In continuation of my first post about what mental illness plagues Hamlet, there are a couple quotes I found that may support what I'm getting at.
Act 1, Scene 4 "Haste, haste me to know it, that with wings as swift / As meditation or the thoughts of love / May sweep to my revenge.” Hamlet makes a grand declaration to avenge his father and of course, tricks Guildenstern and Rosencratz into thinking he's crazy. But he becomes unsure after the First Player's 'for Hecuba' speech. He starts to ruminate almost to the point of inaction.
Act 5, Scene 2 (quite a skip but I'm not going through every single act, lo siento) "Ere I could make the prologue to my brains, / They had begun the play,” Hamlet acknowledges to Horatio that he didn't think before he acted (a serious impulse that resulted in the deaths of Rosencratz and Guildenstern). In 5.2 he also recognizes that his episode with Laertes at Ophelia’s grave was likely the “bravery of his grief” putting him “Into a tow’ring passion." He also starts the scene saying that “in [his] heart there was a kind of fighting / That would not let [him]sleep.” Insomnia is another symptom of mania.
And lastly, Hamlet's exchange with Ophelia in Act 3, Scene 2. Many people with bipolar disorder experience time differently. Hamlet demonstrates an inconsistent sense of time in this instance:
H: O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? For, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.
O: Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord.
H: So long?
Poor dude is just so out of it. That's pretty rough.
Side note: As a movie buff, I seriously cannot get over what we've been watching in class. Kenneth Brannagh made me sympathize even more with Hamlet's character and also helped me better understand certain scenes and situations; not many movies or stage renditions of certain written works do said works justice, but Brannagh's depiction of Hamlet did just that.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
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