Mental Illness In William Shakespeare's Works

Romeo and Juliet Essay Warning signs of mental illness can foreshadow events such as suicide. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, two teenagers from different houses fall in love. Romeo and Juliet struggle with keeping their relationship secret while their families feud. Their love for each other causes multiple deaths and raises tensions throughout the two houses.

Romeo and Juliet, is a catastrophe composed by William Shakespeare from the get-go in his profession around two youthful star-crossed lovers whose passions eventually accommodate their quarreling families. Romeo and Juliet, like Sleeping Beauty in the Woods are a prime examples of secrecy, love gone wrong and the possibility of them having a mental illness. Due to biological processes pertaining to love, it may be referred to as a mental illness, based off of how the brain of opposing sexes react to this emotion, because of love, society takes different outlooks on life. If one has a bit of background information on this topic, he or she can make up his or her own mind on the issue.

The Shakespearean classic Hamlet, tells a story set in what we now call Denmark about Prince Hamlet. Hamlet has to leave from his school in Germany to Denmark for his father’ funeral, when he arrives he finds out that his mother Gertrude has already found another husband, which turns out to be his Uncle Claudius. Hamlet is not happy with the marriage as he refers to it as “foul incest”, he’s also not happy because Claudius crowned himself King. Hamlet then meets the ghost of his father and the ghost confirms that Claudius murdered him. Prince Hamlet then decides to get revenge and during the journey he suffers with depression, mania and mood swings, which leads you to believe he suffered some sort of mental illness, but to be more specific

As for the 1969 film adaptation of Hamlet, the only resemblance Nicol Williamson’s character bears to Hamlet is the name. This Hamlet shows no symptoms of depression or insanity whatsoever. Compared to Shakespeare and Tennant’s Hamlets, this version appears sane throughout the plot. When he gives his first soliloquy, which is supposed to be a moment of insight about Hamlet’s mental illness, he neither sobs or collapses onto the floor in visible anguish. Despite the language being the same as the original text, the audience does not gain any sense of suicidal tendencies or nihilism from Hamlet.

The topic of insanity commonly arises on many occasions, particularly in the law. The term “insanity” is defined as the “unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility” (Document A). In terms of the law, there exists an insanity defense, which is a plea that defendants are not guilty because they lack the mental capacity to realize that they committed a crime (Document C). This concept arises in several of Shakespeare's plays as well. In Hamlet, many readers claim that Prince Hamlet was actually mad, his actions guided by the grief he experienced when his father was murdered by his uncle King Claudius.

Bryanna E. McCool Mrs. Dean British Literature 25 January 2018 Mental Illness in Shakespeare’s Macbeth The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, a play wrought with prophecies, deception, guilt, and death, brings light to the symptoms of mental illnesses and their effects on the human brain’s ability to reason, trust, and act in times of pressure. Both Macbeth and his lady are plagued by mental illness, and the effects of their illness only grow as the play evolves. Macbeth’s symptoms of schizophrenia and anxiety, as well as Lady Macbeth’s anxiety as well as hallucinations that eventually push her to suicide prove that not only can mental illness alter the way a person sees a situation, but it can also drive them to harm others and themselves.

There are many people in the world that experience mental problems and therefore affecting their personality. Not everyone though is as bad as Macbeth when it comes to mental deterioration. Macbeth is a very self-centered man and it leads him to change the person he once was. Although it is not seen much in the beginning of Shakespeare's play “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, Macbeth’s mental state deteriorates as the play progresses, which can be seen when he is guilty of murdering King Duncan, being taunted by the ghost of Banquo, and his speech to the witches.

The Skull Jar William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet around 1600, telling the story of a prince dealing with the death of his father and the quick remarriage of his mother to his uncle. The play uses mental health, both real and faked, as a way to show human behavior. Commonly studied in high schools all over America, this tale has had a profound effect on the way mental health is viewed. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark tells the story of Hamlet, the young prince. When the play opens, his father has just died, and his mother has just married his father’s younger brother Claudius.

After a month or two of analyzing Hamlet and the people around him, I feel like I can conclusively determine he suffers from a mental illness. But the question is what. What mental illness might he suffer from. There are hundreds of different mental disabilities. Each has endless possible ways of linking it back to Hamlet in some way, shape or form.

However, the patient has bouts of mania, in which they do not realize their impulsive actions have a negative impact on their life. In addition, “Bipolar Disorder causes dramatic highs and lows in a person’s mood, energy and ability to think clearly.” (nami.org) In this respect, Hamlet has a pronounced mania that is to avenge his father. This mania is

Can people choose their fate, or are we all at the mercy of circumstance? In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the main character Hamlet shows that people are just a victim of circumstances. Hamlet was fine when his father was still alive; he only started going crazy when unexpected events in his life occurred such as; his father dying and his mother marrying his uncle. Hamlet is not to blame for his own downfall, how could he choose how his father dying would affect him. Hamlet is a Schizophrenic with the worst luck in the world.

An overwhelming amount of evidence shows that Hamlet faked his insanity to confuse the king and his accomplices. Often revered for their emotional complexities, William Shakespeare’s tragic characters display various signs of mental illness. Sylvia Morris notes “Hamlet contains Shakespeare’s most fully-developed study of mental illness, and has always intrigued commentators on the play.” (“Shakespeare’s Minds Diseased: Mental Illness and its Treatment”). When looking at the play, one can infer that Shakespeare makes the relationship between sanity and insanity undistinguishable from one another.

Throughout the course of this play, Hamlet’s poor mental health is addressed through his soliloquies, his quirky habits, and his inability to handle his issues. The issue of Hamlet’s “madness” brings itself to light most overtly through his “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy. In this famous literary piece, Hamlet is

Many literary scholars argue that Hamlet’s inability to avenge his father 's death is the central issue of the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet. His indecision is often cited as a tragic flaw which ultimately causes his death, but the characters in Hamlet resemble the decaying of Denmark throughout the play. Many authors use disease, physical weakness, or deformity, to symbolize mental, spiritual, emotional illness and corruption in someone or something. Shakespeare uses imagery of disease, illness, and weakness to suggest physical, spiritual, and emotional decay and corruption in Hamlet.

Shakespeare depicts the demise of the character’s as a result of Hamlet’s need to remember.