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A. Harkness 10/4/10 Taint not Thy Mind: Hamlets Tragic Personality Shakespeare gives the audience a look in the mind of man with a highly unstable personality in Hamlet. The young man Hamlet, bearing the name of the play and of his murdered father, is a tragic hero whose flaws delayed the task of avenging his father who was killed by King Claudius. Hamlets unstable personality is temporary; as it was shown in certain parts of the play he does not fully hate his lover, Ophelia, he does not dwell in hiding the knowledge of Claudiuss evil deed, and, towards the end, he finally puts his wandering thoughts aside to complete the task his fathers ghost laid down upon him. But this temporary madness got in the way of Hamlets revenge, blinding him and pushing him to punish others for what Claudius had done. If Hamlet had not allowed his mind to betray him, he would have accomplished avenging his father sooner and prevented the blood bath at the end of the play. Hamlets emotions in Act 1, scene 2 had set the stage for his unstable personality to emerge. Throughout lines 129-157, Hamlet makes it clear that he is upset about his fathers death and angry about the hasty incestuous marriage between his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle, Claudius. The meeting with his fathers ghost in Act 1, scene 5, acts as a catalyst which causes Hamlet to develop disturbing behaviors such as misogyny and paranoia. The misogyny develops from his emotions that appeared Act 1, scene 2, causing him to become hostile towards Gertrude and his lover Ophelia. Even though Ophelia has nothing to do with Gertrude's crime against marriage, she still suffers from Hamlet's abusive behavior. Hamlet's paranoia develops from him pretending to act crazy shortly after speaking with his fathers ghost in Act 1, scene 5. Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus that he found it appropriate to put on an antic disposition,

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perhaps to avoid suspicions among the court, especially since Claudius might take action to rid of anyone who knew of his crime (I. 5. 167-170). The major part of Hamlet's personality and the most dangerous to his mission to avenge his father is his indecision. It prevents Hamlet from acting spontaneously and instead it causes him to make excuses based on his religious convictions, from waiting to confirm his father's Ghost credibility and story of murder (2.2.552553) to sparing King Claudius while he is praying (3.4. 74-76). Hamlet's father's Ghost warns him "Taint not thy mind," however, Hamlet ignores the ghost words and allows his mind to betray him and unwillingly cause mayhem in the play (1.5. 85). He becomes almost a slave to his emotions, they drive his actions and his anger drives his words. Through him, the unruly emotions harassed his mother, killed Polonius, drove his lover insane, made him paranoid and angry, and made him vulnerable. He was split between the Hamlet everyone once knew and the rabid Hamlet that everyone fears. After Polonius's staged meeting, with Hamlet, Ophelia, brokenhearted and distraught, mourns about the sudden disappearance of his previous personality: O, what a noble mind is here oerthrown! The courtiers, soldiers, scholars, eye, tongue, sword: The expectancy and rose of the fair state, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh" (3.1.144-152) Here, Ophelia gives the readers a clue about Hamlet's previous self; he had an educated and straight mind, he was skillful and a charming man. Hamlet probably was once a respected young

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gentleman, "the expectancy and rose of the fair state, glass of fashion and the mould of form" (3.1. 146-147). In her horror, Ophelia saw the old Hamlet drowning in the ecstasy of madness. His indecision did not help him either, as Hamlet continuously allows his worries of his religious convictions on revenge to cloud his judgment. It is obvious in Hamlet that the prince is a religious Christian man. The convictions he had were that, in Phoebe S. Spinrad's interpretation of Geneva Bible1 version of Matthew 10:16, "you shall not so much reuenge an iniurie", meaning that Hamlet, or any Christian, should not take revenge on persons who caused harm (Spinrad 457). Yet Hamlet remains caught between his father's ghost and his God on the subject of revenge. Even after The Mousetrap, a modified version of The Murder of Gonzago, is successful in capturing "the conscience of the king", Hamlet delays King Claudius's death out of fear that the murderer will make it to heaven while he is praying (3.4. 74-76). There was an opportunity where Hamlet would have killed King Claudius other than in the prayer scene in Act 3, scene 4. He would have revealed Claudius's crime after The Mousetrap play, revealing how he killed the previous king and his guiltiness before court of Elsinore and killed him there. There was no need for Hamlet to put himself into an "antic disposition" to cover up his knowledge of Claudius's crime from the other characters (I. 5. 167170). Avoiding this, Hamlet will also gain a better control of him emotions and keep himself from lashing out against his mother and lover, from making rash decisions, and from killing Polonius. This would also prevent Polonius son, Laertes, from seeking revenge. In short, Shakespeare's entire famous play would have to be rewritten to fit these major changes and the violent course of events in Hamlet would not take the turn for the worse. Unfortunately, Hamlet dug himself, and the other characters in the play, a deep bloody grave by letting his mind slip away. By the time he realized the damage he had done, it was too late.
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Spinrad says that Shakespeare may have used the Geneva Bible in as a source in Hamlet.

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Works Cited Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Peter J. Simon. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. 2829-2918. Print. Spinrad, Phoebe S. "The Fall of the Sparrow and the Map of Hamlet's Mind," Modern Philology 102.4 (2005): 453-477. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.