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Depressive illness delayed Hamlet's revenge.

A B Shaw¹, Neil Pickering

¹Bioethics Centre, University of Otago, PO Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Medical Humanities

|May 15, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Hamlet

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Area of Science:

Literary analysis
Psychological interpretation
Shakespearean studies

Background:

Hamlet's delay in avenging his father's murder is a central, debated element of the play.
Previous explanations for Hamlet's inaction have been unconvincing.
Shakespearean tragedy often features a hero's downfall due to a character flaw.

Purpose of the Study:

To offer a convincing interpretation of Hamlet's delay in enacting revenge.
To analyze Hamlet's inaction through the lens of modern psychological understanding.
To re-evaluate the play's conformity to the tragic model of its time.

Main Methods:

Analysis of Hamlet's character and actions within the play's text.
Comparison of historical concepts of mental states (melancholy) with modern diagnostic criteria.
Interpretation of Hamlet's behavior using contemporary understanding of acute depressive illness.

Main Results:

Hamlet's delay is best explained by an acute depressive illness with obsessional features.
This condition prevented Hamlet from forming a firm resolve to act.
While melancholy was understood in Shakespeare's era, it was viewed as a character defect, aligning with the tragic model.

Conclusions:

Hamlet's inaction can be understood as a symptom of a depressive illness, not a character flaw.
This interpretation reconciles the play with modern psychological insights.
The play's adherence to the tragic model is recontextualized by understanding historical versus contemporary views of mental health.