The Importance Of Madness In Hamlet

Madness resides within each and every individual, it rests within the boundaries of one's morality waiting to be unleashed by traumatic events. When the human mind is consumed by madness the afflicted individual tarnishes their original morality and begins to embody the essence of the irreconcilable product of their sanity: otherwise known as insanity. As a result, those afflicted will begin to indulge in many acts that their former selves would consider to be taboo. The dormant thoughts that reside within the subconscious layer of the mind will begin to emerge uncontrollably as the id-driven desires consume the host. In the Shakespearean tragedy the title character Hamlet is seeking to avenge his father Old hamlet by taking King Claudius's …show more content…
He claims that all boys “go through a phase in their childhood when they desire to kill their fathers and marry their mothers”. Rahman believes that there is a direct correlation between how the Oedipal phase is settled at youth and the mental health of the boy in the future. In most cases, that desire is safely suppressed and the boy will see their fathers as a role model as opposed to rivals. However, repressed desires do not simply dissipate, they feel deep down into the subconscious layer of the mind strongly chained to the core of his unknown desires. Although, it is possible for these Oedipal desires to resurface with a sufficient “shock” or “trigger”. In Hamlet, the shock that is responsible for resurfacing Hamlet's Oedipal desires was seeing the ghost of his father for the first time when he“hears from the ghost the news that his father has been murdered. This realization of his earliest childhood wish (to kill his father), had been repressed so thoroughly, suddenly revives in him Oedipal ‘thoughts’ of incest and patricide”. Rahman’s claim is clearly prominent in the play and it is imperative that readers consider the Oedipal phase in order to justify Hamlet's sanity. The Oedipal desire creates a severe complex within his mind as he is overcome by his overflowing suppressed id-driven thoughts. Thus, Hamlet embodies a truly deranged and manic demeanor that is …show more content…
The author argues that “His madness has the features of an acute delusional psychosis, or more specifically a paranoid reaction, as his mental illness would be described in psychiatric terms, the prominent symptoms being emotional turmoil amounting at times to terror, self-neglect, withdrawal of attention from the real world and preoccupied with vivid and horrific hallucinations.” When Hamlet is exposed to the truth regarding his father's death he drowns into an abyss of grief and consumed by an obsession to avenge his father, he becomes arrogant to the world. One of many traumatic shock that trigger Hamlet's insanity is portrayed when “he is first presented as continuing to mourn his father, who has died suddenly in strange circumstances two months previously.” The immense grief Hamlet acquired during this scene serves as the first step into madness as it is the sole cause of Hamlet’s distemper. Hamlet’s demeanor takes a turn for the worst when he is exposed to the truth behind his father’s death that was relayed to him by his father’s ghost. This complex situation causes a smoke screen in Hamlet’s mind; thus, making his behavior strange or “psychotic”. As a result, Hamlet results in making his actions misunderstood, deliberately. The authors argue that Hamlet’s “Paranoid ideas are usually inferred, albeit unreliably, shows