Throughout William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays Hamlet with the same types of behaviors and frustrations in humans that Sigmund Freud saw at a much later date. When the relationship between Hamlet and his mother is analyzed Freud's oedipal complex theory comes to mind. The oedipal complex is a theory created by Freud that states that "The child takes both of its parents, and more particularly one of them, as the object of its erotic wishes."(51) Because of this desire to be with the parent of the opposite sex, a rivalry is formed with the parent of the same sex. In the play, Hamlet shows great hostility toward his uncle Claudius because his mother's remarriage to him. Hamlet sees his mother's remarriage as disgusting and sees murdering Claudius as a way of freeing his mother of an incestuous marriage as well as avenging his father. Hamlet and his mother's relationship is also shown as more sexual than the traditional mother son relationship because of Hamlet's language and private interaction with his mother, as well as his rivalry toward Claudius for his mother's attentions. This suggests that Shakespeare saw the behavioral characteristics of the oedipal complex in humanity that Freud did and chose to display them through the relationship of Hamlet and his mother.
Hamlet's inner monologues reveal much about what he is feeling and also aid in understanding the nature of the oedipal complex within the character. Aspects of the oedipal complex can be seen and applied to Hamlet's first soliloquy. Here Hamlet speaks to himself, divulging his personal expression of torment. The main cause of Hamlet's torment is the remarriage of his mother to his uncle and not the death of his father. This is shown when Ham...
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Due to the fact that Shakespeare expresses the character Hamlet and his relationship with his mother to fit in with the oedipal complex suggest the oedipal complex was seen long before Freud. When looking at Hamlet and Gertrude's relationship indicators of the oedipal complex including Hamlet's language and private interaction with his mother which fit in with Freud's theory that "a child should take his parents as the first objects of his love." (52) Using Freudian theory to read Hamlet is something that Shakespeare never intended but it matches the theory because Shakespeare most likely saw the same behaviors and frustrations in humankind that Freud did.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Sigmund, Freud. Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Trans. James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961.
While Hamlet may still be feeling depressed Hamlet moves into the stage of denial and isolation. Hamlet feels the effects of denial and isolation mostly due to his love, Ophelia. Both Hamlet’s grief and his task constrain him from realizing this love, but Ophelia’s own behavior clearly intensifies his frustration and anguish. By keeping the worldly and disbelieving advice of her brother and father as “watchmen” to her “heart” (I.iii.46), she denies the heart’s affection not only in Hamlet, but in herself; and both denials add immeasurably to Hamlet’s sense of loneliness and loss—and anger. Her rejection of him echoes his mother’s inconstancy and denies him the possibility even of imagining the experience of loving an...
The Tragedy of Hamlet is a play written by William Shakespeare about a young prince trying to avenge his father’s death. In the beginning of the play, young Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father, who tells Hamlet that his uncle, Claudius, killed him. Meanwhile Hamlets mother, Gertrude, has gotten married to said uncle. Now it is Hamlet’s job to kill his Uncle-father to avenge his dead father, a task that may prove to daunting for Hamlet. In Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Hamlet, the author uses diction and syntax to make Hamlet portray himself as mentally insane when in reality, he is sane thorough the duration of the play, tricking the other characters into giving up their darkest secrets.
to predict how they will treat other women in their life. Hamlet is a good
The Queen gives a remarkably detailed account of Ophelia’s death leaving one to believe that she may have witnessed the event. We know that she emphasized with Ophelia’s suffering to such an extent that perhaps she realized that the kindest action to take would be to let Ophelia decide her own fate, although she clearly was not in a fit state of mind to do this and was barely aware of her surroundings “incapable of her own distress.” Ophelia’s death is “beautified” as she dies in a romantic and beautiful scene befitting her character where she was surrounded by her garland of flowers. (Ophelia herself was “beautified” in a letter from Hamlet which Polonius found to be a “vile phrase.”) There is much detail, leading me to believe that Gertrude is trying to soften the blow for Laertes who is already enraged over his father’s death and his sister’s madness; the King says, “How much I had to do to clam his rage.” This is a typically selfish reaction of Claudius which serves to emphasize the need for Laertes to control his grief, as he is an extremely fiery character.
The Oedipus complex theory proposes that Hamlet desires his mother and wishes to kill his father because he is jealous of their closeness. This is not the case in Hamlet. Hamlet's actions which follow the Oedipus complex are for completely different reasons than Freud's theory states. Hamlet is not secretly in love with Gertrude, nor does he desire her physically. He also does not feel jealous of Claudius. Hamlet does not suffer from the Oedipus complex because he does not follow the pattern of this theory.
Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...
Hamlet’s relationship with his mother Gertrude is one of mostly rage, hatred, and possibly jealousy that could have been from loving her in a romantic sense. Hamlet finds out that Gertrude marries his father’s brother soon after his father’s death and goes in a fury. He yells at her and he calls her an incestuous beast. Whether or not this is from hatred for Claudius, Gertrude, or even out of jealousy are all cases that can be very well argued. The fluctuating emotions that Hamlet shows throughout is what makes the play so easy to relate to as a human and also what makes the possibility of there being multiple interpretations on how he really feels. Gertrude is also a strange character in that it seems as
Oddly, it appears that Gertrude possess more significance to Hamlet than one first anticipates. Her swift call to matrimony leads Hamlet into a spiraling quarry of depression and grieving. This mirrors the Oedipus complex. Gertrude sexually commits herself to Claudius causing Hamlet to feel a sense of jealousy and disappointment. In retaliation, he expresses his repressed desire of love through his unruly comments. He even goes as far as to say that the love is incestuous. Furthermore, in Act 3 scene 4, Hamlet confronts his mother directly in a closet. Addressing concern over her sexual actions, he exclaims “In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed, / Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty” (III.iv.104-106). Not only does this quote show that Hamlet disapproves his mother’s marriage, but also that he believes Claudius is a wicked criminal. Aligning with the Oedipus complex, Hamlet strangely obsesses over his mother’s love life while viewing his uncle in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows a unique mother and son relationship between Gertrude and Hamlet. Stemming from the death of King Hamlet, Hamlet’s depiction of his mother signals a heinous relationship amongst the two. Hamlets and Gertrude relationship looks complicated, but Gertrude still considers Hamlet as her son. After the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius, her affection towards Hamlet is not encountered, excluding for when she questioned his dark demeanor, “Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark” (I, II, 68-69). Initially in the plot, Hamlet realizes that his mother is completely oblivious and naïve to her relationship with King Hamlet. Her questioning Hamlet’s character indicates that she
Hamlet undergoes a series of trials and troubles some that are internal and other’s that create towards a certain path that he cannot escape. Hamlet’s best destruction in this path of no return is characterized in the beginning with his uncertainty of his existence and feeling over the loss of his father’s death. Young Hamlet faces risk within his mind when his mother marries his uncle soon after the death of his father. The death of Hamlet’s father and the immediate marriage of King Claudius and Hamlets mother Gertrude was a major factor in Hamlets depression. Unable to comprehend his melancholy mood he boards on a journey of revenge when learning his father’s ghostly appearance is wandering the Castle at night restless from not finding closure in his life. This event derives from his father’s meeting and revealing the cause of his extraordinary death. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius schemed and conquered in killing his own brother in order to gain the throne and Hamlet in some obligation towards truth, anger, and revenge agrees to expose
Shakespeare expresses the Freudian concept of sexual and aggressive conflict by assigning the traits to female and male characters respectively. The alternating suppression, sexuality over aggression and aggression over sexuality, plays out in Hamlet ultimately proving their symbiotic relationship. The sup...
As the play’s tragic hero, Hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad traits. A complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play’s development. When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King. In addition, his mother’s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair. Mixed in with this immense sense of grief, are obvious feelings of anger and frustration. The combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to Hamlet; he becomes a very “human” character. One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.
The path one takes to seek a personal reward may result in the treacherous acts that causes devastation for others. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the moral corruption that occurs between family members causes animosity that results in their downfall, and eventually their ultimate demise. More specifically, the tainted view of an individual in a family may result in the downfall of the other family members involved. Evidence of the tainted view of a family member causing undue harm can be found in the relationship between Hamlet and Claudius, Hamlet and Old King Hamlet, and Hamlet and Gertrude
Theater audiences and literary enthusiasts are not spared of Shakespeare’s astonishing ability to capture the human spirit in his play Hamlet. The story of the tormented prince who desires revenge but is unable to take action delves deep into the human mind than plays before it. While some uninformed readers may write off Hamlet’s behavior to poor writing, it is clear that the Oedipus complex is the true driving force of Hamlet’s actions when delaying his revenge.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare focuses on the title character plotting vengeance against Claudius for his father's murder to capture the Danish crown. The new king is also Hamlet's uncle and now stepdad due to the marriage with his mother, Gertrude. Through a sequence of events, the protagonist eventually avenges his father, although both his mother and himself fall to a tragic fate as well. Throughout the course of the play, the relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude changes from strained to a disrespectful and mistrustful to a bittersweet ending.