Hamlet -Carlson

Teenage love is a wild roller coaster that can make anyone feel any amount of emotion, and from any range such as horrific sadness or uplifting happiness. Teenagers are easy to fool and manipulate, and they are trusting to no end, which makes many of them fall in love so easily. It may not be a true love, but it certainly is a kind of love, and isn’t any less worthy of validation as true love is, as it can and has been proven to be powerful and have grand affects. Hamlet’s controlling and radical behavior perfectly exemplifies the issues of teenagers dealing with love, and more importantly, depression, which can often stem from teenagers being “in love.”

Back then depression wasn’t as widely known and accepted as it is today, many did not understand how someone like Hamlet existed. Now, we at least know what it is, but many still do not understabd depression fully, nor do they understand that it isn’t a phase in life, and while you may not be born with it, something can trigger it, and once triggered it’s similar to cancer, it is incredibly hard to fight off and often times the person does not have a choice.  Many even then begin to have suicidal thoughts, such as Hamlet when he said, “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (Act 1, Scene 2) Hamlet here has recently lost his father. A teen who has recently lost a partner who they’d thought would be with them forever oftentimes will threaten suicide.   It’s emotional manipulation sure, but it works to get that person back into their life. Teenagers often feel depression because they survive off of attention. When they don’t receive it, they do what they can to get it, or they slip into sadness and grief because they feel unworthy, rejected, and “dirty”.  This sadness and grief can easily turn into depression if not handled promptly or correctly. Many teenagers feel ashamed of their heartbreak, so they contain it inside as to not be made fun of for not being able to get over a situation by themselves, and this is what can evolve into depression.

Depression can also make someone seemingly controlling to other people. Being in a relationship with someone who suffers from depression is difficult, because they often times will tell you who to be with, where to be, and expect you to meet their standards and expectations of always giving them attention. In truth, they need help by someone who is a professional to help them build confidence in themselves and learn how to be happy on their own. Hamlet shows his controlling nature by telling Ophelia where to go, and the kind of life she is going to live, simply because Ophelia is agreeing to her father’s orders and not Hamlet’s, “If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.” (Act III, Scene 1) Hamlet is telling Ophelia that she would make any smart man into a monster, and that she should go to a nunnery for her sin. He tells her that she would turn a smart man into a monster to manipulate her into thinking that his sadness is really her fault, which sometimes depressed people will blame their depression or sadness on another person, claiming that the other person is the reason that they themselves are so broken inside.

Hamlet is a great representation of teenage love turning into depression because of his controlling nature, his radical behavior, and his suicidal thoughts. He is misunderstood by almost all people of his time, a great comparison to how people with depression often describe themselves as feeling alone and misunderstood. He strives for Ophelia's attention and obedience, and when she cannot grant his every wish, as it is very hard for someone to grant a depressed person's every wish, he tries to emotionally manipulate her into thinking that it is her fault that he is the way he is.