Mental Health

\
### Hamlet

*First Soliloquy*

==“how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!”==

\
* Superfluous use of adjectives → Hamlet’s angst with this life
* repetition of the bleak language as a power of three
* Hamlet deep appreciation and loyalty to his father, → loss has left him suicidal


* First three words are  monosyllabic in ‘weary’ ‘stale’ and ‘flat’ → everything is  animalistic and immoral.
*  forces the audience to listen to Hamlet’s words → they punctuate and accentuate Hamlet’s dialogue. 
* ‘unprofitable’ is the only exception. 
* highlights irony because others have served to profit from Hamlet’s predicament → Claudius

### Hamlet

*First Soliloquy*

==“Seem to me all the uses of this world!”==

\
* Exclamatory phrase → disgust with Claudius taking the throne
* places Hamlet in an enigmatic predicament → forced to decide if Claudius is an uncle, an incestuous family member or a father to him. 
* question to the audience about the true relationship between father and sons in families whilst simultaneously conveying the grief Hamlet is in.

### Hamlet

*First Soliloquy*

==“Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!”==

\
* Second line of soliloquy
*  rhetorical repetition of the religious language, “God”  → conveys desperation Hamlet is in
* exclamatory phrase emphasises Hamlet is pleading with the divine for comfort to ease his grief. 
* __**Context**__ = Hamlet → Christian; 
*  God-fearing man and bound by the Christian doctrine, would be sinful for Hamlet to commit suicide → Christians belived you would go straight to hell if you died by your own hand. 
* Hamlet = overcome by grief → his Christian belief is the only argument preventing him from commiting suicide.
* “slaughter,” → dramatic and deadly imagery 
* conveys Hamlet’s own tragic thoughts 
* reflects how Hamlet views himself  – connotations of the verb commonly refers to the killing of animals. 
* Hamlet dehumanises himself to cope with grief

### Hamlet

*First Soliloquy*

==tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature.”==

\
*  unweeded garden = world itself. 
* Hamlet opines that the world is possessed solely by things rank and gross in nature and crucially including himself.
* conveys the self-loathing Hamlet has for himself and simultaneously for Denmark as it is corrupted by actions he cannot control. 
* Hamlet’s father’s death and mother’s ==“o'erhasty marriage”== → Hamlet views human society as mere animality, without nobility or comprehension but only force and possession. 
* suggests that sexuality itself becomes for him a ==“rank,”== “gross,” rampant force, 
* like an infestation of weeds as the incesterous marriage leaves Hamlet in despair.

### Hamlet

*First Soliloquy*

==“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!”==

* “==resolve”== → Hamlet’s own self-loathing to himself
* to cope with the lack of control, Hamlet dramatically turns to violence as a cry for help as a result of Claudius’s Denmark. 
* repetition of the adverb ==“too==”  → persuasion of the audience of his despair and revulsion of Claudius and his new Denmark. 

\

### AO5

*Quote*

Hamlet’s conscious, Harold Bloom

\
“infinite, unlimited and at war with itself,” 

### AO5

*Play*

Contemplation of suicide, Duran 2009

Hamlet looks directly into the camera in the dark as he says, “to die, to sleep, to die”

* looking at audience for help

### AO5

*Play*

vulnerability to audience, Laurence Olivier 1948

\
utilises props as a tool to convey Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts.  

* __**Context**__  = Psychoanalysis became the most dominant lens through which the play was interpreted in the mid 20th century 
* conveyed when Hamlet held a, “bare bodkin” towards his chest whilst standing at a cliff-edge.
*  the audience witnesses a visual interpretation of Hamlet’s uncertainty and the weight of his decision; it would be physically easy for him to kill himself.

### AO5

*Critic*

De-yan 2009 → Hamlet and masculinity

Hamlet who has an idealistic view of man and a meditative temperament is ashamed of the death of masculinity in his character especially compared to the other men around him

### AO5

*Critic*

AW Schlegle → 18th century

Hamlet has no belief in himself or anything else

### AO5

*Viewpoint*

20th century

downplayed psychological emphasis on play characters such as Gertrude had more influence on Hamlet

### AO5

*Play*

Brannagh → 1990 Polonius and Ophelia

Ophelia is romanticised in her madness → corruption