There is, throughout the play, a symbolic representation of melancholy. The opening scene of the play is on a platform in front of Elsinore Castle where watchmen are deployed depicting a melancholic atmosphere. From the beginning of the play, with such mentions as of ‘Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart’ (1.1.8-9) and ‘tis but our fantasy’ (1.1.23), Shakespeare has set the melancholic tone. The Elizabethans believed that seasons also cause melancholic states and ‘the Autumne is most Melancholy’ and Foucault argues that ‘Melancholic humor is “related to earth and to autumn…”’ Burton discussed the melancholic effect of seasons/weather/atmosphere prevalent in the early modern period under the chapter heading: ‘Bad is a cause of Melancholy’.
In addition, the color black, which is associated with black bile, is consistently present in the play. Hamlet first’s appearance on the stage, clad in ‘nighted color’ (1.2.68) or ‘inky cloak’ (1.2.77) is also suggestive of the melancholic state that Shakespeare intends to portray him in. Furthermore, books (Hamlet reading a book), skulls, graveyards, multiple deaths during the play, solitariness, unlaced clothing, poison, and prison are some of the symbols that are associated with melancholy according to early modern society.
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The symbol of prison is very significant in the play which Hamlet mentions in Act 2, Scene 2 when he is talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his university fellows, assigned the duty of spying on him by Claudius, who is himself imprisoned in the prison of his guilt and fear and tries to find out whether Hamlet’s melancholy is because of him or not. Shakespeare might have a double meaning when he mentions ‘prison’ in the play: as a symbolic representation of the state of affairs or as a symptom of the melancholy disease. First, its symbolic significance is discussed. About Denmark, Hamlet says:
HAMLET
Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison. (2.2.259-261)
It is a psychological fact that a person’s melancholic state of mind determines the atmosphere around him for the reason that ‘knowledge of the soul is not direct, but only by reflection’. This means that if someone is sorrowful, like Hamlet in this instance, the outside world seems to be an image of sorrowfulness; and if someone is happy, everything seems to be happy to him or her. Therefore, all kinds of moods that humans face in the physical world are the reflection of their inner thoughts/reality. The word ‘prison’ could be the reflection of Hamlet’s mind and situation in which he is trapped in Denmark; this could be a ‘prison’ for Claudius who is trapped in his guilty conscience as is seen just before the closet scene where he confesses his crime and feels remorseful but could not ask for forgiveness; it could be a ‘prison’ for Gertrude who seems to be aware of her incestuous crime when she stops Hamlet of arousing her regret in the closet scene; and ‘prison’ could be a symbolic representation of Elizabethan England with all its political and religious frenzy, at the cost of human lives, happiness and freedom of conscience.
On the other hand, the word ‘prison’ could be taken as a symptom of melancholy. Hamlet’s dialogue also reflects Bright’s influence on Shakespeare once again who says that a melancholy person is distracted and his own house or place of residence ‘seemeth into the melancholic a prison or dungeon, rather than a place of repose or rest’. Based on this argument, we can see that for Hamlet, who is entangled in his melancholic thoughts, Denmark is a prison because of the situation that he finds himself in lately as discussed above, but for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the reality is different because their thought process is different from Hamlet’s and their melancholic humor, black bile, is not imbalanced. For them, Denmark is not a prison and that is why they are taken aback by Hamlet’s prison metaphor. Hamlet’s melancholic mood could be, to some extent, a reflection of Shakespeare’s circumstances or it could be the representation of the general sentiment under the police state of Elizabeth that was full of cruelties and bitter atrocities.
Melancholy, Real or Pretended
Some critics believe that the portrayal of melancholy in Hamlet has political interpretations. These are those critics who believe that Hamlet’s melancholic disposition is not real, but pretended, and they believe that it is the representation of the ‘rebellious Earl of Essex’ and that the treatment of melancholy by Shakespeare in Hamlet is for ‘self-protective ends’. However, under Elizabeth’s despotic rule, playwrights were not allowed to write about the political or religious situation of their time and they had to go through a rigorous system of censorship under the Master of Revels. Robert Adams mentions the plight of the playwrights in Elizabeth’s time in these words: ‘They dare not hint at dictatorial abuses in Elizabeth herself.’
Whether Shakespeare intended to portray Essex’s personality in Hamlet or not, keeping in view Shakespeare’s fondness for disguises, it can be assumed that Hamlet’s melancholic madness could be a form of disguise that finds its support when Hamlet declares that he will ‘put an antic disposition on’ (1.5.??). This idea of pretended madness is further supported by Polonius in Act 2, Scene 2, when he says that ‘though this be madness, yet there is the method in’t’ (2.2.195), but this observation by Polonius does not reject Hamlet’s melancholic disposition altogether, rather confirms it as Foucault reiterates the early modern belief, which had its origins in the Aristotelian philosophy that melancholiac experiences enhanced mental capabilities. He mentions Thomas Sydenham, known as the father of English medicine, as saying that melancholics ‘are people who, apart from their complaint, are prudent and sensible, and who have an extraordinary penetration and sagacity. Thus Aristotle rightly observed that melancholics [sic.] have more intelligence than other men.’ In Act 3, Scene 1, when Claudius and Polonius overhear an arranged encounter between Hamlet and Ophelia, Claudius says:
CLAUDIUS
…what he spake, though it lacked form a little,
Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood… (3.1.172-174)
This seems to be a hanging argument, which neither supports the real nor pretended melancholy concept. Claudius admits that Hamlet’s speech ‘lacked form a little’, but he also acknowledges that ‘there’s something in his soul’, which leads him to his melancholic state. This argument of real or pretended melancholy has been going on for a long time and does not seem to come to an end, but one thing is clear the portrayal of melancholy along with its causes and symptoms, truly reflects the scholarship and knowledge available and the general understanding of it in his time. Whether Shakespeare wanted to portray melancholy as a self-protective agent, a representation of Essex, or a malady caused by Hamlet’s circumstances, as mentioned in the above paragraphs, may not be certain; but one thing is certain his depiction of melancholy is real and is closely connected with the knowledge on the subject of his era.
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