by Shakespeare’s fictional characters. Through Hamlet’s character and others characters not only we can see the an essential condition of social growth, but also that in order to modified ourselves we must first need to know ourselves ((Mind Over Pop Culture: Hamlet,Web. 2017). This we can see when Hamlet is close to a break down and he is able to get back on his feet. 400 years before Freud, Shakespeare explain us what is self –discovery. For example after Hamlet finds out about his is father’s murder, he realizes through passion monologues that he cannot continue to be as he is. Hamlet’s monolog it is considered possibly one of the most well-known monologues in the literature, which represents the pros and cons of suicide (“to be or not to be”). Hamlet was able to face his own internal and fears; only after dramatic intensity of the character expansion. Shakespeare shows exactly what social psychology is; the knowledge of how the everyday behavior of the people is affected by the existence of others. Characters such as Othello and Julius Caesar show the impact of human feelings and emotions like envy and jealousy. In Shakespeare’s works we can see the close connection with psychoanalytic theory. Each play reviles different personalities and actions of all of the characters in different social situations. This replicated the Elizabethan society in where the woman’s role was to acquiesce to the males who governed society, were educated, and were thought as influential. Shakespeare gives the woman new role through the characters of Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, Lavinia, Goneril and Regan and Juliet. Lady Macbeth is the typical model on fatal woman. She is ambitious, manipulative and thirsty for power. King Lear’s daughters are also representing as manipulative and intelligent, but as Lady Macbeth their end is fatal. Women’s characters in Shakespeare’s plays are complicated and diverse (Shakespearean Work and Common Mental Disorders, Web.2017). Women are often judged by their sexuality and some feminists believe that this proves a male uncertainty about female sexuality.
Sigmund Freud’s The Psychoanalytic Theory is known to be one of the first personality theories, based on this theory many other developed such as Neo-Freudian and post-Freudian theory. These theories all have common concepts, such as the significance of childhood experiences, the role of concerns in determining behaviors and personality, also the role of sexuality as a key to understand and analyze the characters (Jenson, Web.2017). As we know Freud deeply studied the concept how thru analyze of the dreams we can understand behavior. We clearly can see the connection between Freud’s theory and Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. In this play the subjects and themes are very close to those establish in some psychoanalytic theories: social interaction, dreams, defense mechanism and anxious behavior. For an example in character of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare touches multiple mental disorders such as: Major Depressive Disorder, post-traumatic stress, Parasomnia and OCD. In Hamlet’s character we can see sights of depression and even multiple personality disorder. Othello’s character has indicative features of pathological jealousy (Shakespearean Work and Common Mental Disorders, Web. 2017). Shakespeare also touches social problems that are active in
our days. In his works we can notice topics such as racism, woman’s role, family values and political alliance. He also reviewed the cultural mores and the way that society functioned, but at the same time he created characters that acted outside the social norms and exposed the flaws in the way that society functioned. Shakespeare was psychologist even before psychology exists as a subject.