Why Is Hamlet's Underlying Oedipal Complex?
One would assume, that after being read and study for over 400 years, scholars would have reached consensus regarding the mysteries of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However, despite it’s age, many aspects of the play continue to stump even the best critics due to Shakespeare's use of figurative language and old-fashioned words. These parts of Hamlet lead to heated debates between thousands of authors specializing in Shakespearean criticism, who desperately attempt to discover what Shakespeare intended when he was writing Hamlet in 1601. One of the topics that still remains a mystery is why Hamlet delays in his actions to kill Claudius, whether Hamlet’s conscious did allow it or due to other deeply rooted psychological issues. However after reading
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Early in the play, Hamlet’s jealousy over the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius causes him depression, self-loathing, and thoughts of suicide. With the marriage causing Hamlet more angst than the death of his father as evidenced by Hamlet’s first soliloquy after the marriage in which he briefly mentions his father’s death while focusing mainly on his dissatisfaction with his mother's marriage. Jones hypotheses that “such soul-paralysing grief and distaste for life” experienced by Hamlet over the marriage must be due to “some other and more hidden reason… that have been "repressed" from the subject's consciousness” (Jones, page 92). Those repressed feelings being his desire to be King, alongside his mother as his Queen; a role now occupied by Claudius. Indeed, Claudius “shows him in realization the repressed desires of his own childhood” (Freud, page 86). Another example of Hamlet’s jealousy appears at the end of the bedroom scene when Hamlet speaks hurtfully to his mother. After the ghost comes and scolds Hamlet for not exacting his revenge, one would assume that Hamlet’s first order of business would be to kill his uncle. Instead, Hamlet first goes and tells his mother that she must not sleep with Claudius, ultimately showing that he cares more about his mother than fulfilling his father’s wish for revenge. Jacques Lacan also mention this when
Early in the play, Hamlet’s jealousy over the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius causes him depression, self-loathing, and thoughts of suicide. With the marriage causing Hamlet more angst than the death of his father as evidenced by Hamlet’s first soliloquy after the marriage in which he briefly mentions his father’s death while focusing mainly on his dissatisfaction with his mother's marriage. Jones hypotheses that “such soul-paralysing grief and distaste for life” experienced by Hamlet over the marriage must be due to “some other and more hidden reason… that have been "repressed" from the subject's consciousness” (Jones, page 92). Those repressed feelings being his desire to be King, alongside his mother as his Queen; a role now occupied by Claudius. Indeed, Claudius “shows him in realization the repressed desires of his own childhood” (Freud, page 86). Another example of Hamlet’s jealousy appears at the end of the bedroom scene when Hamlet speaks hurtfully to his mother. After the ghost comes and scolds Hamlet for not exacting his revenge, one would assume that Hamlet’s first order of business would be to kill his uncle. Instead, Hamlet first goes and tells his mother that she must not sleep with Claudius, ultimately showing that he cares more about his mother than fulfilling his father’s wish for revenge. Jacques Lacan also mention this when