Hamlet & Social Psych...

The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, allows us an excellent opportunity to apply the concepts and theories of social psychology, particularly Emile Durkheim's theory of suicide. Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark whose father has been murdered by his uncle, Claudius, to gain the throne. In the collection of the throne Claudius also collects Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, for his wife. Hamlet is an intellectual whose recognition that he must murder his uncle in order to avenge his father's death freezes him in inaction throughout most of the play. During this inaction, Hamlet continues to contemplate the corrupt nature of Denmark and wrestles with depression and deep bouts of melancholia balanced by fits of hysteria as he contemplates the murder of his uncle and also his own death. Suicidal feelings are engendered in Hamlet, a character who gives his "death speech" early in the play; a speech that informs us he is seriously contemplating suicide, even though he lacks the necessary "resolution" to carry out the ultimate act of self-destruction at the time it is rendered:

To be, or not to be,-that is the question:-

Whether �tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

Any by opposing end them?-To die,-to sleep,-

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to,-�tis a consummation

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be of the very same stuff, "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so" (Shakespeare, 1975: 1085). Thus, the greater inquiry of reason and free thought allowed within Protestantism allowed for Hamlet's level of mental inquiry. Of course, Hamlet far transcends Protestantism ideals of free inquiry and basically formulates the first character in literature suffering depression due to the "existential dilemma". He finds little meaning in a world of appearances that will basically come down to dust and it fills him with deep sadness over the futility of man's existence. Hamlet forms few bonds with others throughout the play because of this perception, and this is also in line with Durkheim's theory of suicide. Durkheim believed there were four levels of dynamics where types of suicide are concerned: Egoistic; Altruistic; Anomic; Fatalistic. In egoistic suicide, the individual has a very weak attachment to others and groups. He or s

Category: Psychology - H