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Freudian Hamlet Hamlet is a play rich in Freudian imagery, ranging from the Oedipal-like relations between Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude, and similar triangles between other characters, to the potentially narcissistic tendencies of many of the characters, to the playfulness of the play-within-the -play and its resonance with Freud's theories of theatre as dream. But what does a Freudian exploration of Hamlet tell us about the play, and in what ways might the play change our relationship to what Freud suggests? The most obvious Freudian reading of the play concerns the Oedipus complex. The first application begins before the action of the play: Claudius, acting as the son (with Gertrude and Old Hamlet as the national mother and father), envies the king and desires the queen.
He acts out his desires and murders Denmark, symbolically his father, and joins with Gertrude in his place. Once we are inside the text, a more traditional Oedipus triangle shows itself in Hamlet's relations to his mother and step-father. Hamlet clearly has nothing but hatred for Claudius, motivated both by his robbed ambition of kingship and, after meeting with his father's ghost, his fully realized knowledge of the "bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, landless villain!" that is his uncle. In the Oedipal vein, he may also be motivated by a suppressed desire for his mother, and anger that his less-well known ambition - to become his mother's lover - has also been stolen away. The best evidence for this unspoken desire is in the manner in which Hamlet addresses Gertrude, with a consistent barrage of sexual terms, particularly in the closet scene (3. 4. 34 - 3. 4. 210): Hamlet live In the rank sweat of an enslaved bed, Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty.
Not... Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed, Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse, And let him for a pair of really kisses, Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers, Less unseemly evidence for this central Oedipus complex can be found in Hamlet's association with his dead father. It is a narcissistic association; Hamlet sees himself in the dead king, and vice versa, and so revenge for Old Hamlet and is revenge for Young Hamlet too. As Narcissus saw his reflection in the water, Hamlet sees his in his father: Hamlet My father, methinks I see my father - Horatio Where my lord? Hamlet In my mind's eye, Horatio And later, when he meets the ghost: Hamlet Thou com " st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane.
He clearly identifies himself with his father, and as such, it is he that should rightfully take the place beside Gertrude, it is he she should hang on "as if increase of appetite had grown / By what it fed on." Hamlet should be sharing the "enslaved bed", not his uncle. The Oedipal relationships established, we are still left with the question of why, when Hamlet is normally assumed to be around 30 years old, does he still carry Oedipal impulses, when the complex should have been dissolved much earlier? According to Freud, the dissolution is brought about two experiences: When the (male) child's interests turns to his genitals he betrays the fact by manipulating them frequently; and he then finds that the adults do not approve of this behavior. More or less plainly, more or less brutally, a threat is pronounced that this part of him which he values so highly will be taken away from him... to begin with the boy does not believe in the threat or obey it in the least... The observation that finally breaks down his unbelief is the sight of the female genitals.
The child... has a view of the genital region of a little girl, and... with this, the loss of his own penis becomes imaginable, and the threat of castration takes its deferred effect. Following from this, we must conclude that Hamlet fails to experience one or both of these situations, and therefore his Oedipus complex continues unresolved. Although there is no textual evidence, we can assume that a prince would be afforded an abnormal amount of freedom, and that those surrounding him would be unlikely to question his actions. Hamlet is also an only child, and so would have had no reason to come into contact with a "little girl's genital regions", and so enforcing the truth' of any castration threat.
As a result, the Oedipus complex has remain unresolved in Hamlet's mind, leaving him fixated on Gertrude, even to the expense of other possible lovers, Ophelia being one. The complex is further encouraged by the jealousy Hamlet feels towards Claudius, who, in taking the throne and the queen, has done what Hamlet has always longed to. Freud put it thus: Shakespeare's Hamlet, has its roots in the same soil as Oedipus Rex... In Hamlet, it remains repressed; and - just as in the case of a neurosis - we only learn of its existence from its inhibiting consequences... The plot of the drama shows us that Hamlet is far from incapable of taking any action...
Hamlet is able to anything - except take vengeance on the man who did away with his father and took that father's place with his mother, the man who shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized... The distaste for sexuality expressed by Hamlet in his conversation with Ophelia fits in very well with this. There are also other Oedipal relationships at work within the play, perhaps the most interesting being those involving Polonious, Ophelia and Laertes. Before Hamlet is overtaken with his desire for revenge, the relationship between him and Ophelia is clearly set up, with Polonious and Laertes acting as father / husband figures preventing the union: Laertes For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in his blood, A violet in the youth of price nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more. Polonious I would not in plain terms from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
Look to't I charge you. Polonious has no wife, and it would therefore be natural for Ophelia to take on, at least symbolically, that role within the family unit. As a result, if Hamlet wanted to embark in sexual relations with Ophelia, it would be necessary first for him to kill Polonious, and possibly also Laertes. This fits in with the theory that, later, in the closet scene Hamlet knowingly kills Polonious, to clear the way for his relations with Ophelia. Towards the end of the play, he vows to kill Laertes to prove his love even for the dead Ophelia, taking the Oedipal complex beyond the grave and to the tradition of married couples being buried side by side: Hamlet Why, I will fight with him upon this theme Until me eyelids will no longer wag.
Be buried quick with her, and so will I As I have already touched on briefly, narcissism is another strong psychological element in Hamlet. One of the many problems that Hamlet has to deal with after his father's murder is his complete isolation from events. Up until now, the prince has always been quite literally "His Majesty the Baby" to use Freud's phrase. As a prince he has been afforded a large degree of autonomy, as Polonious notes, "he is a young / And with a larger tedder may he walk / Than may be given you [Ophelia]." His world that of Denmark and Wittgenstein, have fulfilled his every need, as the external world is totally fulfilling of a baby's whims and desires. To overcome this, rather than look to the external world as a child might normally go on to do, Hamlet instead remains introspective, reflecting his lack of development with regards to his Oedipus complex. His parts in the play are heavily punctuated with soliloquy, inward looking and self-indulgent.
Is his inaction in gaining revenge for his father's murder a result of uncertainty about the facts ("The spirit I have seen / May be a devil - and the devil hath power / T'assume a pleasing shape") or fear of what the consequences may hold for him ("Thus conscience makes cowards of us all")? Perhaps Hamlet is (not) acting to protect himself rather than rightfully avenge his father; his super-ego is reining in his id, fearful of the social ramifications. Strangely, Claudius, could be said to actually conforms to Freud's idea of the 'ideal' analytic type love, rather than the self-serving narcissistic love displayed by Hamlet. A person may love: (1) According to the narcissistic type: what he himself is (ie.
himself), what he himself was, what he himself would like to be, someone who was once part of himself. (2) According to the analytic (attachment) type: the woman who feeds him, the man who protects him, Claudius matches the 2 a type of love. Gertrude provides nourishment for Claudius in terms of providing Denmark; she brings to him something that is entirely separate from himself. If looked at in these terms, Claudius is actually psychologically more developed than Hamlet; although the...
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