Madness in Shakespeare's "Hamlet:"
Hamlet's madness spirals out of control specifically when he discovers the death of his father and his mother's new marriage with his father's brother. That alone was enough to create melancholy and sadness in Hamlet's life. When the ghost appears, the play portrayed that it was there to express Hamlet's deepest thoughts and fears. Hamlet was imagining the ghost as a comfort to him because it was the last piece of his father that he had left. However, the madness existed because no one else could see the ghost. In the Elizabethan era, this madness was most commonly known as "demonic possession." However, now, we would recognize it as schizophrenia. Shakespeare clearly and accurately displayed the beliefs of madness in Elizabethan England in this play.
Hamlet's madness spirals out of control specifically when he discovers the death of his father and his mother's new marriage with his father's brother. That alone was enough to create melancholy and sadness in Hamlet's life. When the ghost appears, the play portrayed that it was there to express Hamlet's deepest thoughts and fears. Hamlet was imagining the ghost as a comfort to him because it was the last piece of his father that he had left. However, the madness existed because no one else could see the ghost. In the Elizabethan era, this madness was most commonly known as "demonic possession." However, now, we would recognize it as schizophrenia. Shakespeare clearly and accurately displayed the beliefs of madness in Elizabethan England in this play.