An old Hamlet essay

Matthew Butcher

English 412(G)

Dr. Colvin

6 December 1993

The Relation of Hamlet and the Oedipus Complex

The psychology of William Shakespeare's Hamlet has always been full of debate. Hamlet's actions have always been given new and interesting motives, mostly psychological in respect. In the twentieth century this century, a new psychoanalytic approach has identified Hamlet's motives in an entirely new way. Critics and psychologists of this century have deemed Hamlet's actions to be rooted in the Oedipus complex.

First, the story of Sophocles' Oedipus is the foundation for what psychologists have termed the Oedipus complex. In the story, Oedipus inadvertently murders his father, then marries his mother. Psychologists say that at a young age everyone has "sexual" feelings for the parent of the opposite sex.

Freud's libido is the energy that moves the individual to seek pleasure and he defines it as a "comprehensive bodily function, having pleasure as its goal" (Freud). In Freud's stages of libidinal development, the first three stages are important in shaping an adult's personality. If the needs in one of these stages are not satisfied, the individual will fixate on that stage and continue to look for this kind of satisfaction later in life. One of the

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stages is the phallic stage which occurs around the ages of five to seven. In the phallic stage, the child is preoccupied with obtaining the exclusive attention

of the parent of the opposite sex. In the Oedipus complex, the boy recognizes that his father is a serious rival for his mother's attention, and the child's desire is to possess his mother. The Oedipus complex is therefore an undue and unhealthy attachment of a son for his mother which is likely to be suppressed and cause great mental distress in later life.

According to Dr. Ernest Jones, Hamlet goes through this complex during the course of the play. In his monumental work, Hamlet and Oedipus, Dr. Jones goes into detail relating Hamlet's Oedipal desires. The Oedipal conflict is the dynamic formulation for why Hamlet cannot kill Claudius.

Before getting into the details surrounding the Oedipus complex, I must synopsize the story of Hamlet in these terms. Old King Hamlet, the King of Denmark, is killed by his brother Claudius. Claudius becomes King and then also marries the Queen, becoming Hamlet's stepfather. This is where Dr. Jones infers the Oedipus complex in Hamlet. Claudius takes on the role of father. The Oedipal relationship is then apparent.

Claudius takes on the father-figure in Hamlet's Oedipus complex. The father is the rival of Hamlet's

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repressed desires. "The complete expression of the 'repressed' wish is not only that the son should die, but that the son should then espouse the mother" (Jones).

The biggest debate in Hamlet is why our titular character is so hesitant to kill Claudius and thereby avenge his father. "Hamlet's hesitancy was due to some special cause of repugnance

for his task and he was unaware of the nature of this repugnance" (Jones). His entire dilemma has been convincingly interpreted as a symbolic acting out of the Oedipus complex.

"Hamlet is able to do anything--except take vengeance on the man who did away with his father and took that father's place with his mother; the man shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized" (Jones).

One main thing that critics point to is the lack of a significant bad relationship between Hamlet and his real father (Heller). This "assumption, truly, cannot be supported textually." Critics go on to say that this means that Hamlet regressed to the period of Oedipal conflict rather than never coming to Oedipal maturity. Authorities cite the first meeting between the Ghost and Hamlet as one that shows no indications of a conflicted relationship.

"His unthinking, whole-hearted, instant support of his father, 'that I.../ May sweep to my revenge.'. . . can find nothing in this scene but the non-dependent, supportive love of a mature young man for his father, and the admiration and respect of father for son" (Heller).

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In productions of Hamlet, Hamlet's harsh discourse to his mother in the bedroom scene is compounded with motions of sexual innuendoes. In one version where he lays upon his mother on her bed, Hamlet imitates sexual intercourse during these words:

". . . . . . . Proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardor gives the charge,

Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will" (III.iv.86-9).

A "compulsive ardor" is a compelling passion. In this scene, Hamlet is very forthcoming in his sexual banter. He says, shaking his mother in a seductive way:

". . . . . . . Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,

Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love

Over the nasty sty--" (III.iv.92-5).

Another main bit of evidence is one line spoken by Gertrude in the bedroom scene where the Ghost comes to remind Hamlet of his promise not to hurt his mother: "To whom do you speak this?" (III.iv.132). "As addressed to the Ghost, these words strongly stress the fact that in Hamlet's regressed state the appearance of his father utterly castrates him." This leads critics again to Hamlet's regression to the Oedipal state. In Freud's Oedipus complex, the boy's hatred of his father is mixed with castration anxiety, the fear of castration by his father in retaliation for the child's Oedipal feelings. In the first meeting, Hamlet was a strong, collected character in speaking and is now different. Hamlet "is no longer the Butcher 5

same person . . . his father's appearance in the mother's bedroom once again threatens with an old childhood fear" (Heller). The old childhood fear is castration.

It is the fear of castration that resolves Freud's Oedipus complex. Feelings for mother and father are put into the unconscious and the boy attempts to be like his father as much as possible. In the bedroom scene, if the appearance of the Ghost "utterly castrates him," then his fear stops his Oedipal feelings for his mother. It is at this point in the scene that Hamlet ceases his heated argument. The Ghost appears, reprimanding Hamlet.

"Do not forget. This visitation

Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose"

(III.iv. ).

Hamlet, afraid, likened to castration anxiety, discontinues his harsh treatment of his mother.

Polonius, one of Claudius' aides, dies from Hamlet's Oedipal frustrations. Hamlet kills Polonius in his mother's bedroom by running him through with his sword, a sword that takes on a phallic symbolism according to most critics. Admittedly, this murder is purely accidental in the play. However, such accidents, especially in literature, like in dreams, represent symbolic content. In the original Oedipus, Oedipus' murder of his father the King, as well as his marriage to his mother the Queen, were both similarly "accidental."

Claudius is the main father-figure of the play but

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Polonius acts as a kind of father-surrogate. Hamlet would, after all, expect no one but Claudius to be alone with the Queen in the royal bed-chamber of Denmark (Williams).

"It doesn't matter who is behind the arras; it is sufficient justification in his state of mind that a person hiding in the Queen's private closet is up to no good. After the deed is done, it is scarcely surprising, considering the heavy burden the duty of revenge has been at last accomplished. The tremendous desire wipes out rational thought. There is only the wish that the nightmare be over. 'Is it the king?' he asks, hoping against hope" (Cheney).

He even states, "I took thee for thy better" (III.iv.33), referring to the King.

The question that now arises is the dynamic formulation of the regression. Why should Hamlet react to severe shock by regressing instead of by promptly murdering Claudius as his father suggests? "The reason is that what the revelation of his father's murder really confirms to his 'prophetic soul' are his suspicions about his mother's murderous role in the marriage" (Williams). Hamlet even outright accuses his mother of the murder. After he has killed Polonius in the bedroom scene, Hamlet defiantly shouts,

"Almost as bad, good mother,

As kill a king, and marry with his brother" (III.iv.29-30).

This scene is full of many images of the complex as Hamlet chastises his mother.

The bedroom scene is the crux of the entire neo-Freudian argument. It is here in Act III, scene IV that

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Hamlet manifests an overwhelming concern about Gertrude's

sexual life. Critics find here a Hamlet moved by jealousy due to his unconscious, incestuous love for his mother, rather than an idealistic code of Renaissance family honor. They see Hamlet's hatred of Claudius resulting from the fact that Claudius, rather than Hamlet himself, killed the King.

The neo-Freudians act on this hatred of Claudius. The Oedipus complex is a child's desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex. Hamlet wants to keep his mother and dispose of his step-father. In the Oedipus complex, when a boy recognizes potential rivalry with his father, he begins to feel jealousy, even hatred, and an increasingly intense desire to have his mother. The normal solution to the Oedipus complex is to succeed the father, something that Claudius has blocked by ascending to the throne in place of Hamlet (Jones).

The bedroom scene has been portrayed many ways in motion picture versions of the play. It was the Lawrence Olivier version that almost definitely popularized the neo-Freudian way of thinking. In the movie, Hamlet and Gertrude are sitting on the bed with the sheets arranged in voluptuous folds as the heated argument erupts in the bedroom. This verbal intercourse can be seen as the intercourse of the Oedipal conflict in Hamlet's mind. Hamlet reprimands his mother, demanding that she not go

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again to the incestuous bed of Claudius.

"Good night--but go not to my uncle's bed.

Assume a virtue, if you have it not" (III.iv.160-1).

His Oedipal desires are screaming--stay with your son, do not go with your husband. This is the Oedipus complex.

Critics also present the fact that Hamlet feels an intense hostility towards Gertrude. While Claudius did indeed do the deed, Hamlet, suddenly deprived of the father he had identified with, believes that "it was his mother who essentially murdered his father." But most critics don't believe that Hamlet thinks that Gertrude is an accomplice in the murder. "The words of the Ghost imply a two-fold motive for Claudius: the Queen and the crown" (Heller).

Getting to the heart of the Oedipal question, Hamlet identifies Claudius as his mother (Heller). This is based on Hamlet's words: "father and mother is man and wife,/ man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother" (IV.iii.51-2). "This is an attempt to focus on the murderer as the Ghost directed." Hamlet can satisfy his own urges against his mother and appease the Ghost at the same time.

The Oedipal conflict is then easily seen as a regression.

"It is an everyday commonness that the death, especially the sudden death, of the parent with whom the child was identified is often interpreted by the child as a murder by the surviving parent toward whom he has long felt hostility" (Heller).

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All in all, Hamlet's desires in the play are of great

mystery to most critics. The Oedipus complex begins to lay a firm foundation for the reasons of these desires. The Oedipus complex suggests ways to answer the questions of the play in a believable and intelligent manner. Hamlet is the Oedipus complex personified. Hamlet does not even realize his own reasons and motives, being subconscious. The Oedipus complex is a logical reasoning for his questionable actions throughout the play.

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Works cited

Cheney, David R. "Hamlet--Complex Oedipus Complex."

Shakespeare Newsletter 17 (1967): 58.

Freud, S. Sexuality and the Psychology of Love. New York: Carlton, 1905.

Heller, Lora and Abraham Heller. "Hamlet's Parents: The Dynamic Formulation of A Tragedy." American Imago 17 (1960): 413-21.

Hubler, Edward, ed. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. New York: Signet, 1987.

Jones, Ernest. Hamlet and Oedipus. New York: Norton, 1949.

Williams, George W. "The Complex Oedipus Complex." Shakespeare Newsletter 18 (1968): 12.