BH
Hamlet the usurped prince of Denmark has had much go through his life in a short time period. He lost his father to murder, then his mother marries his Uncle who murdered his father, and his uncle is the usurper of his throne. By his death at the end of the play he shows characteristics of Bipolar I Disorder.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Hamlet has moments in the play where he losses himself in a manic episode. He shows symptoms of impulsivity, racing thoughts, and a talkative nature
“For the satirical rouge says here that old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plumtree gum.” (II. ii. 197-200)
-Here Hamlet is rambling on to Polonius for no specific purpose. He is trying to vocalize his racing thoughts and they make little sense.
-Hamlet clearly shows the symptom of impulsivity when he kills his lover's father, Polonius. He does so on the quick thought it could be his uncle.
“How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead! … Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better.” (III. iv)
-Not only does Hamlet express his manic episodes, other characters, especially King Claudius take note of it as well.
“And can you by no drift of conference get from him why he puts on this confusion, grating so harshly all his days of quiet with turbulent and dangerous lunacy?” (III. i. 1-4)
“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.” (III. i. 191)
“O, he is mad Laertes.” (V. i. 274)
Manic Tendencies
Depressive Tendencies
The other side to bipolar depression is in fact depression. Hamlet throughout the play has feelings of worthlessness, sadness, and even the feeling of welcoming death.
-At some points in the play Hamlet is feeling acute sadness and grief from the death of his father and he expresses it to the auxiliary characters.
“Nor … together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, that can denote me truly. These indeed seem, for they are actions that a man might play, but I have that within which passes show; these but the trappings and the suits of woe.” (I. ii. 81-86)
-Another symptom of depression is a feeling of worthlessness or futility of the surrounding world. He exhibits this in a soliloquy after the King and Queen tell him to behave as a good son and Prince of Denmark.
“How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t, ah fie. ‘tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.” (I. ii. 133-138)
-At the ending of the play when Horatio and Hamlet speak of the upcoming duel with Laertes, brother to Ophelia, Horatio begs him to not fight, that his death is imminent. Hamlet seems almost welcoming of such a scenario.
“Not a whit, we defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be.” (V. ii. 220-225)