Freud's view of Hamlet

The Oedipus Complex theory in Hamlet

In 1899,  Sigmund Freud wrote a book An Interpretation of Dream that he first introduced his theory. One of theory is Oedipus complex which he states that its normal for children to have sexual desires toward their parent of the opposite gender and simultaneous they normal to have feelings of hatred of parent of the same gender. mostly children experience Oedipus complex between three and five and three. When they gets older, that feeling go away or deeply suppressed. Freud explained Hamlets action by Oedipus complex theory. 

In first scene, Hamlets mother Gertrude and his uncle Claudius remarried right after his father king Hamlet died. it upsets Hamlet because his uncle Claudius has taken his position which is next to his mother. In deep inside of Hamlets subconscious, he wants to be a king and married to his mother. In part one scene two, Hamlet says "Must I remember? Why she would hang on him, as if increase of appetite had grown". It directly shows Oedipus complex of Hamlet. It tells that he does not even want to remember that how his mother showing love to King Hamlet, he wants to be only one person who his mother loves. This is a reason why Hamlet feel hatred toward Claudius.  
According to Oedipus complex theory, normally Child hates the parent of the same gender. As well as Hamlet express hatred for both man of his mother who are his real father King Hamlet and Claudius. In the play, King Hamlet is keep expressed that he often spent long time at the war to fight with other country. It represent that he didn't spend much time with Hamlet, and also Hamlet said "I'll call thee Hamlet, king, father, royal Dane." When Hamlet thought about his father, the word father did not come first, he thought his father as men and king, not father. Hamlet express his feeling hatred about Claudius more openly, but when Claudius prayed, Hamlet hesitates to kill him because he does not want Claudius goes to heaven. Hamlets emotion of hatred is so strong therefore he want to kill
Claudius when he does bad things.
The ghost of Hamlet king tells Hamlet that the person who kills him is Claudius and he also tells Hamlet that he wants Hamlet to avenges on Claudius. Throughout the play, internally he struggles to kill Claudius. absolutely he wants to kill and he has to but that is something he can't do. That's because of Oedipus complex. Inside of Hamlet, he felt guilty and repulsion against Claudius. That make Hamlet feels very much like Claudius. As Claudius kills King Hamlet, If He kills Claudius, he is no different with Claudius. Unconsciously he identify himself with Claudius, therefore he hesitates to kill Claudius. Claudius has achieved Hamlet's Freudian ideal which kill his father 
and take his place.

The ostensible reason for his madness is very simple. He's mad at Claudius as well as his mother Gertrude because Claudius kills his father and his mother Gertrude married Claudius. But there are doubtful Hamlet's action which cannot be explained by just his madness. when he had chances to kill Claudius, he hesitated and also he seems too much obsessed with thoughts of his mother in bed with Claudius. He thoughts if his mother having sex with Claudius, it is incest. I believe Hamlet feels that ways because he identify himself with Claudius. His sudden acts can be explained by Oedipus Complex theory.

Oedipal Complex with Hamlet

Oedipal Complex with Hamlet

    We can see that Hamlet and Ophelia was in love before the play takes place and it seems their love started to far apart as Hamlet's hatred towards his mother grow bigger. Hamlet hated his mother for remarrying to Claudius, his uncle. In Act 3 when Ophelia gave Hamlet back his presents to her, Hamlet began to lose his temper because at least Hamlet thought Ophelia was his last companion. This is against Oedipal complex because Ophelia and Hamlet love each other but their relationship is not blood related. But there is reason for Hamlet loved Ophelia.

    As a result, Hamlet began to focus more on revenge. His hatred towards his mother was some what weird since he hate her so much he care about her. Hamlet wanted her to stay away from Claudius because his father was superior then Claudius and he was furious about Gertrude's attitude as a wife. It seems like Hamlet was trying to appeal that he have his father's blood which makes him superior too. Also in scene 3, Hamlet tried to undo his mother cloth. It was really weird since Hamlet look at his mother as a somewhat woman not mother in this scene.

    But these doesn't solve Oedipal complex because Claudius is not Hamlet's real father. Claudius is related to Hamlet but he is still step-father to Hamlet. Oedipal Interpretation means that son wants to kill his father and marry his mother, sexual desire after that. If that is the case then Hamlet was furious because Claudius took Hamlet's place to marry his mother. This is hard to answer since we don't know what happened between after Hamlet Senior's death and Gertrude's remarriage to Claudius. But now, it makes sense that Ophelia was Hamlet's only way to show companionship towards woman since his mother was 'taken'.

    In my opinion, the play really doesn't support sexual desire towards mother except when Hamlet was in Gertrude's bed chamber. I think he was frustrated with Ophelia after she gave hamlet's present to her, who know what those two did back in the day. I mean Hamlet look after his mother too much but not in sexual way. It was too much for Hamlet when Gertrude married Claudius soon after Hamlet Senior's death, which makes him mad at Gertrude at the same time. At last, I do believe Ophelia's role in the play support Oedipal complex because Hamlet began to look women as a 'whore' and every women are like that, even his mother.

Chris Lee

Oedipal Interpretation of Hamlet's Relationship with Ophelia

Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia

     In the play, Hamlet and Ophelia were deeply in love, but after seeing his mother remarry his uncle so quickly after his father died, Hamlet begins to think that all women are weak and only want sex. He begins to think the same with Ophelia. This is the reason for the closet scene. It proves to Hamlet that Ophelia, and by extension, women in general, cannot be trusted. Hamlet never stopped loving Ophelia, it’s just that Hamlet was so focused revenge for his father and thoughts of how his mother betrayed him, and thus he more or less forgot about his love for Ophelia.

Oedipal Interpretation

    Oedipal interpretation is a form of psychoanalysis. It is a subconscious sexual desire in a child, especially a male child, for the parent of the opposite sex. This sexual desire is usually accompanied by hostility to the parent of the same sex. For example: all young boys want to kill their father and marry their mother.

 Oedipal Interpretation of Hamlet

    Some people may say that the play “Hamlet” is a perfect example of Oedipal Interpretation, while others would disagree with that statement completely. But does Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia support an Oedipal interpretation of the play?
    Because Ophelia is not Hamlet's mother, and Hamlet loves Ophelia, some readers would say that this clearly goes against an Oedipal interpretation. Hamlet is in love with another woman, not his mother, which is the whole basis of an Oedipal interpretation. On this basis alone, readers could claim that Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia would complicate or work against an Oedipal interpretation of the play.
    But there are two sides to a coin. Hamlet's love for Ophelia would be a subconscious attempt to surpress his sexual desires for his mother. It's like he is almost trying to convince himself that he does not love his mother by telling himself he loves Ophelia. Hamlet could also be trying to use his relationship with Ophelia to try to make his mother jealous, like when he dramatically tells his mother that he would rather sit with Ophelia than with her at dinner during the play in scene 3. Critics could argue that this is why Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia would support an Oedipal interpretation of the play.
    So Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia could both support or work against an Oedipal interpretation of the play. Which do you think it does?

Ben Rombaut

Did Hamlet have an Oedipus Complex?

So, there was this guy, Sigmund Freud. Quite the neurologist. He had some interesting ideas pertaining to how human's minds work.

He thought we all have many crazy subconscious desires sitting deep inside our minds, and he probably wasn't wrong. Freud tended to like relating everything to sex though, that's the one thing about the guy. He suggested to a colleague once in 1897 that all addictions, such as his tobacco addiction, were only substitutes for masturbation, "the one great habit".

Ou-la-la

Does that have anything to do with Hamlet though? 
You bet it does.

Yep, good ol' Mr. Freud related Hamlet's desire for revenge with some sort of sexual urge. Specifically, he stated that Hamlet was a perfect example of the "Oedipus complex" (a term he himself coined), which essentially states that all dudes, on some deep level, really just want to murder their fathers and have sex with their mothers. Does that match Hamlet? Uh. Maybe? I'm going to go with "probably not" though.

Well, the way this blogger sees it, it matches Hamlet to a certain extent. I mean, maybe he doesn't want to get all sexy with his mom, but he could easily be a little jealous of all the attention she's giving to uncle-dad Claudius, right? We see clearly in the play that Hamlet is upset with how quickly his mother moved on, and how he almost feels that she's unfaithful, in a sense, to his deceased father.

In addition, the killing of the father part is somewhat covered, even though Hamlet's true father is already dead. The very man who murdered him took his role as the king, and as Hamlet's father, by marrying the queen. Hamlet wants revenge.

As you can surely see, Hamlet wants to end his "father's" life, in order to be with his mother. But not sexually. He just wants to be closer with her. You really didn't need to throw that sex part into everything, Freud.