Hamlet was not only a tragic story, but a diagnosis of the main character himself shows he had developed a strong case of Schizophrenia. Hamlet is a tragic play that portrays intimate relations between family members after his father's death that eventually drives Hamlet to murder his own stepfather and develop schizophrenia. Hamlet displays multiple symptoms of schizophrenia. From the category A of symptoms where there must be at least two symptoms present, he displays delusions, hallucinations, certain negative symptoms, and disorganized speech. He also shows poor social interactions with his family and friends around him causing him to accuse everyone plotting against him. The period of these symptoms however, do seem to be limited. For
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Readers may notice that the ghost only talks to Hamlet when no one is around, while others have perceived him but none has spoken to him. This would fall right along with what we know about hallucinations and schizophrenics today. Illusion can occur where there are preexisting stimuli; mass hallucinations based of a stimulus are not unheard of and are not rare. He also only sees the ghost during the night which news studies suggest there might be a connection with. It is also common for the hallucination to have a running commentary on the individual’s behaviors and actions. This is very present with the ghost since he keeps telling Hamlet to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”. His unorderly speech is plainly shown in the meaningless sentences he seems to say, and the sentences he does say, he perfectly understands but seems to leave everybody else confused. We see this with Ophelia which she goes to talk about the favors he’s giving her and he claims to have no conviction of what she is talking about and calls her a liar. Another time is with Polonius when he asks him whom he is and Hamlet responds “Excellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger”. In fact for much of his conversations with Polonius, and several times with his love Ophelia, he seems to ramble quite a bit to himself without really addressing the others that are seemingly part of the conversation. This is a strong trait of schizophrenia, seeing that others cease to exist in everyday
Readers may notice that the ghost only talks to Hamlet when no one is around, while others have perceived him but none has spoken to him. This would fall right along with what we know about hallucinations and schizophrenics today. Illusion can occur where there are preexisting stimuli; mass hallucinations based of a stimulus are not unheard of and are not rare. He also only sees the ghost during the night which news studies suggest there might be a connection with. It is also common for the hallucination to have a running commentary on the individual’s behaviors and actions. This is very present with the ghost since he keeps telling Hamlet to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”. His unorderly speech is plainly shown in the meaningless sentences he seems to say, and the sentences he does say, he perfectly understands but seems to leave everybody else confused. We see this with Ophelia which she goes to talk about the favors he’s giving her and he claims to have no conviction of what she is talking about and calls her a liar. Another time is with Polonius when he asks him whom he is and Hamlet responds “Excellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger”. In fact for much of his conversations with Polonius, and several times with his love Ophelia, he seems to ramble quite a bit to himself without really addressing the others that are seemingly part of the conversation. This is a strong trait of schizophrenia, seeing that others cease to exist in everyday