Hamlet Don Quixote Analysis

Throughout history, episodes of madness have been recorded in every culture across the globe. Psychological illnesses are common, but have always had a deep stigma attached to them. Those with such disorders are often shunned by society. This makes it much more appealing to hide such a fact about oneself than to seek help. Such a hostile environment can easily cause a person to spiral out of control. Hamlet and Don Quixote are two perfect examples of a troubled individual in a troubled world. At what point does a man's passion, diligence, and determination cross into the realm of madness? The authors of both Hamlet and Don Quixote portray protagonists that are potentially mad. Hamlet and Don Quixote are two characters that both potentially …show more content…
One similarity they do share is a warped sense of reality and justice. This is the factor that makes them the most alike. Hamlet and Don Quixote can both be considered vigilantes. They both seek out justice, but through different means and for different reasons. Hamlet, haunted by the ghost of his father, feels obligated to right the wrong done by his uncle by any means necessary. Don Quixote seeks justice for the world for the sake of achieving the same honor and prestige of the fictional knights that he so often read about. Hamlet's sense of justice is revenge driven and purely backwards thinking while Don Quixote's justice is more forward thinking and on a much broader scope. While Hamlet's path to righteousness is much more narrow than Don Quixote's, it is filled with many twists and turns. Hamlet has a closer grasp on the situation and seems to understand the gravity of it but is extremely indecisive. He does not know how to handle the situation at hand or if he even wishes to spend another day on earth. The grief he is stricken with is so great that he questions whether suicide is a better course than his current one. The course that Don Quixote chooses is much more set in stone. His goals were unachievable, yet that never deterred him from pursuing them. Don Quixote's journey should have come to an end before he left his village once he realized he had not yet been knighted and did not possess the proper armaments to signify himself as a novice knight. He pressed on regardless and from that point forward, he filled his mind with whatever delusions he needed to keep