Hamlet (Vol. 35) | Theodore Lidz (essay date 1975)
Theodore Lidz (essay date 1975)
SOURCE: "Hamlet's Precarious Emotional Balance," in Hamlet's Enemy: Madness and Myth in Hamlet, 1975, pp. 60-7.
[In the essay that follows Lidz analyzes Hamlet's madness, including his real and feigned insanities and the conclusions he reaches while in these states.]
The members of the parental generation, having given their advice and orders to Hamlet, Laertes, Ophelia, and Fortinbras, start spying on them in the second act. Two months have elapsed since Hamlet swore to avenge his father; but he has not yet moved "with wings as swift / As meditation or the thoughts of love" (I, v, 29-30). Claudius is still alive, and Hamlet's emotional balance has become precarious during the interlude. We may or may not be aware of his instability, depending on how the role is acted.1 Indeed, we must rely upon reports from those who are closest to him to learn of the worsening of his condition. In the very...
[The entire page is 2450 words long]
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