Depression Talk

Clinical depression is not a modern ailment. Maknind has almost certainly had it since we crawled out of the ocean and suddenly realized there was no going back. In case you wonder who the most famous clinically depressed person is, it’s a fictional character, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, made infamous by William Shakespeare’s play, first performed around 1600.

On the one hand, it’s sad that so many people suffered from depression back then. On the other hand, if Prozac had been around in Shakespeare’s day, we would never had had Hamlet.

Evidence of Depression

There are many things Hamlet does in the course of the play that is typical of someone suffering from the symptoms of clinical depression. These include:

• Not being able to make a decision about if and when to kill his uncle
• Can’t let go of the past
• Everyone who knoew him kept wondering if he were crazy or not
• Recites really, really long poetry
• Wonders if he should kill himself (and eventually does, in a roundabout way)
• Drives his girlfriend insane

But He’s Fictional

True, Prince Hamlet is a fictional character. Modern actors who have played Hamlet tend to purposefully overdo the misery bit. But Shakespeare had a habit of giving his characters very recognizeable emotions and problems. This is one of the reasons his plays still make money after four hundred years. If a depressed Hamlet was an anomaly or did not act like yourself or someone you know, then I don’t think the play would ever have become such a big deal. It would have been shoved into obscurity along with Titus Adronicus, instead.

The story of Hamlet is suppossedly based on the Scandinavian legend of Amleth, also a Price of Denmark, who lived in the 1200’s. Since England had been sacked by the Vikings so many times, it still had a strong Norse flavor in the 1600’s. It is possible that Scandinavian legends and would have been common knowledge. Prince Amleth also apparently knew his uncle killed his father and acted like a lunatic in order to keep his uncle from killing him. Whether Amleth actually lived, who knows.

Fictional characters become real people when they make an incredibly strong impression on our minds. In a way, you become as intimate with them as you would with a friend. It is only with people we can identify with can a fictional character like Hamlet become alive.

Although Hamlet met a sticky end, you don’t have to. Unlike in Hamlet’s day, there are now medications and therapy for you to deal with your crazy relatives.