavior. Another interesting point is that Hamlet

compares himself with Nero, who killed his mother and also had an incestuous

passion for her (Charlton, 67). The Emperor Claudius was Nero’s step-father

and great uncle who incestuously married his niece (Charlton, 67). I

psychiatrist might say that since Hamlet thinks that his mother has made very

bad judgment calls, when he talks to Gertrude in the “closet scene” he loosens

his super ego restraints and in the process, losses self-control. (Leavenworth,

140). He can no longer take on the role of moral guardian and snaps once again;

I believe he is now extremely manic and confused and must vent his anger and

disappointment towards his mother (Leavenworth, 140). This is done in-order to

reverse the parent and child roles and seek to act as his mother’s conscience or

super-ego, he has to wait until the pressures within him are unbearable, then

when he can finally express his feelings he verges on losing all self-control.

“In Hamlet’s mind she has died as his mother.” (Leavenworth, 45) This

is what I believe to be the root of his on/off madness, the betrayal of his

mother; he tries to get her back, but he is just so perplexed. When Hamlet is

talking with the ghost of his late father, the ghost tells Hamlet not to kill

his mother, even though he is extremely anger and disillusioned by her actions;

this I think causes him even more grief, and thus causes him to fall into a

deeper state of madness, by not allowing him to vent his anger in a simple way

(I,v). “The closet scene is when the time has come for Hamlet to vent his

feeling about his mother and therefore rid himself of his antic behavior. They

have become more violent and threaten to destroy his life or sanity.” (Lidz,

234). “He is caught up in passions that are gaining control over his thoughts,

feelings and behavior. He will seek his mother’s redemption, in so doing, tries

to escape destruction” (Lidz, 233). But because of all his pent up frustration

and anger, Hamlet’s disposition just seems antic, he doesn’t think, he just does.

Ophelia plays another significant part in Hamlet’s intricate insanity or

“antic behavior”. Both she and Hamlet displayed “melancholia” during certain

parts of the play. Ophelia was likewise in love Hamlet, but she was warned by

Polinous, that Hamlet might just very well take her virginity and marry another.

Hamlet and Ophlia share a common bond of both of them losing their father and

both die because there is nothing left for them but to desire death as an escape

from an existence that has become intolerable (Charlton, 109). “In (II, i, 78-

83) we see how Hamlet reacts to the events in act I. He scared Ophelia, even

thought we are aware that Hamlet has planned to feign insanity, it seems

strange that by entering Ophelia’s room in so disheveled a condition. This may

be because of the way Ophelia offended Hamlet, by repelling his letters and

denying him access to her.” (Lidz, 46). Ophelia’s “repelling” of Hamlet causes

him to become depressed and even more confused. This may be why in his letter

to her (II, ii, 119-123) might mean that he will commit suicide unless Ophelia

takes him back (Lidz, 85).

Because Hamlet lost the only person he still truly loves he becomes even

more enraged and antic, when she repels him again, after her father’s accidental

murder. If Hamlet were not antic after he killed Polinus he might have begged

Ophelia’s forgiveness. Hamlet loses Ophelia when he kills her father and thus

he become more enraged with himself and he became even more determined to

avenge his father’s death. The next logical place for Hamlet to vent anger is

with Claudis, because he already had words with his mother. He is looking to

solve the problems of the kingdom and thus the problems within himself (his

depression). And thus the on/off antic disposition is shown again; stress

builds up then vents, it builds up again and must again vent.

Besides Hamlet’s venting of anger, in which he was clearly mad, he did

have the rest of the character convinced that he was mad, even though Hamlet was

feign madness most of the time.In Hamlet’s Enemy: Madness and Myth in

Hamlet, Lidz has a very interesting opinion of what Hamlet means when he states

to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, “I am not mad north-north west; when the wind

is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw (I, ii). This could come to mean

“Don’t worry, I’m not so mad that I don’t know one tool from another, as well as

one bird from another, and I’m bright enough to confuse you with this remark”.

Along the same lines Lidz translated it as “I know who the hunter is (hawk;

Claudius) and who the hunted is (heron, Hamlet).” Along the same lines of Hamlet

being aware that his life is in danger he replies to Polonius, “You cannot sir,

take away from me anything that I will more willingly part withal; except my

life, except my life, except my life (I,ii,212-214). This tells us that Hamlet

is in a precarious state, despite his wits (Lidz, 234).

Throughout the play Hamlet uses word play inorder to “act” insane. His

faked insanity serves as a sort of cover for his plot of revenge against the man

that killed his father. Most of the time when Hamlet seems to be acting mad, he

is using the freedom afforded to him by his supposed madness, to “mess” with

Polinus and Claudius by displaying his wit in playing with words and phrases.

One example of Hamlet’s word play is “Pol. What do you read my lord? Ham. Words,

words, words. Pol. What is the matter my lord? Ham. Between who? Pol. I mean

the matter that you read.” Then Hamlet goes on to describe a book about a gray

old man that is, basically, an imbecile; which I can only come to conclude,

refers to Polonius. The great thing about Hamlet’s words are that they are

witty enough to fool Polinus, but to the audience Polinus appears to be a fool.

It is a way of Hamlet saying that he is in control, and shows without a doubt

that Hamlet had his wits about him.

The players also play an significant part in the events of Hamlet. We

see that Hamlet it cunning enough to “test” Claudius, to see if what the ghost

told him was the truth; “The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the

conscience of the King(I, ii,580-581) (Lidz, 150). These are not the actions of

an insane person, they are those of a intelligent and cunning one, who is unsure

and of his future and the further of his mother and the kingdom. On the issue

of Hamlet’s uncertainty, it is evident that he is extremely unsure, this is

apparent in his “to be or not to be” Soliloquy. He questions himself, should he

try to clear the court of corruption or just give up and end his life now. It

is this doubt that drives Hamlet to act deranged at times, but he overcomes it,

and tries to answer all the difficult questions posed in his life. As I stated

before, pressure builds up for Hamlet, then he must find some way to release it,

” in act V, because when calm returns, Hamlet repents his behavior.” (V, ii, 75-

78) (Lidz, 164).

In Lidz’s book Freud is quoted as saying, “that if anyone holds and

expresses to others an opinion of himself such as this (”Use every man after his

desert, and who shall escape whipping?”), he is ill, whether he is being more

or less unfair to himself.” I am using this quote to show that Hamlet is a very

ambiguous person, and evidence for both sides of the argument can be made for

either the side that he was crazy or that he was sane; it is just up to

interpretation.

Curious circumstances revolve around why Hamlet procrastinated in the

killing of Claudius. On his way to see his mother Hamlet sees Claudius praying

and decides not to kill him. It clearly shows that Hamlet was not kept from

gaining vengeance through lack of opportunity. In fact that act is one of self

damnation, which eventually ends five lives in the court. It states in the play

that Hamlet did not kill Claudius, because if he killed him while he was praying,

Claudius would go to heaven. This would seem to people in modern times that

there was a deeper reason, which there is a definite probability there is one,

but we must remember that people in Elizabethan times truly believe in heaven

and hell; and if Claudius had purged his soul by prayer, but he did not and

Hamlet lost his chance (Weston, 181).

We also must remember that Hamlet had other things on his mind at the

same time, more importantly, his mother. He is not so obsessed with his

father’s murder that he must hasten to revenge (Lidz, 235). He believes (more

likely made himself believe) that he can kill his uncle and get the throne at

anytime, but more importantly his mother’s obliquity will remain with him (Lidz,

235).

Talking about why Hamlet balked on revenge also brings us back to why

the events that unfolded while he was away at college shattered his dreams so

violently. I think that he would consider himself a very idealistic person, an

almost Renaissance man. Killing his uncle in cold blood would then require him

to become a person that he is not. Cooleridge states in Interpreting Hamlet

“Hamlet is placed in circumstances, under which he is obliged to act on the spur

of a moment. Hamlet is brave and careless of death; but he vacillates from

sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in

the energy of resolve.” Being a Renaissance Man or thinking man of wide and

keen intellectual powers, but feeble will. I believe (and think Cooleridge is

trying to purvey) that Hamlet’s will power is suffocated by reflection and

contemplation and he dies of his own moral paralysis. A Hofstra student who

used the book before me put it well, writing in the margin of a book, “Hamlet is

too complex for this simplistic a blood letting, he needs justice.” The

question we have to ask ourselves now is if Hamlet was aware that he must leave

off considering all sides of the question if he is to act.

Another opinion that I think is worth while to look at is, Hamlet’s

Oedipal complex in relation to killing Claudius. This is because of Hamlet’s

behavior in the “closet scene” he cannot kill the man who has only done what he

himself had wished to do. Hamlet identifies with Claudius and has to punish

himself for his guilty wishes rather than take vengeance on his uncle, this is

why he can only kill Claudius when he himself is dying and has been punished

(Lidz, 122).

And now to wrap up Hamlet into a nice neat little package. He was a

young, idealistic boy back from college. He has high hopes and dreams, but he

sees them killed, along with his father. The court is crumbling and extremely

corrupt and worst of all his beloved (and I mean beloved) mother is at the

center of it. This wreaks havoc with his mind, as it would any human being.

Along with losing his mother, he loses the only other person he loves, Ophelia.

Then on top of that he is faced with the task of avenging the murder of his

father, by killing his uncle; but it is not that simple because his uncle is

doing the same exact thing that he himself wants to do (kill his “father figure”

and get into bed with his mother). All of these circumstances cause poor Hamlet

to swing in and out of insanity, yet he is strong enough to try to plot a

cunning revenge scheme; but sadly in the end something his way of thinking could

not allow him to go through with avenging his father, until he was near death

himself.

And now for some interesting thoughts on Hamlet (non-inclusive of my

paper). Hamlet was actually a woman, and that is why Christopher Marlow did not

allow her to kill the King. John Lennon had the same thesis as mine stating in

Her Majesty on Abbey Road “Her majesty is a pretty nice girl/ but she changes

from day to day/ I wanna tell her that I love her a lot, but I gonna get her a

belly full of wine/ Her majesty is a pretty nice girl some day I’m gonna make

her mine.” This could very well refer to Hamlet talking about his mother

referring to her remarriage and the final scene in which it is probable that

they will together in heaven after she drinks the deadly wine

Bibliography

Babcock, Weston. A Tragedy of Errors

Purdue Research Foundation. 1961.

Charlton, Lewis. The Genesis of Hamlet

Kenniket Press, Port Washington, NY 1907.

Leavenworth, Russel E. Interpreting Hamlet: Materials for analysis

Chandler Publishing CO, San Francisco 1960.

Lidz, Theo. Hamlet’s Enemy: Madness and Myth in Hamlet”

Basic Books, Inc. NY 1975.