Psychoanalytical Perspective of Hamlet

Reading Hamlet from a Psychoanalytical Perspective

A psychoanalytical reading of a text involves an assessment of the conscious and unconscious elements of the mind. Freud’s theory on repression parallel Hamlet’s actions in the play.
In the unconscious mind sits thoughts and instincts that the conscious mind finds unacceptable. The censored material is infantile sexual desires.
Repression (the mind’s defence mechanism against feelings toward the maternal/paternal figure) directly correlates to Freud’s Oedipus complex.
The O/C deals with infantile sexual/emotional relationship of the infant with the primary maternal figure.
The O/C assesses that the infant has the desire to discard the father figure and become companion to the mother.
These desires are repressed out of fear.

The opening scene of Hamlet immediately reveals the diseased state of Denmark as a result of the death of Old King Hamlet and the ensuing war with Norway over land. Hamlet is thrown into crisis by the appearance of his father’s ghost who demands Hamlet avenges his murder. Hamlet’s personal crisis is that the murder of his father awakens repressed desires. Hamlet’s disgust at his mother for her hasty marriage to his uncle and his inability to act to avenge his father’s death is owing to his ‘Oedipal desire for his mother and subsequent guilt preventing him from murdering the man who has done what he unconsciously wanted to do’ (Freud). Hamlet realises that he is no better than the sinner he is to punish. He is immobilised by fear as killing Claudius is akin to killing a part of himself and would gain disapproval from his mother.
The deterioration of Hamlet’s psyche is a result of the internal and external turmoil he experiences. He progressively becomes distanced from reality as is suggested by language. His speeches are laced with metaphors, similes and word play including puns. These language techniques have hidden latent meanings that surpass the literal. Such language has an affinity with the language of the unconscious (dreams, slips of the tongue etc.). Hamlet is aware of the ambiguity of his speeches and the feelings that fuel them. He is conscious that whatever happens to him is deeper and more serious than the simple symptoms of mourning.
Ophelia’s madness following her father’s death can also be viewed through a Freudian lens. Her reaction to the death of her father is completely overwhelming and she descends into insanity.

A1S2 Questions

1. Consider the following quotes (l 65-67 A1S2) ‘A little more kin, and less than kind’. ’Not so, my lord. I am too much in the sun’. Analyse the word play through a psychoanalytical lens and explain the meaning shaped.

2. Hamlet’s first soliloquy takes place in A1S2. Read it carefully and analyse how language is shaped to depict Hamlet as melancholy and desperate to a point of considering ending his life. How does he feel toward his mother and step father? Provide examples from the soliloquy to support your ideas. Apply a psychoanalytical approach to your analysis.