Richie Bazzy

Ms. Skirtich
18 January 2017
English 10: World Literature
Hamlets Mental Instability
William Shakespeare was one the worlds most famous and talented writers in the world
to this day. Shakespeares brilliance was the cause of him coming up with the play of Hamlet.
It was so good that it is still being acted out and being learned today. Hamlets mental instability
is driven by his fathers murder, his troubled relationship with Ophelia, and his desire to seek
revenge on Claudius.
Hamlets mental instability is driven by his fathers murder. In Act I, Hamlet started to
become suspicious about Claudius. I am thy father's spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk
the night/ And for the day confined to fast in fires (I.IV). He is telling young Hamlet, his son,
that he is his ghost of his father and e only comes out at night. The death of King Hamlet was the
start of Hamlets insanity outbreak. When Hamlet says, Mother, you have my father much
offended, he is saying that she is disrespectful and wrong for marrying his younger brother right
after his death (3.4.12-13). Claudius was the cause of King Hamlets death, and was the
murderer. Hamlet did not know what to do and he started contemplating suicide.

Hamlets mental instability is driven by his troubled relationship with Ophelia. Hamlet and
Ophelias relationship is very dysfunctional. They both are in love with each other, but neither of
them truly believe it. He is deeply in love with her, but Ophelia starts to get the idea that Hamlet
is just using her. Many people tell her this. A little month, or ere those shoes were old With
which she followed my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tearswhy she, even she, married
with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules (1.2.151-158)

Hamlet continues to take his frustration out on his mother marrying Claudius. When Hamlet said,
"I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers, if you added all their love together, couldn't match
mine" (Act 5). When he says this, he is showing his true love for her, but it is too late. Ophelia
thought Hamlet truly did not care for her because he made it seem that way, but he did.

Hamlets mental instability is driven by his desire to seek revenge on Claudius. In Act I, the
ghost of King Hamlet visits Hamlet and talks to him. The ghost of King Hamlet tells Hamlet that
he needs to seek revenge on Claudius for murdering him. This was the main thing that made
Hamlet go completely crazy throughout the entire book. Everything drastic that has happened
throughout the whole book, is somewhat related to King Hamlets ghost visiting Hamlet and
telling him to seek revenge. Haste me to know 't, that I, with wings as swift as meditation or the
thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge (1.5.31-34). For a while now Hamlet has been
planning on murdering him, once he had the chance he did not act upon it. Now might I do it
pat, now he is praying, and now I'll do 't. And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged. That
would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send
to heaven. (3.3.77-83). Hamlet, once again, passes up another opportunity to murder Claudius.
When Hamlet came upon him, Claudius was praying. Hamlet did not want to do it than because
if he murdered him while he was praying he would go to heaven. Hamlet does not want him to
go to heaven because of the death of his father.

Overall, Hamlets life is very stressful and messed up and there are various things that he does
not understand how to deal with. The main cause of all of Hamlets insanity started with the
death of his father. Than, after that Ophelia hired his best friends to spy on him. The cause of him

not knowing how to deal with all this stress makes him want to commit suicide so he can get rid
of all his problems entirely. Hamlets death was a sad one, but since he did not drink the poison
from the cup it caused his mother to drink it which killed her. Eventually, within such a short
time span, Laertes, Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude all die. It was an unexpected twist.