I never actually took the time to think of the difference between sad, melancholy, and depression.  I also never too the time to think about the history behind these words and what people once thought they were caused by.  As someone who is interested in history, especially greek history, this history of the word and where it came from was very interesting to me.  The image of melancholy is a natural one but is also a calm one, one that is not the same as the wailing image of sadness.  Melancholy is pain and solidarity.  It was also interesting to hear how the overall thought process about melancholy and life in general has changed over the years.  In olden times it was thought that melancholy was thought to bring intelligence and creativity.  Melancholy soon was thought to cause an increase in writing.  Later on, Hamlet rose as a spokesperson of melancholy.  We looked at one of his speeches, the one after his mother marries his uncle soon after his fathers passing, and it made me re-think the character of Hamlet.  In high school we never discussed the character of Hamlet as someone filled with melancholy, he was always described as the grieving son who was sad.  His melancholy led him to be an individual with emotions that those around him never understood.  Instead, those around him act as many do today and questioned weather he was faking it.

Today people will dismiss those who are melancholy or depressed and some go so far as to claim that people are just doing it for attention and they can snap out of it as soon as they want.  This however, is not the case as can be seen by melancholy’s consistent appearance in art and literature throughout the ages.

We came to the modern version and though process behind melancholy when the speaker talked about how melancholy is necessary for love and while we watched the film “Vertigo”.  This reminded me of the idea that there is no darkness without the light and how the moon shines brightest in a dark sky.  It is the idea that everything shines brightest when surrounded by their “opposite”.