The Projection of Hamlet’s Emotions Through Adult Sexuality

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The Projection of Hamlet’s Emotions Through Adult Sexuality
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the question of sexuality and the role of women becomes a substantial component in analyzing Hamlet’s character and behavior. The motif of misogyny occurs intermittently throughout the play shown largely through Hamlet's relationships with both Gertrude and Ophelia. Clearly hurt by Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius so soon after his father’s death Hamlet becomes cynical of women and surmises that they are all immoral creatures. He develops a particular obsession with female sexuality and incestuous relations. Hamlet forms a connection between women and immorality, thus using his his mother’s incestous actions as a basis to surmise that all women are deemed unworthy and morally corrupt. By forming this archetype to suit all the women in his life, Hamlet allows himself a means to project his anger onto others. Therefore Hamlet’s preoccupation with adult sexualty and incest is not only the cause of his sadness and nausea, but is also a means to project his emotions and express the disgust and grief that has been caused by the women of the play and their betrayals.
When once Hamlet identified himself through his royal blood and the distinguished members of his family, the union of his mother and uncle has left him without status. Hamlet's sense of worth, manliness, and identity are equally undone through the union of Claudius and Gertrude. His body, his status, and his very being have become polluted through his mother’s marriage to his father’s brother, “Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden/That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature” (1.2.134-6). Hamlet uses the line as a metaphor for his world being a garden. As his world is...

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...med him, causing him to bitterly reject both women after realizing the incestuous betrayals. Claudius asks “If ’t be the affliction of his love or no/That thus he suffers for” and as both themes of sexuality and betrayal intersect, we see in grand part the emotional state of Hamlet (3.1.37-8). It is love that he suffers for, but it is not for the love he had but the emotions behind loving a person. His emotions have been betrayed, not once but twice. These hypersexual creatures, have in his eyes become the source of nausea, grief, and anger. His very being rejects the idea of feminine sexuality and incest so fervently that he cannot focus on anything outside of the two themes, other than death. Consequently, his emotions caused by the union of Gertrude and Claudius caused a flow of emotions so strong that they clouded his judgement, his mind, and even his future.

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