Hamlet Character Analysis

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The most distinguish characteristic of William Shakespeare’s drama is his unique ability of carving and coloring characters through their innate conflicts. The portrayal of inner psyche of different characters played dominant role in all of Shakespeare’s major dramas. In the drama “Hamlet” the character of Hamlet around which, the whole story revolves has been portrayed by Shakespeare through the constant internal conflicts that leads him towards the doomed end, hence in the drama the character of Hamlet exhibits how psyche governs the transitional behaviors that shapes up the ultimate fate in both positive or negative way. The main story of the drama revolves around outer and inner conflict of Hamlet, it tells how the different incidents incorporate with the Hamlet psyche and builds up different behaviors of the character in transitional stages of drama from beginning till end. In the character of Hamlet, the three basic parts of psyche namely id, ego and superego have been depicted in the various phases of Hamlet life span and his conscious and unconscious mind is shown working behind his different actions throughout the play which leads him from the life of scholar to the avenger and at end he meets his ultimate death.. The story ‘Hamlet’ narrates the life of Hamlet and shows how he faces the ups and downs of life, in which each time, he has displayed a different part of psyche. Analysis of the psyche of Hamlet for ego, id and superego According to the Freudian concept of the conscious and unconscious levels of the human psyche, the human mind is structured like an iceberg. The conscious layer of the psyche shows the present knowledge of the things, whereas lies hidden under the surface level of the psyche that one can percei... ... middle of paper ... ... I, 242-3). To see this one, Hamlet also jumps in the grave, wanting to be “ buried rapidly with her ” also. In the consequence, two men fight body to body one against other in the grave, against Hamlet who proclaims that he loves her more than “ Forty thousand Brothers” ( V, I, 264-66). this not only shows the deep love of a brother and the deep affection of a lover, This also symbolizes the big attraction that a female can have as a target of love of male. In addition to the grave, the cup is also a female (yonic) symbol in the play. The poisoned cup is the symbol of the Fatal Woman or the Unfaithful Wife. At the end of play, Gertrud drinks it without being conscious, Claudius is enforced to drink it, and drink of Hamlet with great pleasure “ the lazy liquor ” (V, ii, 347). All the three die of it. It means that the woman truly can be " a cup " ruinous for all.

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