Psychological Estrangement in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Psychological Estrangement in Shakespeare’s "Hamlet"

In Shakespeare’s "Hamlet", the main character, Hamlet, is burdened with attaining revenge on his murdered father’s behalf from the king of Denmark, King Claudius. In attempting to kill Claudius, Hamlet risks enduring estrangement occurring within himself at multiple psychological levels. The levels of estrangement that risk Hamlet’s psychological sense of identity are religious estrangement, moral estrangement, estrangement from countrymen, estrangement from his mother, and estrangement from women in general.

Hamlet feels self-actualized from following basic religious principles of living. This is shown by Hamlet’s refusal to commit murder thus preventing Hamlet from committing suicide at a time when he felt like doing so to avenge his father’s death because both murder and suicide are considered sins (Cahn 97).

" To be, or not to be, that is the question:/ Whether’ tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune/ or to take arms a sea of troubles…", (Act III, I.)

Hamlet is questioning if it is worth living in such misery or not as everyday he is burdened with trying to avenge his father’s death. At this stage Hamlet is suicidal and risks himself being estranged from his religious principals as he begins to think of suicide. If Hamlet were to kill Claudius, he would be violating a central religious principle against murdering another human being. Both suicide and murdering King Claudius would make him feel guilt at having violated religious coda, thus representing estrangement at the level of his religious consciousness (Knight 14). As Hamlet has the duty to avenge his father’s death by killing his father’s murderer, the King, Hamlet risks estrangement at the religious level.

Hamlet is also principled in a moral sense. To kill a king would mean violating his internal conviction against committing crimes that might harm the hierarchical order of a state's government (Scott 56). This is one of the reasons that Hamlet with a sword in his hand does not kill Claudius while he finds him in an act of praying. Deceit is also one of the main moral issues Hamlet has to face in order to avenge his father’s death that violates his moral conviction of being loyal. Hamlet risks estrangement from his moral sense as he decides to put on an antic disposition in order to tric...

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.... These facts disturb him by making him feel weary and estranged of women’s' emotional weaknesses, which in turn make him feel weary of women in general. That weariness of women threatens his sense of self-actualization, because it is much more difficult for him to carry on a normal sex life if he feels estranged by women in general; a heterosexual man who is unable to carry on a normal sex life with women (Cahn 91).

In attempting to kill Claudius, Hamlet risks psychological estrangement that he will likely experience psychological estrangement occurring on multiple levels. He would feel estrangement of his bond of motherly love, his bond of womanly love, his bond of friendship, his bondage to his religious and normative principles, and his bond to his professional colleagues. Many different forms of estrangement occurring simultaneously risk his psychological sense of identity. The realization that he faces such enormous pressures shapes his seemingly bizarre behavior in the play, and makes him struggle against the awesome weight of his obligation to destroy Claudius. All of this, of course, is in addition to his basic fear of being executed if he attempts to kill Claudius.