A Mad or Sad Prince? A Psychological Evaluation of One of Shakespeare's Most Famous Characters
| dc.contributor.advisor | Dawson, Brent | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Mossberg, Barbara | |
| dc.contributor.author | Purdue, Haylee | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-08-18T20:08:24Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description | 46 pages | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Often considered one of the most influential and most quotable pieces of William Shakespeare’s repertoire, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, has stood the test of time. Analyzed by high school and college students for countless decades, Hamlet epitomizes the quintessential revenge plot, with Hamlet, himself, cast as the titular hero, who supposedly descends into madness over the course of the play. However, I disagree with this commonly accepted trajectory for Hamlet’s character. I believe that there is an alternative explanation for Hamlet’s confusing behavior during the five dramatic acts. I argue that the swift change in Hamlet’s familial, romantic, and personal lives led to an onset of depression that can shed light on why Hamlet acts the way he does throughout the play. Using literary strategies like close reading, historical contextualization, and Freudian analysis, this thesis will provide a clear addition to the Shakespearean conversation and offer an argument as to why Hamlet is neither acting mad, nor insane, but is instead depressed. To justify my claims, I will also define psychological and medicinal terminology from the 16th and 17th centuries in modern day language, as well as provide a historical contextualization to these terms. After carefully analyzing Hamlet’s relationships with the important figures in his life, it can be determined that Hamlet endured a myriad of emotions throughout the play. The most justifiable conclusion to settle on is that his changing environment impacted his life so negatively that he developed depression symptoms as a means of coping with extreme loss – loss of his family, loss of his love, and loss of himself. This investigation into Hamlet revealed that by looking past the commonly recognized labels on characters and applying a psychological, scientific lens, an alternative explanation to a character’s actions may be discovered. From a broader perspective, science and literature can be woven together to work in one, interdisciplinary field. | en_US |
| dc.description.embargo | 9999 | |
| dc.identifier.orcid | 0009-0004-1360-4361 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/28752 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | |
| dc.subject | Psychology | en_US |
| dc.subject | Hamlet | en_US |
| dc.subject | Shakespeare | en_US |
| dc.subject | Literature | en_US |
| dc.title | A Mad or Sad Prince? A Psychological Evaluation of One of Shakespeare's Most Famous Characters | |
| dc.type | Thesis/Dissertation |