Analysis Of Hamlet's Delay To Ilying His Father By Killing Claudius

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Hamlet written by William Shakespeare has been interpreted by different people for years. One of the enigmas that people try to explain in the novel is Hamlet’s delay to avenge his father by killing Claudius. Sigmund Freud explains Hamlet’s delay in avenging his father using the Oedipus complex. Freud says that Hamlet’s reluctance to kill Claudius is due to “the torment he suffers from the obscure memory that he himself had meditated the same deed against his father from passion for his mother” (Freud 116). Freud states that Claudius reminds Hamlet about his dreams and yearnings as a child, as Claudius does the things that according to the Oedipus complex hamlet wanted to do as a kid. Therefore, according to Freud, Hamlet’s guilt causes his hesitation to kill Claudius. However, there is an alternate explanation for his hesitation to kill Claudius. Because of his melancholic state, Hamlet constantly had his father on his mind and as the heir to the throne, he was scared that by killing Claudius he would perpetuate a cycle of king’s being killed especially when they were in a vulnerable state. …show more content…

It seems like the people around him have forgotten about his father, unlike Hamlet who still wears black and appears to still be affected by his father’s death. It is evident throughout the play that Hamlet has a very strong connection to his father. He describes his father by saying, “A was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again” (Shakespeare 182). Hamlet had a strong enough bond with his father that when his father died, hamlet became melancholic. Freud in his essay mourning and melancholia, explains how melancholia is “the reaction to the loss of a loved object” (Strachey

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