Literary Criticism: Shakespeare

Meddling in Melancholy: Shakespeare’s Commentary on Humorism

Sadness, woe, and sorrow always have a role in the human experience, but when these emotions manifest themselves into a continuous dark disposition, melancholy is born. In renaissance England, it was believed that people with daily saddened dispositions suffered from melancholy, a scientific diagnosis for depression or pessimism. The condition was explained by the amount of and which type of bile a person was filled with, known as humors. People plagued with black bile were considered melancholic and predisposed to being sad.In Burton’s classical work, Anatomyof Melancholy, the humor is described as “a kind of dotage without a fever, having his ordinary companions fear and sadness without any apparent occasion” (Burton, 78). William Shakespeare understands and comments on this theory in several of his works of theatre. Many of his characters dismiss sadness in others as melancholic humor or a specific melancholic sickness; however, if the source of the dark disposition isn’t merely humorous, then it can possibly be remedied. Shakespeare’s Antonio in The Merchant of Venice and Danish prince in Hamlet both encounter cumbersome bouts of melancholy where these characters are crippled from their losses. Through their events Shakespeare effectively demonstrates that melancholy isn’t born from bile, but from disturbances in a human’s experience.

At the beginning of each play Shakespeare’s characters explain that their melancholy sadness is deep seeded and almost unexplainable. Antonio begins the Merchant of Venice with these lines of verse, “In sooth I know not why I am so sad, /It wearies me, you say it wearies you; /But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, /What stuff ‘tis made of, whereof it is born, /I am to learn; /And such a want-wit sadness makes of me /That I have much ado to know myself” (Merchant I.1.1-7). Antonio explains that he is unable to locate where his feelings of sadness are coming from, but he also states that he has much to learn about himself and his woe. Within these very first lines, Antonio frames this play through his sadness and his struggle to understand his own feelings. Although Salerio and Solanio have no problem diagnosing Antonio’s disposition. They interpret Antonio’s sadness as a result of his mercantile business ventures (Daniel, 210).

Their quick judgement functions similar to how Burton describes and diagnoses a melancholic person. According to Burton, there are two types and causes for melancholy. The first is melancholic humor, which is a continual predisposed condition of sadness that a person naturally exists under. The second type is referred to as an “accidental melancholy” (Burton). “There is, however, such a thing as an ‘accidental’ melancholy temperament, due to foods which engender melancholy in the blood, to unwise habits of living, to excessive passions (especially fear and sorrow), to anything which increases the melancholy humor” (Babb, 249). Salerio and Solanio, and possibly Claudius in Hamlet, diagnose Shakespeare’s characters with a natural melancholic humor. Babb writes that a normal melancholic man’s sadness is his “normal condition and it is not considered morbid” (Babb, 249). In Antonio’s case, his sadness is not considered morbid or abnormal; his company dismisses his sorrow for his character. However, through the context of the play, it appears that Antonio suffers from “accidental melancholy” more than a natural humor. In an article on The Merchant of Venice, Drew Daniel writes:

His caricature of the somber melancholic is so humorous and distracting that

one almost does not notice that Antonio’s own melancholy strives to achieve precisely

the opposite effect. Far from seeking to induce a silent awe and respect,

Antonio strives to generate conversational interest in his secret, repeatedly

drawing those around him into its analysis. The effect of Antonio’s melancholy

is not to deepen the level of discourse progressively, but to hold stubbornly at

the surface. (Daniel, 212)

Antonio does not merely suffer from melancholy, but he has a desire to have people notice his sorrow. Daniel argues that Antonio’s melancholy isn’t born from a humor; instead, Antonio suffers from a temporary sickness with melancholy (Daniel). If Antonio suffers from sickness, then it is believed by Shakespeare’s contemporaries that he can be cured.

Hamlet also struggles to understand and explain his feelings to others. In the first act he says his sadness is not merely composed of outward emotional signs of grief, but also deeply seeded into his mind and being. Hamlet states that all “shapes of grief” do not “denote me truly...I have that within which passes show; /These but the trappings and suits of woe” (Hamlet I.2.82-6). Hamlet is saying that he doesn’t only seem outwardly sad, but he feels the sorrow that induces melancholy within himself. ‘Seems’ becomes an important word in this scene because Hamlet is accused of seeming unusually affected by melancholy. Contemporaries would categorize Hamlet as a pure melancholic character. Burton states, “Sorrow is that other character and inseparable companion... a common symptom, a continual, and still without any evident cause...grieving still, but why they cannot tell” (Burton, 138). Hamlet responds to this accusations of his time by saying “Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems.’/...These indeed seem,/ For they are actions that a man might play” (Hamlet I.2.76-84). Hamlet is explaining that other people may grieve by showing their sadness and playing the part of woe, but he is not playing a role of melancholy, he is actually melancholic throughout his being. His sorrow contrasts Antonio’s because his sadness doesn’t intentionally seek attention. Hamlet’s sorrow can be seen in his first soliloquy, he states “How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable/ Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (Hamlet I.2.133-4). Hamlet uses the same accusation where he denounces the uses of the world because they seem unprofitable. With this pessimism Hamlet separates himself from the world that he thinks of as disingenuous. People, in Hamlet’s eyes, are merely actors of their emotions, and they do not encounter the same type of deep grief that Hamlet feels. In other words, Hamlet would characterize Antonio’s grief as disingenuous and describe his sadness just a role an actor would play.

However, Antonio also realizes that people have parts to play in their society, and he believes that his role has been predetermined. He explains to Gratiano, “I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano- / A stage, where every man must play a part, / And mine a sad one” (Merchant I.1.77-9). Antonio believes that he must play a sad part not just because he has reason to be sad, but because he is deeply melancholic on the inside. However, Antonio wishes to display his sorrow to the world, while Hamlet’s outward grief is only a fraction of his inward melancholy. Antonio begins Merchant with his sadness and without reason for his sadness. Hamlet enters his play with good reason to grieve. Antonio should not necessarily play the part of melancholy and Hamlet has reason to. Unlike Hamlet, Antonio does not seem sorrowful in the eyes of other characters only humorous because he says it is his part to play. Antonio and Hamlet, regardless of their outward emotional projections, they are inwardly and deeply melancholy. Their inner emotions motivate their outward role in the plays, even if they do not understand their motivations for melancholy.

The lack of the source of their melancholy or their inability to describe it is a fundamental characteristic of Burton’s understanding of melancholy. He writes:

‘Fear and sorrow’ make it differ from madness; ‘without a cause’ is lastly inserted to

specify it from all other ordinary passions of fear and sorrow. We properly call that dotage,

as Laurentius interprets it, ‘when some one principal faculty of the mind, as imagination or reason, is corrupted, as all melancholy persons have.’ (Burton, 79)

Neither Antonio or Hamlet are able to describe where their melancholy comes from; although, the audience is likely to deduce the reason behind their sorrow. This bit of dramatic irony taps into the idea that their melancholy comes from a different place than what their contemporaries would claim. Hamlet and Antonio may not completely understand why they feel deeply sad, but they each have countless disturbances that encroach on their happiness. Antonio has plenty of reason to worry and grieve, his debts, risky business, and unrequited love. Hamlet too experiences troubling affairs. His father has been murdered, his mother is a incestous monster, and he is tasked to execute a revenge that will not “taint thy mind” (Hamlet I.5.86). Within the first two acts of each play, Shakespeare shows his audience numerous possibilities for Antonio and Hamlet’s melancholy.

Antonio’s true troubles begin with his love for Bassanio. The only reason Antonio jeopardizes his wealth and health is to please his friend Bassanio, and Antonio claims he does this out of love. He says to Bassanio, “You...spend but time/ to wind about my love with circumstance/ ...Then do but say to me what I should do/ That in your knowledge may by me be done/ And I am prest unto it” (Merchant I.1.153-160). Antonio, through his unrequited love, endangers his own life so that Bassanio may pursue what makes him happy, yet Antonio knows that what makes Bassanio happy is not friendship, it is courtship. After Antonio fails to repay the debt he accrued on behalf of Bassanio, his life is threatened by the forfeit. He sends a letter to Bassanio, “All debts are cleared between you and I if I might see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your pleasure. If your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter” (Merchant III.2.318-22). Antonio dissolves all monetary debts that Bassanio owes him, but in this letter he demands that Bassino still owes a debt of love to Antonio. The problem is, Antonio doesn’t count on Bassanio to repay this debt without a reminder, he explicitly states that Bassanio owes it to Antonio to visit before his death. Antonio’s deep sadness is a result of his unreciprocated, unrequited love for Bassanio, and Antonio knows this. If Antonio believed that Bassanio loved him equally, Antonio would not have to stipulate a debt of love that is owed.

In Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, a person can become sickened with melancholy through their love. “But the symptoms of the mind in lovers are almost infinite and so diverse that no art can comprehend them. Though they be merry sometimes and rapt beyond themselves for joy, yet most part, love is a plague, a torture, an hell, a bittersweet passion at last” (Burton, 277). Antonio could be Shakespeare’s representation of melancholy love. With the loss of Bassanio to his wife Portia, Antonio’s reason for melancholy is located. Daniel describes, “If Antonio begins the play as a melancholic who cannot name the source of his despair, by the trial scene he has found a way out in the imminent spectacle of his own torture and death” (Daniel, 209). Unlike Hamlet, Antonio is infatuated with the pageantry of his sorrow, without specifically vocalizing its source. Antonio tries to “cure” his sorrow through his own death and subsequent sacrifice for Bassanio. If he is unable to be united in equal love with Bassanio, then he can sacrifice his own being to display how much he truly cares for Bassanio. This would incite a guilt that Bassanio would have to carry because he could never repay that debt. In this case, Antonio’s melancholy has created a vindictive motive and outlet for his plethora of feelings. Burton states the the only unassailable way to cure melancholy love is to allow the love to flourish (Burton, 322). In Antonio’s case, this options forever eludes him; therefore, his melancholy pushes him towards a fatalistic end or a lifelong shadow of sorrow.

Hamlet also seems to have troubles expressing and understanding his true depth of melancholy. Many times throughout the play Hamlet is overwhelmed with emotion and renounces his allegiance to the world he lives in. His true source of emotion does not only come from his father’s murder, but also from the unbearable lack of expression Hamlet faces. Like Antonio, he constantly struggles to express how he deals with his grief. What bores at Hamlet even farther is the fact that he is crippled and hindered by his lack of explanation. He says, “Yet I,/ A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak/ Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,/ And can say nothing” (Hamlet II.2.566-9). Hamlet’s overwhelming emotions are so deeply troublesome that he cannot say anything, and he is troubled that he cannot speak his grievances. He continues to state, “That I, the son of a dear father murdered,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,/ Must like a whore unpack my heart with words” (Hamlet II.2. 584-6). In this line he is burying himself in even more mental anguish. Since he cannot speak his troubles, he grieves, and since he grieves about being unable to speak his troubles, he calls himself cowardly and grieves even more. Hamlet does not know how to avenge the feeling that he feels so deeply. Therefore, his real struggle is with his conscience, and he says “conscience does makes cowards of us all” (Hamlet III.1.84). Because Hamlet is waging a battle with his conscience, he loses the ability to act on any of his emotions.

In contrast, Burton argues that education can cause melancholy in people. Hamlet could be a subject of his long time in school. Burton writes, “Two main reasons may be given of it why students should be more subject to this malady than others. The one is they live a sedentary, solitary life... but the common cause is overmuch study” (Burton, 104). Hamlet spends his time studying at Wittenberg University; he returns when he hears about his father’s death. Although Hamlet spends lengths of his time in heavy contemplation, his sorrow does not stem from his education. However, his increased intelligence could be a cause for the exacerbation of his melancholy. Hamlet has an increased sensibility to his father’s death and his spiral of sorrow that follows is a product of his inability to use his education to express his melancholy, until he grasps his new dark disposition and also creates a plot of vindication. Hamlet then contemplates large ideas of revenge, cowardice, and suicide. He comes to a self-consciousness of his melancholy and how to deal with it. Daniel writes, “Shakespeare repeatedly places such imagery of deceptive surface and hidden truth in the mouths of melancholics, culminating with Hamlet’s obsessive images of the morbidity and infection concealed beneath the bodily surface” (Daniel, 212). Hamlet focuses on the depth of his feeling that hides beneath his outward grief.

Antonio and Hamlet struggle to depict their inner emotional melancholies, and they both seem to wish for a greater power in expression. Antonio is willing to sacrifice a pound of his flesh for his friend Bassanio out of love. Hamlet wishes that his flesh would disappear, “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt/ Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!” (Hamlet, I.2.129). Both characters fixate themselves on the idea of body versus psyche. If their flesh were gone, their emotions would be able to be seen raw and whole. These melancholy men wish to eliminate the barrier that they have naturally, their body, so that their companies could see the true tumultuous torture that they face. Antonio wishes this for a more selfish purpose, while Hamlet wishes to express his raw feelings because his inability to characterizes him as a coward. Shakespeare’s commentary on the flesh and melancholy constructs the anti association of melancholy with a specific bodily bile. Antonio and Hamlet are not products of a sickness produced from eating incorrectly, as Burton would suggest; however, they are “accidentally melancholy” from their exposure to tragedy. Burton would suggest that their cure would include a physical regimen of diet and exercise (Burton). For Hamlet and Antonio, their only solace would come from death, vindication, or the ability to purely express their raw emotions.

Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice function as sample cases in human melancholic experience. Antonio and Hamlet display that melancholy does not come from a predisposition to sadness; however, they serve as examples that melancholy comes from extreme human emotions and the inability to express those emotions in the society around them. Their extreme melancholy even leads them to consider death over sadness. Hamlet experiences melancholy through loss and Antonio through loss of love, but each man continues to struggle with accepting the terms of their sadness. When examined together, Hamlet and Antonio are sad from an exogenous cause, but the deep, continual, and even contemplative melancholy is a result of their increasing struggle to express their deeper emotional troubles in a culture where the tradition of melancholy is a role played on the outside. Each character acknowledges his role and disavows its ability to truly display the depth at which they feel, as if Shakespeare is commenting on the ability, or rather inability, for actors to truly display every facet of the human psyche.

Works Cited

Babb, Lawrence. "Melancholy and the Elizabethan Man of Letters." Huntington Library Quarterly 4.3 (1941): 247-61. Web.

Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy: A Selection. Ed. Lawrence Babb. East Lansing:

Michigan State, 1965. Print.

Daniel, Drew. ""Let Me Have Judgment, and the Jew His Will": Melancholy Epistemology and Masochistic Fantasy in The Merchant of Venice." Shakespeare Quarterly 61.2 (2010): 206-34. Web.

Shakespeare, William, and David M. Bevington. Hamlet. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. Print.

Shakespeare, William, and Kenneth Myrick. The Merchant of Venice. New York: Signet Classic, 1965. Print.