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essays on sigmund freud psychoanalytic theory
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essays on sigmund freud psychoanalytic theory
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Hamlet’s “Oedipus Complex”
“Hamlet is another of the great creations of tragic poetry…What is it that inhibits him in fulfilling the task set him by his father’s ghost?...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 who shows him the repressed wishes of childhood realized. Thus the loathing which should drive him on to revenge is replaced in him by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish.”- Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud, a brilliant psychologist, once theorized that a child will wish to kill one parent and sleep with the other of the opposite sex. This notion, known as the “Oedipus Complex”, is incredibly common in children, and often suppressed as an adult. It even plays a large part in shaping Shakespeare’s tragic character Hamlet. For centuries, scholars have studied Hamlet’s fascinating and sophisticated character in order to answer the question; what is stopping him from killing the uncle that murdered Hamlet’s father and now is married to his mother? Throughout the remarkably truthful play Hamlet, Hamlet’s desire for his mother can be explained easily by the Oedipus Complex, which causes him to hesitate when told to kill King Claudius.
Hamlet’s attachment to his mother is quickly made evident within the first act of the famous tragedy. Hamlet, who sulks around wearing black clothing to mourn the death of his father, first speaks in the play to insult his stepfather. He voices his distaste at his new relationship with his uncle by criticizing that they are, “A little more than kin and less than kind” (I.ii.65). He believes that it...
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...ntentionally relates to him, for by murdering Hamlet's father and marrying his mother, Claudius has carried out Hamlet's own childhood dream. As a result, Hamlet is unable to murder his uncle as easily as he kills others, such as his two unfaithful friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Freud clears the thick confusion surrounding Hamlet’s inconsistent mentality by attributing it to the Oedipus complex.
Theater audiences and literary enthusiasts are not spared of Shakespeare’s astonishing ability to capture the human spirit in his play Hamlet. The story of the tormented prince who desires revenge but is unable to take action delves deep into the human mind than plays before it. While some uninformed readers may write off Hamlet’s behavior to poor writing, it is clear that the Oedipus complex is the true driving force of Hamlet’s actions when delaying his revenge.
Always in Shakespeare reading we learn many different themes. The play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare is a classic published in 1603. The story goes through Hamlet’s everyday thoughts of life, love, people and other ideologies. Hamlet story teaches us throughout the story that he hates King Claudius with a ceaseless passion because he poisoned his brother in order to marry the queen and take the crown. Hamlet is the prince and his mother’s marriage to Claudius causes him to have a deep rooted hatred towards women which pushes him to hate sex. As a result, we see how deeply Hamlet values inner truth and his hatred for deceit. After learning Hamlet’s philosophy of life we see that he would not fit in modern American society. Therefore, Hamlet
When Hamlet’s mother remarries to Claudius, her husband’s murderer, Hamlet is disgusted that she could move on so quickly. He’s also disturbed over the fact that his Uncle could kill his own brother, and then marry his brother’s widow. This “incestu...
Throughout Shakespeare 's Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet himself, is determined to achieve his ultimate goal by seeing that Claudius is put to justice for the crime of murdering the king of Denmark, Claudius 's very brother and Hamlet 's father, and figures that he must pretend to have been driven insane by his father 's death in order to gather the evidence needed on Claudius without anyone figuring out his true intent. However, this ultimately becomes the undoing of Hamlet and causes harm to everyone that comes in contact with him. The suffering of others in the story, inflicted by Hamlet, are examples of the motifs of misogyny (evoked by his mother), incest and incestuous desires (occurring between Ophelia and Laertes, Claudius and Gertrude, and even Hamlet and Gertrude), which compliments and help develop the main themes, such as, the impossibility of certainty,
Sigmund Freud introduced the Oedipus complex, and his theory states that the individual suffers from a repressed sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex while having a rivalry with the parent of the same sex. Many people see a connection between Hamlet and Oedipus. They insist Hamlet is in love with his mother and this is why he wants to kill Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and Gertrude's new husband. They contend that Hamlet's "madness" is actually his repressed longing for his mother. Although Hamlet and Oedipus both kill their fathers, their actions are for different reasons. Hamlet loves his mother, but he is not in love with her or desire her sexually. The reason behind his anger towards Claudius is not due to feelings of jealousy, but because Claudius killed Hamlet's father, whom he loved dearly. Hamlet does not suffer from an Oedipal complex.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
At the play’s commencement, Hamlet’s familial relations are relatively impaired, for his mother’s remarriage to his uncle instills great distrust within the family; however, as Hamlet attempts to expose the family’s darkest secret, these relationships deteriorate further until they eventually collapse. After conversing with his father’s ghost, Hamlet feels it necessary to confirm Claudius’ guilt; therefore, he asks a group of actors to perform a scene that wittily mirrors King Ha...
As the play’s tragic hero, Hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad traits. A complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play’s development. When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King. In addition, his mother’s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair. Mixed in with this immense sense of grief, are obvious feelings of anger and frustration. The combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to Hamlet; he becomes a very “human” character. One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.
Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...
Taking revenge against his enemy can be a difficult task for young Hamlet, especially when the circumstances and conditions he is under require him to reevaluate his morals of life and soul. The delay in Hamlet’s revenge of his father’s death is caused by three main reasons: he is under strict and almost impossible guidelines laid out by the ghost of his father, King Hamlet, he is afraid of death either suffering it or inflicting it on someone else, and his lack of reasoning in committing a murder that he did not witness himself.
Throughout the play Hamlet is in constant conflict with himself. An appearance of a ghost claiming to be his father, “I am thy father’s spirit”(I.v.14) aggravates his grief, nearly causing him to commit suicide and leaving him deeply disgusted and angered. Upon speaking with his ghost-father, Hamlet learns that his uncle-stepfather killed Hamlet the King. “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown”(I.v.45-46) Hamlet is beside himself and becomes obsessed with plotting and planning revenge for the death of his father.
Hamlet’s love for his mother was the primary force that drove his life. Everything he did in some way revolved around his love for his mother. His love was unconditional in many ways, and at times it also became sexual. These sexual thoughts that ran thought his mind took charge of his emotion and ultimately his life. This Oedipus complex in the end was a tragedy in itself. As a result any person that got too close to his mother, like Claudius did, would make Hamlet become extremely jealous and make him get violent thought. It was the love for his mother that made him kill Claudius when she was alive. Hamlet knew that Claudius made her happy so deep down Hamlet knowing this was happy too.
Hamlet’s sanity began to deteriorate when learned that his father’s death was not an accident, but rather a foul deed committed by the newly crowned King of Denmark. “If thou didst ever thy dear father love – Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” [Act I, v l .23-25]. As a mysterious ghost appeared in the terrace, Hamlet learned of a murderer that would prove his fealty towards his father. As he contemplated the appalling news recently brought to his attention, the control Hamlet had over his actions was questioned. “O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables meet it is I set it down, That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark,” [Act I, v l. 106-109]. Hamlet’s hatred toward his father’s killer caused him to relate the tribulations between murder and the aspects of Denmark as a country together. As with most of the conflicts Hamlet faced, his lack of ability to avenge his father’s death, furthered the deterioration of his life and surroundings.
Considered to be one of the most famous playwrights written in the history of English literature, Hamlet is no doubt a complex play and far from being easy to decipher. The protagonist finds himself entangled within a slew of different predicaments ranging from love, incest, death, murder, and even touches upon the spiritual world when his father’s apparition presents himself with the task of avenging his death. How he goes about handling all of these difficulties has been a debate for decades and continues to baffle even the greatest minds today. However, in order for Hamlet to uncover the truth and fulfill the task he is given, he must put on an act of madness in which the other characters mistake him to have truly lost his mind. While he
Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.
Hamlet is the best known tragedy in literature today. Here, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet’s flaws as a heroic character. The tragedy in this play is the result of the main character’s unrealistic ideals and his inability to overcome his weakness of indecisiveness. This fatal attribute led to the death of several people which included his mother and the King of Denmark. Although he is described as being a brave and intelligent person, his tendency to procrastinate prevented him from acting on his father’s murder, his mother’s marriage, and his uncle’s ascension to the throne.