Laertes And Ophelia Essay

The primary destruction of Laertes and Ophelia’s psychological success stems from their immense fixation on a degree of the Freudian complex: “the dysfunctional bond with a parent of the opposite sex that one does not outgrow in adulthood and that does not allow one to develop mature relationships with their peers” (Tyson 17). Thus, Laertes and Ophelia constantly suffer from being “driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware” and in this case, these issues come from the loss of direction and affection from their mother (Tyson 12). This piece of the general Oedipus fixation is more applicable to Laertes as his childhood distress comes from a significant member of the opposite sex in his life. Being separation from
one’s mother actually delays the said “overcoming” of Freud’s Oedipal complex. For instance, the “excessive separation” from one’s mother “leads to a sense of helplessness that can in turn lead to patterns of idealized control and self-sufficiency” (“Oedipus” 1). The process of conquering the jealousies and feelings of neglect when a son becomes less contingent on their mom is not clearly understood in Laertes’s growth into a young adult due to the separation between himself and his mother. Therefore, his superego: “the moral factor that dominates the conscious adult mind” is not fully developed because it “has its origin in the process of overcoming the Oedipus complex” (Editors of Britannica 1). Laertes’s fear of abandonment manifests itself into the pressures that he puts on the remaining members of his family, especially Ophelia through his “wisdom” as the oldest sibling:
Fear it, Ophelia. Fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
Virtue itself ’scapes not calumnious strokes.
The canker galls the infants of the spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed.
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth,
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary, then. Best safety lies in fear.
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. (37-48)
Scholars have questioned whether this “concern” for Ophelia’s love life is actually an attempt to close off Ophelia from the rest of the world so that Laertes has her attention and affection to himself.
As someone who lost his mother when he was very young, his high interest in his sister’s affairs is not surprising. Laertes could be trying his best to keep her away from harm, so that he would not have to lose her too. In another sense, Laertes is very bent on making sure that Ophelia brings honor to their family name- a responsibility, if even given to a woman during this time in the first place, -would typically be bestowed upon the mother, not a fifteen year old girl. In the absence of their mother, Laertes also projects and displaces his closeted necessity for a maternal representative. He projects his deepest psychological battles onto Ophelia by “ascribing his fear, problem, or guilty desire to someone else and then condemning her for it, in order to den that he will not have it himself” (Tyson 15). In the passage above, it is debatable whether Laertes comes from a place of love or of scorn; nonetheless, he judges and corrects Ophelia’s way of life in order for her to act the way that he wants, so that can he lock down reassurance from the closest person he can get to a mother. That way, Ophelia would never leave
him.