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.