Theme Of Craziness In Hamlet

Throughout Shakespeare’s iconic play, Hamlet, the theme of craziness or mental wellbeing is in the spotlight. Hamlet, the play’s protagonist and the young Prince of Denmark, is thought to be crazy by many members of his family and the Kingdom of Denmark in general. In some ways, his family, especially his uncle, Claudius, is correct in assuming he’s crazy based on his brash behavior and his reclusiveness. In reality though, his craziness is normal behavior for a young man his age dealing with loss, coping with the knowledge his uncle murdered his father, madly in love with a girl, and having to uphold his image as Prince of Denmark. Judging from this list of problems Hamlet has to deal with, Hamlet’s madness is stress. Just seeing this list of …show more content…
People deal with stress in a variety of ways and Hamlet’s way is to act out and act crazily and hide from the royal family. However, as the play unfurls, the line between his stress and craziness does seem to cross as Hamlet’s anxiety turns into madness. Hamlet’s alleged insanity all starts with grief over the death of his father. King Hamlet is dead at the beginning of the play but his ghost has returned from hell to warn Hamlet about foul play. Hamlet’s grief then turns into anger when he encounters his father’s ghost on top of the castle’s tower one dark night. During this strange encounter, King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet’s father, admits that he’s,” Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires” (1.5,57). In other words, because King Hamlet never received his last rights, he’s doomed to hell.