Love Thy Mother Most Peculiar

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Recommended: Hamlet Oedipus complex

Abstract: Does Hamlet, a character in Shakespeare’s historical play, have the Oedipus complex? Do we truly understand the semantics of the Oedipus complex? Many critics have had different opinions. According to Webster’s online dictionary, the Oedipus complex is a “complex of males; desire to possess the mother sexually and to exclude the father; said to be a source of personality disorders if unresolved” (Webster's Online Dictionary, 2011). Another source defines the Oedipus complex as “the attachment of the child to the parent of the opposite sex, accompanied by envious and aggressive feelings toward the parent of the same sex” (Dolloff, 2006). Some do not believe he was cursed with this complex. Oedipus complex is a depressed emotion that is of unconscious nature. Over and over again Oedipus qualities emerge in the character of Hamlet. Shakespeare’s Hamlet does possess evident traits of the Oedipus complex.

Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, has much controversy that has been argued. Shakespeare implemented his subconscious thoughts into the character he created as Hamlet. Over and over critics criticize Shakespeare’s thought process and have questioned if he himself suffered from the Oedipus complex. It was ingenious of him to create a character that hundreds of years later we are still demanding to understand his complex thought process. No work that Shakespeare did previous to or subsequent to this play can compare to the eminence he created in Hamlet. After reading Hamlet, conclusion can be made that Oedipus complex does exists in either the character Hamlet or the writer Shakespeare.

Several of Hamlets actions demonstrate a state of madness, complicated by repressed feelings and the Oedipus complex. Hamlet suffe...

... middle of paper ...

...occasions. His attention is on his mother’s sexual relations when it ought to be on avenging his father’s death. Without a doubt, Hamlet suffered from the Oedipus complex and his madness created his unconscious to release his incestuous thoughts.

Works Cited

Dolloff, l. (2006, November 16). The Oedipus Complex. Retrieved August 21, 2011, from http://www.uvm.edu/~jbailly/courses/tragedy/student%20second%20documents/Oedipus%20complex.html

Shakespreare, W. (2011). Hamlet. In R. S. Miola (Ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Stevenson, D. B. (1996). Freud's Psychosexuall Stages of Development. Retrieved August 20, 2011, from The Victorian Web: http://www.victorianweb.org/science/freud/develop.html

Webster's Online Dictionary. (2011). Retrieved Sugust 19, 2011, from http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Oedipus+Complex?cx=partner-publication

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