Hamlet's Mommy Issues

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Hamlet’s Mommy Issues: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet Is Hamlet in love with his mother? Throughout the entire play Hamlet’s jealousy of his uncle and his mother’s second husband, Claudius, is so apparent. He is so fixated on his mother, which causes him to displace his maternal rage on Ophelia for no reason. Hamlet has an unnatural love for his mother. This love for his mother illustrates the real reason Hamlet wanted to kill Claudius. Analysis of this play through a psychoanalytic lens reveals the inner states of Hamlet’s mind and his true intentions. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the Oedipus complex and displacement of maternal rage to illustrate that Hamlet has an unconscious love for his mother. It is no secret …show more content…

He is so angry with his mother for marrying Claudius but instead of taking this anger out of her, he takes it out on Ophelia. Hamlet is suppose to love and care for Ophelia but instead he is so rude and cruel towards her. In act 3, scene , Hamlet declares “I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God has given you one face and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on ’t. It hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.” In this line he is furiously declaring that all women, including Ophelia, are fools who take advantage of men’s feelings. He blames Ophelia for him going mad and tells her that they will no longer get married. Hamlet then mentions that everyone who is already married will stay married, except for one couple which is Gertrude and Claudius. Not only does this line show his displacement of his emotions but it also shows his jealousy of Claudius and Gertrude’s relationship. Hamlet is acting as if the anger he is exhibiting is because of Ophelia but in reality it is because of Gertrude. He is displacing all the anger and rage he feels about his mother onto Ophelia who really hasn’t done anything wrong. Ophelia is unfortunately blinded by her love for Hamlet and is quite submissive to his displacement of anger. Focusing on Hamlet’s character and how he develops throughout the play is crucial in understanding this play through a psychoanalytic lens. He displays signs and symptoms of Freud’s theory called the Oedipus complex, as well as pure jealousy towards Claudius and displacement of anger onto Ophelia. These all illustrate Hamlet’s unnatural love for his mother and the real reason he wanted to seek revenge on

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