Essay on Hamlet and the Oedipus Complex

Hamlet decides to get more information / prove what the ghost was saying before doing

This paper is the rough draft version. There are grammatical errors and other such errors in it.

Her uncontrollable sexuality is the derivation of Hamlet's suffering.  Gertrude "becomes the carrier of the nightmare" (259); she initiates Hamlet's quest to "free the masculine identity of both father and son from its origin in the contaminated maternal body" (261).  In attempting to exculpate the masculine, Hamlet ultimately confuses and merges the two figures of paternity, Hamlet the Father and Claudius.  Adelman suggests that as Hamlet tries to differentiate between the two loves of his mother, he confutes and "collapses" the two men into a single impression of masculine appetite (264).  Hamlet, according to Adelman, cannot distinguish his father from his uncle because he identifies both men with "an appetite for Gertrude's appetite" (264).  Sexual relationships define the drama's causality and Hamlet's perception.  Adelman points out that because of Hamlet's lack of a distinct, "idealized" father he "relocat[es]" his identity-predicament in "the female body," in his mother (266-67).  Adelman makes another reaching and defining statement when she claims that "this subjection of male to female is, I think, the buried fantasy of Hamlet, the submerged story that it partly conceals and partly reveals" (268).

Love in the forms of parent to child and from lover to lover is an addictive element which can result in loneliness and lead to madness to those who lose it forever. Hamlet's relationship with Gertrude and Ophelia is quick to fall apart after he learns key information about his parentage. Both Gertrude and Ophelia provide him with love but are absent at a time when he needs it most; during the reign of his madness. Hamlet's madness is partly evident due to his poor relationship with Gertrude and Ophelia, since they falsely love him then reject him by moving on with their lives. Both females have heavily contributed to the misogyny Hamlet develops. Ophelia and Gertrude disappoint Hamlet which leads him to become a misogynist which

Freud’s theory of personality examined the interplay between the primitive, instinctual urges—the ‘id’; the practical and rational ‘ego’; and the morally attuned ‘superego’; ‘object relations’ refer to the "object" of an instinct”, which is “the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved”—most often a person and, according to Freud, most often the mother (Ainsworth 1969, p. 1). The psychosexual development theory that Freud launched reduces our behaviour to mechanistic responses to an instinctive need for pleasure fueled by the ‘libido’ and barriers or distortions to the gratification of the libido at various delineated stages of development were responsible for later problems in life (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 5). Erik Erikson later added depth to the approach by including more humanistic elements to Freud’s stages and including more periods of development (p.

The Oedipus conflict or complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud to explain the origin of certain psychological disorders in childhood. It is defined as a child's unconscious desire for the exclusive love of the parent of the opposite sex. This desire includes jealousy toward the parent of the same sex and the unconscious wish for that parent's death. Horney states that it is not a “biologically given phenomenon” but rather a response to the “provocation’s” of the outside world.(Horney)

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it appears that something is amiss in the State of Denmark as the protagonist, Hamlet, is approached by the ghost of the deceased King Hamlet. During this encounter, Hamlet discovers vital information about the king’s brother, Claudius, who married the king’s widow, Queen Gertrude. With this information kept in mind, the Ghost advises Hamlet to kill King Claudius, while protecting his mother, in order for the old King Hamlet to escape purgatory. Nonetheless, throughout the play Hamlet’s vendetta is continuously prolonged due to the Oedipus Complex created by Sigmund Freud which states, “in the young male, the Oedipus conflict stems from his natural love for his mother, which progressively may become sexual.

Freud was known for having the inclinations to follow every mental issue back to sexual issues. Despite the fact that lone parts of his hypothesis of psychosexual advancement are being acknowledged by standard analysts, Freud's hypothesis of the Oedipal Complex has turned out to be extremely well known in the way of life. That hypothesis is the critical for sexual association with the parent of the inverse sex and a corresponding feeling of contention with the parent of a similar sex. Sigmund Freud acquainted us with the idea in his "Interpretation of Dreams" in 1899. Psychoanalysis is a system of psychological theory and therapy that aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements. Freud developed this theory all because of his study of the unconscious mind. And that the unconscious mind will govern your mind and behavior to a greater than anyone would ever think would be done. The whole purpose of of the psychoanalysis theory is to to turn the unconscious conscious. That's what psychoanalysis is and how it was developed (McLeod, 2014).

From a Freudian perspective human development is based on psychosexual theory. From a psychosexual perspective maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development (Shaffer et al., 2010). Ultimately, Freud believed that sex was the most important instinct and any mental disturbance revolved around sexual conflicts that were suppressed from childhood. Furthermore, Freud believed that parents permitting too much or too little gratification of sexual needs led

Throughout William Shakespeare’s classic play, Hamlet, it is very clear that the Prince of Denmark suffers from severe parental problems. These problems bear a stark resemblance to those borne by Oedipus, the classic staple of Greek mythology. The similarities, however, end and begin with an unhealthy obsession towards the mothers of each character and a distinct distaste towards the father that would border on hatred. Oedipus is, due to childhood experiences that were uncontrollable to him, largely unaware of these issues and even takes steps to disprove them. Hamlet, on the other hand, finds himself in this situation due to circumstances that he encounters later in life. While both Hamlet and Oedipus have very unnatural and unusual

The Oedipus complex refers to the thoughts some men have regarding their mother or maternal figures. Many scenes from the play can prove Hamlet did have these thoughts about his mother, such as acts one and three. If the reader knows what he or she is looking for, then these signs can be easily spotted. The story of Oedipus Rex is an

murder in a rash mood. It is not seen by Gertrude. It tries to urge

How does the use of comic relief best contrast the tragedy of Hamlet? In great works of literature a comic relief is used as contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play or to relieve tension. As illustrated in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, intense scenes are joined with character’s banter and vacuous actions as to add a comic relief. In Hamlet, Polonius acts as a comic relief by his dull and windy personality, Hamlet uses his intelligence and his negativity toward the king and queen to create humor, while on the other hand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a comic relief by their senseless actions and naïve natures. Polonius, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are all used as a comic relief to

According to Ernest Jones, Hamlet has the “Oedipus-Complex” while others might just call him a momma’s boy. The “Oedipus-Complex” from Freud is expressed through Diderot statement of, “If we were left to ourselves and if our bodily strength only came up to that of our phantasy we would wring our fathers’ neck and sleep with our mothers.” In

In Ian McEwen’s Nutshell, the representation of the fetus as a male character is extremely vital to the novel’s narrative. That is, the fetus as male reveals the narrative of Nutshell as a love story between the fetus and the mother—in respect to sexual tension. The parallel between the love story of Trudy and the unnamed fetus resembles the incestuous relationship between that of Hamlet and Gertrude. Through the representation of gender in Nutshell, McEwen reveals theories presented by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan concerning the Oedipus Complex and the role of the phallus. Further, McEwen explores these theories throughout the novel by the intertextuality of themes from Hamlet. The unborn fetus reveals multiple times his love for