Hamlet’s Mommy & Daddy Issues?
This paper was written for COLT-381: Psychoanalysis and the Arts in Fall 2023. It analyzes the titular character of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet in conjunction with psychoanalytic theory.
It is astonishing how many works can be linked to the Oedipus complex, both modern to as old as the Renaissance. Today, these ideas are informally referred to as “mommy issues” or “daddy issues”. To contextualize, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Hamlet’s character development is defined by his experience executing revenge upon his uncle, Claudius, who murdered his father and subsequently married his mother. Sigmund Freud is renowned for his psychoanalytic theories, and in his work The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud ultimately concludes that dreams reflect the repressed desires from one’s childhood. First, the Oedipus complex, derived from the tragedy Oedipus Rex, and the castration complex are two of Freud’s psychoanalytic theories he used to understand childhood development in males. Next, Freud claims that the Oedipus complex is present in Hamlet’s inability to kill Claudius, because Hamlet is secretly attracted to Gertrude, the queen and his mother, and resents Claudius for being with her. Lastly, although there are some valid points for why Freud’s interpretation of Hamlet is flawed, his reasoning for the motives behind Hamlet’s action or lack thereof is compelling.
First, Freud discusses the Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles as grounds for his theory of the Oedipus complex, which he is able to ascribe in the tragedy Hamlet. In the legend, Oedipus, son of King Laius and Jocasta of Thebes, is abandoned as a baby because he is prophesied to kill his father. Somehow, he is found after being left for dead and adopted into another royal family, and grows up in ignorance until he consults the Oracle about his parents. Still under the impression that his adoptive parents are his real parents, Oedipus is distraught to find that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother, so he sets off to Thebes, where he then quarrels with Laius and kills him. Continuing to Thebes, Oedipus encounters the Sphinx, where he correctly answers her riddle, resulting in her suicide and his kingship and marriage to the now-widowed Jocasta. Additionally, Freud connects Oedipus’s tale to his theory of castration complex, where a boy resents his father for being with his mother but is simultaneously afraid that his father will castrate him as punishment for his desires. The father is perceived as some sort of enemy or rival to the boy, and is capable of dismembering him. Meanwhile, the boy possesses fantasies of harming the father figure in order to be with the mother. Freud claims that this stage of development in young boys creates their masculine identity as they age, especially since boys mimic their fathers’ behaviors. In conclusion, Freud coined the terms “Oedipus complex” and “castration complex” to describe the developmental reactions young boys undergo.
In continuation, in Freud’s interpretation of Hamlet, he believes the Oedipus complex explains Hamlet’s inability to kill Claudius because of Hamlet’s taboo interest in Gertrude and resultant resentment toward Claudius for being with her. In the play, Hamlet obviously wants to avenge his father’s murder but is unable to, and this deliberation can be connected to his incestuous lust for Gertrude and subconscious fear of castration because of his embitterment toward Claudius. When Hamlet indirectly causes Ophelia’s death, he shows little remorse. Presumably, this lack of reaction toward Ophelia’s demise can be attributed to Hamlet’s repressed desire for his mother’s love and affection, and his anger and jealousy toward his father figure, Claudius, for receiving her attention. In summary, the plot of Hamlet is defined by Hamlet’s inability to act upon his desires, whether or not they are conscious or subconscious. Although he is vengeful, Hamlet cannot take revenge on Claudius, who, in killing his father and marrying his mother, was able to fulfill Hamlet’s repressed desires; basically, Hamlet is too engrossed with his fixation on and envy of Claudius’s romantic connection with his mother. Hamlet definitely possesses a perverted sense of fascination and disgust with his mother’s sexuality, evident in the number of times Hamlet thinks about his “whore” mother in a sexual context. As Freud implies, Hamlet’s procrastination is due to his irrational fear of castration as punishment for his incestuous passions for Gertrude and murderous inclinations toward his father figure, Claudius. Basically, Hamlet’s drive and motives are from his subconscious animosity toward the father figures in his life. Indeed, Hamlet has many murderous fantasies directed towards Claudius, and the root of this is in his lust for Gertrude. Therefore, Freud’s Oedipus complex is a viable theory as an explanation for Hamlet’s delay in avenging his father’s death.
Finally, even though Hamlet’s hesitancy in avenging his father’s death can be related to his repressed desire for his mother and resentment toward his father, from an Elizabethan perspective, Hamlet’s procrastination is not uncommon, plot-wise. In a way, Freud’s interpretation is flawed because it does not consider the historical context of the characters’ thoughts and motives in Hamlet. For example, one of the causes of Hamlet’s deliberation is that he is unsure whether the ghost giving him advice and warnings is actually his deceased father, or a demon trying to trick him. In comparison to the scientific discoveries of Freud’s lifetime, the scientific efforts in Elizabethan era were still very much affected by fear of the occult. In addition, it is significant to mention that there are some instances where Hamlet does not hesitate to act, especially when his own life is threatened. For one, Hamlet cleverly sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths by rewriting a letter that sentenced himself to death to their names instead. Also, Hamlet shows no indecision when he stabs Polonius through the curtain, believing the eavesdropper is Claudius. Despite these strong courses of action, Hamlet refrains from killing Claudius when he is praying because he does not want Claudius to go to heaven. It is certainly arguable that Hamlet simply overthinks most of his actions, and that without this idling, there would be no plot. Ultimately, Hamlet finally takes control over his indecision and kills Claudius in the final act. According to Freud, it is plausible that Hamlet is finally able to kill Claudius after Gertrude’s death because he is no longer connected to his desire for her. If he had killed Claudius while Gertrude was still alive, Hamlet would be guilty of killing a part of himself too: the part of himself that relates to his father figure in their overlapping desire for the mother figure. Subconsciously, Hamlet did not want to kill Claudius because he secretly gets to have Gertrude indirectly through contact with Claudius. To summarize, Hamlet struggles with much internal conflict as he battles his moral duty to avenge his father’s death but also his hidden desire for his mother, and this conflict prevents him from taking action until the end. In conclusion, although Hamlet’s deliberation throughout the play is not abnormal, his actions are still subconsciously motivated by his attraction to Gertrude and envy of Claudius.
To begin, the Oedipus complex and the castration complex are two of Freud’s psychoanalytic theories he coined in his work learning about dreams in conjunction with the conscious, unconscious, and repressed memories. Next, Freud explains that Hamlet’s indecisiveness in realizing his revenge by simply killing Claudius is actually rooted in his attraction to Gertrude and jealousy of Claudius. Lastly, it is conceivable that Hamlet’s motives were subconsciously driven by the Oedipus complex even though there are some possible concessions against his theories. All in all, with Freud’s interpretation of Hamlet, it is clear that Hamlet potentially has bad cases of mommy and daddy issues.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud (1900). 1900, psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Dreams/dreams.pdf.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Oedipus Rex.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_Rex.
