Schizophrenia is a malignant mental illness that encompasses many symptoms other than the most well known “voices in your head”. The symptoms affects: your behavior, mood and of course your psyche. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare and in the autobiography Eden Express: a memoir of insanity by Mark Vonnegut, Mark Vonnegut and Prince Hamlet both have overlapping symptoms for schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is mental affliction that disrupts how a person thinks by: negative, or positive symptoms. “People with positive symptoms often ‘lose touch’ with reality” (Schizophrenic 19). The most common and almost stereotypical symptom is having hallucinations. Vonnegut recounts his personal experiences with hallucinations in numerous forms. The…show more content… It kept blurring and twisting” (Vonnegut 155). Vonnegut’s impairment due to visual hallucinations and affirms that he is schizophrenic. Auditory hallucinations are also present in the novel. When Vonnegut first makes sense of the voices in his head he discovered that “[o]nce you hear the voices you realize they’ve always been there. it’s just a matter of being tuned to them” (Vonnegut 116). Most mental illnesses are diagnosed around early twenties for men (around the same age the author is in the book) so it is very possible that the author has had these symptoms for a while.…show more content… In act three scene four prince Hamlet confronts his mother -Gertrude- about his uncle/stepfather, Claudius. However in the middle of the event the ghost of king Hamlet appears, the ghost want him to not “ forget. [He’s] come to sharpen [Hamlet’s] somewhat dull appetite for revenge. But look, [his] mother is in shock. Oh, keep her struggling soul from being overwhelmed by horrid visions” (Shakespeare 205). Hamlet verbally complies and Gertrude confused as to why he’s “staring And how are you doing, staring into the empty air and talking to nobody? [his] eyes give away your wild thoughts, and your hair is standing upright, like soldiers during a call to arms” (Shakespeare 206). Implying that she does not see the ghost but it is confirmed she does not see the ghost when she inquires “Who [is] [Hamlet] talking to?” (Shakespeare 206). One’ could argue that that it is not possible for anyone but Hamlet to see the ghost; however, it is possible for anyone to see the ghost not just Hamlet because at the beginning of the play we see Horatio, Branardo, and Marcellus see the ghost . When the ghost first enters they notice it “Looking just like the dead king”(Shakespeare 7) and