Free Essay About Hamlet In The Light Of Freud’s Psychoanalysis

A Psycho-Analytic interpretation of Hamlet

The magnum opus of Shakespeare is filled with concepts that can be best explained by psychoanalytical approach. Sigmund Freud himself took an interest in analyzing the play and in interpreting it in the light of his own psychoanalytical theory. Finding the reason behind the hesitation on the part of our hero became the prime interest for Freud. For Freud, it was the repressed Oedipus complex that was the reason for the indecision of Hamlet.
According to Farber, the most significant point to analyze in the play is Hamlet’s hesitation in killing the King. Hamlet’s indecision is a classic point for psychoanalysts to ponder and to try to understand the reason behind this conflict. Farber notes, “The Problem -- namely, why does Hamlet hesitate to kill the King? -- and that in this regard it contributes to a current of criticism that psychoanalysis did not originate but which psychoanalysis profoundly affected.” 
            Freud saw a very intense form of Oedipus complex in behind the behavior of Hamlet. As noted by Silverberg that the thesis presented by Freud was that Hamlet’s will to act is incapacitated by reason of contention over his curbed Oedipus complex. The episode of murder of Hamlet’s father, the real King, through the hands of Claudius and the wedding of Hamlet’s mother, the Queen, with the murderer made in Hamlet an extraordinary return of the quelled Oedipus complex. Claudius did what the baby Hamlet fancied, and consequently “Hamlet was identified with Claudius who, no more and no less than Hamlet, deserved death” in Hamlet’s own eyes. It resulted in Hamlet’s agony and mental distress.
            To conclude, it is the repressed desire to kill his father and to have a sexual relation with his mother that is the cause behind his indecision to kill his uncle. The famous writer Ernest Jones in his Essay “the Oedipus-complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's mystery” takes a very clear position that it is the repressed Oedipus complex and the identification on part of Hamlet with the murderer that originates the strange mental state of Hamlet. And then, Jones goes on to expand his position through direct reference from psychoanalytical theory of Freud and from the original text of the play. In short, Hamlet’s indecision and madness can be well understood under the guidelines of Freud’s psychoanalysis.

Works Cited

Farber, M.D. The Design Within: Psychoanalytic Approaches to Shakespeare. N.Y, 1970. Print.
Jones, Ernest. "The Oedipus-Complex as An Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive." The American Journal of Psychology (1910): 72-113. Print.
Silverberg, William V. "Hamlet: By William Shakespeare. With a Psychoanalytical Study by Ernest Jones." Psychoanalytic Quarterly (1947): 180. print.