Oedipus Complex in Hamlet

Psychoanalytic criticism is a form of literary criticism which uses some of the techniques of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature.

Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy which aims to cure mental disorders “by investing the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind.” (Oxford Dictionary)

For psychoanalytic critics, works of literature are simply another manifestation of the mind’s unconscious desires and processes. Much like in dreams, repressed messages are hidden beneath the surface of these texts. By examining a work’s symbolism and the words that the author uses, psychoanalytic critic delves into the mind of an author or a fictional character.

There are several prominent points of psychoanalytic criticism such as Unconscious, Oedipus complex, dilemma, dream, symbolism and state of mind.

Sigmund Freud was the first psychoanalyst and the pioneer in the recognition of the importance of Unconscious mental activity. His theories on the inner workings of the human mind which seemed so revolutionary at the turn of the century are now widely accepted by most schools of psychological thought. French psychoanalyst Jacque Lacan contributes to the later development of psychoanalytic criticism bringing a brand of non- traditional psychoanalytic theory.

Now, in the light of these concepts of psychoanalytic criticism we are going to analyze the text of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Unconscious Dominant over the Conscious

An important aspect of psychoanalysis is the fragmentation of human mind between Conscious and Unconscious. All of Freud’s work depends upon the notion of the Unconscious, which is the part of the mind beyond consciousness. Most of the duration of our life is Unconscious which has a strong influence upon our action. In his Iceberg Theory Freud compares human psyche with an iceberg. According to him human mind is like a floating iceberg, its major part that 11/12 remains under the water and only a small portion that is 1/12 can be visible. So, the invisible part which remains under the water is like the Unconscious of psyche. Naturally our life is subjected to domination by it. Freud’s formulation again that psychologically we are “not master in our own house”.

Unconscious is the reservoir of primitive desires and instincts; store house of hateful, shameful, and sorrowful experiences. The components of the Unconscious are so unsocial, sinful, hateful, and painful that even the person feels ashamed while thinking about them. Again human mind is also divided into three parts: Id, Ego, and Super-Ego. Id is actually guided by the pleasure instincts; it is completely irrational and not ideal. It resides completely in Unconscious and is biased by animalistic instincts. Ego is a part of Id being reformed by the touch of reality, mainly resides in the Conscious and guided by reality principle. It is rational and real. Finally, Super-Ego is the part of Ego constructed by social rules and morality, guided by morality principle. It is partly conscious and partly unconscious. It is extremely ideal. These are different state of fragmented mind. Therefore, we can say that from psychoanalytical point of view Hamlet’s mental state is also fragmented. We are willing to peep into the psyche of Hamlet to clarify the domination of Unconscious upon him.

Apparently it is seen that Hamlet is well aware about his action. He is a responsible character and reflective about past and future. But as we are to evaluate his psyche we have to go beyond the reality and to sort out what happening in his Unconscious mind. Hamlet has Unconsciousness about the external world and his ego is hindering him to create any chaos. So when he is informed by the Ghost that his uncle Claudius is his father’s murderer consciously he does not take any attempt to kill him. It can be because of his responsibility as a prince, as a well educated fellow and a responsible son. Again we can say that another idealistic part of mind is Super-Ego. Hamlet is also influenced by the ideal state of mind because he does not kill Claudius at prayer. It is because of his perception of religion which influences him for not taking any step. Now it is seen that the sides of Ego and Super-Ego of Hamlet are driven by reality principle and he feels the necessity of being Conscious before taking any step.

Sometimes it is argued that Hamlet is Conscious enough as he makes the script of the play “The Murder of Gonzago” and stages it. Obviously he is Conscious about his decision what he should take in which moment. Psychoanalytical criticism does not deny his Consciousness about reality. But it wants to say that Hamlet is mostly driven by his Unconscious desires. It is his Unconscious desire to save his mother. Though he becomes able to identify his father’s murderer ultimately he fails to kill him. He delays this incident in different excuse and it is only because of his Unconscious mind which is in favor of his mother.

Now, the desire of his Unconscious mind or the libidinal Id is presented by the Freudian idea of Oedipus complex as a form of mother fixation.

Oedipus Complex

The idea Oedipus Complex comes from Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrranius. Oedipus Complex is described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness of the male child. In this process, the male child feels attraction for its mother and repulsion for the father. When a male child becomes fixated on its mother he will fail to establish a successful relationship with other woman in a natural way .If the male child can not develop his childhood smoothly he will suffer different kinds of psychical problems.

 In Hamlet’s character, the problem of Oedipus Complex was first sketched out by famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud in his book The Interpretation of Dreams. Hamlet’s father is murdered by his uncle, Hamlets uncle who then marries Hamlet’s mother. The ghost of Hamlet’s father appears to Hamlet and tells him to avenge the murder by killing his uncle. But Hamlet spends most of the play delaying and making excuses, though he gathers some concrete evidences after playing The Murder of Gonzago. It proves that Hamlet has an Oedipus Complex, a repressed sexual desire for his mother. Thus, the uncle has done what Hamlet himself wished to do. So it is the difficulty for him of being avenger. In the bedroom scene, Hamlet shows the awareness of his mother’s sexuality. Most of the time we see Hamlet is very much jealous about his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle than his father’s death. Hamlet’s scold and jealousy make him crazy. And he speaks with his mother like a failure beloved not like a son. Out of his jealousy he tells his mother directly that –“go not to my uncle’s bed” (Act -III). It is evident that Hamlet is obsessed with his mother’s sexuality.  Hamlet cannot tolerate that his loving mother is captured by another man. Again another explanation we can set that hamlet’s delay is caused by his own-self. Taking revenge on Claudius is considered revenge on Hamlet’s own psyche. Unconsciously he wants not to take revenge .Though he takes revenge for conscious ego , it is the tragedy of Hamlet who fixated towards his mother.

Hamlets deep Oedipus feelings make him fixated towards his mother. As a result, he fails to establish a good relationship with Ophelia. His fixated motherly image is reflected in Ophelia. As a result Hamlet judges Ophelia through the hateful act of his mother and behaves cruelly. Actually Hamlet has no direct attraction or stable feeling for Ophelia. His actual attachment is with his mother who hurts him through the hasty marriage with his uncle. From the psychoanalytical view we can say that Hamlet’s treatment of Ophelia shows an unconscious desire to play with her off against his mother. For instances, in the play scene he replies to his mother’s request sit by Ophelia with the words: “No good mother, here’s mental more attractive”. [Act –III, scene –ii] Before Hamlet died he says good bye to the “wretched queen” which suggests that Hamlet never resolves his father issues and maternal fixation. Oedipus complex results in various mental predicaments in Hamlet.

Dilemma and Dream in Hamlet

Psychoanalytical criticism importantly identifies the emotional dilemma of the central character of a text. Dilemma is defined as “a situation involving choice between two equally unsatisfactory alternatives” (Meriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 1986). It means that sometimes a person or character faces a critical situation in which he or she has to make a choice between decisions those are equally important. But the person can be completely satisfied with none of those. Such a situation is defined as the dilemma of the person or character.

In the psychoanalytical study of Shakespeare’s Hamlet the character of Hamlet is found in an unresolved dilemma. From a surface view it is seen that Hamlet is always determined to take revenge of his father’s death. But if we think a bit more about the psyche of the character his indecisiveness will be clear to us.

Firstly, we find Hamlet’s dilemma in his delay in taking any active step to avenge. Hamlet is informed about the murder of his father by his father’s ghost and later he is confirmed of the truth of the information with the planned performance of a play named “The Murder of Gonzago”. In this situation Hamlet has two options: 1. to take revenge killing Claudius, and 2. to keep silence ignoring everything. Consciously Hamlet knows his duty of avenging and wishes strongly to perform the duty. But through the whole play we see that he is delaying in his task. He never takes any step to take revenge. Even he does not seek for any scope to kill Claudius rather Hamlet reluctantly gives up an opportunity in the prayer time of the murderer. Actually no action for revenge is found in Hamlet’s character. Though in the scene of Gertrude’s bedroom Hamlet stabs Polonius thinking him the king Claudius it is nothing but an incidental action. In the last scene also Hamlet kills the king without any pre-plan. Only the situation compels him to kill his uncle. So, it is evident that Hamlet is always unable to take a certain decision about taking revenge on Claudius. He lives in confusion and delays about two months to murder his father’s murderer.

In the matter of Gertrude’s guilt also Hamlet faces dilemma or indecisiveness. He guesses that the mother may have some responsibility behind the unnatural death of the father. The ghost gives an indication of Gertrude’s guilt but it asks also Hamlet to be kind to his mother. Ghost’s direction actually reflects Hamlet’s conflict in his mind. From the hasty marriage of Gertrude Hamlet easily can infer that she might have some share in the intrigue of murdering senior Hamlet. Hamlet cannot forgive his mother for her guilt. On the other hand, he is unable to make any harm to Gertrude because of his weakness for her. This weakness is identified with the psychoanalytical criticism as Hamlet’s Oedipus complex from which he cannot come out yet. In this psychological state Hamlet faces an emotional dilemma about his mother’s guilt.

Hamlet’s dilemma reaches at a time to an ultimate state of existential crisis. This crisis is expressed through his most remarkable soliloquy-

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep---.” (Act III, scene ii)

Passing through different indecisiveness Hamlet comes to a state of mind where he has to think whether he will exist or not. If we think of the tragedy of the play Hamlet it can be said that tragedy lies more on the dilemma of Hamlet’s mind than on his death in the last scene.

In a critical analysis of Hamlet’s character his dilemma or indecisiveness is identified as the central fact. If the causes behind this dilemma are searched it is found that sometimes the cause belongs to his consciousness and sometimes to the unconscious. Hamlet’s action of revenge is delayed by his reasoning as well as the emotional biasness of his mind. Whatever the cause is Hamlet’s dilemma can be personified as the central character which directly or indirectly controls all actions and in actions of the play.

Freudian Dream and Symbols in Hamlet

Psychoanalysis is concerned with the dynamics of interpersonal relations and with the way the self is formed through interactions with its familiar and socio cultural environment. Dream is the representation of our unconscious desire. So here we should discuss on how dream effects work in Hamlet and more so how the dreamy situations are turned into reality. According to Freud “Dream is the royal road to unconscious.” (The Interpretation of Dreams) An important Freudian terminology is the dream work, a process by which real events or desires are transformed into dream images. These include displacement whereby one person or event is represented by another which is in some way linked or associated with it.

 Here, it is seen that the sin committed by Claudius is the dream of Hamlet. As there is an Unconscious desire represented in Hamlet’s mind it has some association with Claudius’s action. From the beginning to the end the activities of Hamlet have no explicit statement and his feelings are almost abstract. Apparently it is seen that Hamlet is very much conscious and careful as well as rational. But if we judge Hamlet from Freudian point of view we will find much irrationality in Hamlet. That is to say dream dominates him most of the time and he tries to justify his action through his consciousness. Now some particular incidents of the text can be sort out.

The character of ‘Ghost’ can be considered as the dream of Hamlet. It is seen that the Ghost appears at night that a dreamlike environment is created. The audience can not differentiate between the reality and the appearance of Ghost. The dreamlike environment or setting of the play makes us believe that Hamlet is in dream. The Ghost reveals the cruel truth about the murder of him (senior Hamlet). Though the Ghost first appears to other minor characters he does not talk to them. The author here makes us believe that the Ghost is real as it is seen by other characters not Hamlet. But if we consider Hamlet’s encounter with Ghost from psychoanalytic point of view we can say that it is the dream of Hamlet. The main reason is that the Ghost does not talk to anybody else. Again he orders Hamlet to take revenge of his father’s unnatural murder without hurting his mother.

“Ghost: Taint not thy mind nor

Let thy soul contrive

Against thy mother aught. Leave

her to heaven, And to those

thorns that in her bosom

lodge to prick and sting her.” (Act I, scene ii)

So, Hamlet does not want to hurt his mother not only for his father’s order but it is also the desire of Hamlet to save her.

Again, the Ghost appears twice in the play. In Act 3, scene 4 the Ghost warns Hamlet to aid and save her. In this scene Hamlet reacts with his mother out of his anger. This time also the Ghost talks to Hamlet. As a fixated son Hamlet wants to save his mother. So his unconscious mind comes out to reality as a form of dream which has got a shape of Ghost.

“ Ghost: Do not forget. This visitation

Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.

But look, amazement on thy mother sits.

O, step between her and her fighting soul!

Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.

Speak to her, Hamlet.” (Act I Scene iv)

So Hamlet is always thinking to save his mother which is repressed in his mind. This desire comes out as a form of dream and orders Hamlet to be cordial towards mother. Thus the dream is personified as the Ghost of the play and it appears real to the audience. The Ghost is the dream of Hamlet and he never contradicts with Hamlet’s desire for his mother because dreams are biased by the Unconscious.

Moreover, the dreamy environment of Hamlet is identified with different symbols which come out through psychoanalysis. These symbols are related to Hamlet's Oedipus complex. In Act III, scene II Hamlet uses the word 'dagger' for his mother and wants to be cruel. "I will speak daggers to her, but use none." (Act III, scene II) In the bedroom scene, Gertrude says Hamlet" O, speak to no more! These words like daggers enter in my ears. No more, sweet Hamlet."(Act III, scene IV). In psychoanalysis, the dagger is a symbol of phallus which is uttered by Gertrude and Hamlet several times. This is an indication of Hamlet's sexual behavior towards his mother. Dream comes out distortedly as different kinds of symbol and we again find it in the song of Ophelia. She sings about flower and gives flower to the ladies in act 3, scene 4. As Ophelia's sexual desire is repressed, her unconscious comes out distortedly as a dreamy behavior where flower is the symbol of female sexual organ .These symbols stand for the id or unconscious desire of their mind. So there is a close relationship between dream and Freudian symbols.

Neurosis and Psychosis, Jungian Shadow and Anima, and Lacanian Imaginary Order in Hamlet

Neurosis and psychosis are used to describe the conditions or illness that affects mental health.

Causes of Neurosis

Both neurosis and psychosis result from repression, but the later is the developed/extreme stage of the first. The libido or the sexual instinct and unacceptable elements and ideas are not at rest in the Unconscious. They always attempt to invade the Conscious. But Ego tries to stop this repressed part. So, the conflict between the Unconscious instincts and Ego becomes inevitable. The consequence of this conflict, i.e., the conflict between Ego and Id, is neurosis.

Freud states something more about the cause of neurosis. He says that neurosis can be caused by -

a. Repression, and

b. Trauma

Effects of Neurosis

According to George Boerce the effects of neurosis are: anxiety, depression, melancholia, anger, confusion and low sense of self worth, hallucination, cynicism and obsession.

A neurotic person also suffers from the inability to reconcile his thoughts with his actions.

Psychosis is the later extreme stage of neurosis. There is a clear distinction between neurosis and psychosis. "In neurosis, the mind still has a relationship with reality, but in psychosis the unconscious takes over altogether and expresses itself directly"(Ryan, 36). "Psychosis does not disavow the reality, it only ignores it; psychosis disavows it and tries to replace it. We call behavior 'normal' and 'healthy', if it combines certain features of both reactions-if it disavows the reality as little as does a neurosis, but if it then exerts itself, as does a psychosis, to effect an alteration of that reality"(Freud, 570).

Now we shall show how these factors of neurosis and psychosis can be applied to the personality and actions of Hamlet.

Hamlet is obviously a neurotic. His neurosis is the result of repression and trauma.

Hamlet's Oedipus Complex proves the existence of his repression. He has two father figures who stop him from the possession of his mother. He has to repress his unlawful desire for his mother. As a result of this forceful repression, his Id dominates his Ego. This conflict results in Hamlet's neurosis.

Hamlet's neurosis is also a consequence of his trauma. The unnatural death of his father, the hasty marriage of his mother-beloved with his uncle and his father's order for revenge create traumatic experience to him. It is here relevant to state that Hamlet, though he possesses royal blood, is not a traditional prince or warrior. Rather, he is a philosopher with a sensitive mind. Undoubtedly, he is burdened with the order of revenge. This order becomes a traumatic experience because he is not ready to bear it. His mind is already burdened with the thinking of mother-beloved. Thus, repression and trauma create Hamlet's neurosis.

The mental state of Hamlet supports his neurotic disorder. He suffers from anxiety and depression. Again, his father's death and mother's hasty marriage with his uncle who kills his father produce his depression. The events thereafter, including his two bosom friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's being employed to spy upon him and lastly kill him, further his depression. Thus, he falls into melancholia. Throughout the whole play Hamlet remains a melancholic figure. His melancholic mind says:

                    The time is out of joint! O cursed spite

                    That ever I was born to set it right! (ACT I, Scene v)

Hallucination is an effect of neurosis. Hamlet experiences hallucination. His second encounter with the ghost is hallucinatory as only he, not his mother, can see it. It is the hallucination of his troubled mind.

Hamlet suffers terribly from mental confusion. He cannot take clear decision whether he will believe the ghost or not. Indecisiveness goes to the characteristic of neurosis.

Hamlet's sense of self-worth is low. Even he decides to commit suicide as expressed through his soliloquy "To be or not to be". This soliloquy proves that he has lost his confidence. His consideration of the world is also a sigh from the very deep of his mind:

                   How weary, stale, flate, and unprofitable

                   Seem to me all the uses of this world! (ACT I, Scene iii)

Only a neurotic mind, so burdened with melancholy, can express this type of pessimism.

But, Hamlet is by no means an insane. Insanity is nearest to psychosis. Because’ like a psychotic an insane loses his contact with reality. Hamlet never loses his contact with real and practical world, except in his very temporary hallucination. His staging drama, escape from being killed and using Ophelia as a weapon all are performed in a crafty way.

So, Hamlet is not a psychotic, rather he is a neurotic.

It is Ophelia who suffers from psychosis, because, she loses her connection with the real world and commits suicide.

Jungian ‘Anima’ and ‘Shadow’ in Hamlet

Anima: According to Jung, anima is the universal idea of men about women. Men have been living with women from the beginning of the civilization. This process has created in men a universal belief about women. Through this co-habitation anima is created in men. Naturally, anima is ideal. It is an ideal concept about women. Women in real life possess some differences from this ideal belief. But, if the difference is high, there creates misunderstanding between men and women.

Such is the case in Hamlet. Hamlet’s mother Gertrude is his anima. But his expectations produced from his belief in anima face differences from his real-world mother. He cannot identify complete anima in Gertrude, though he is obsessed with his anima. This fragmented experience makes his relationship with his mother complicated.

Shadow: According to Jung, shadow is the dark side of the human beings. It is the animal-instinct full of cruelty and selfishness. In Hamlet it is Claudius who represents shadow.

Lacanian ‘Imaginary Order’ in Hamlet

Lacan’s theory of the Imaginary Order is relevant to the discussion on Hamlet’s personality.

A child’s Imaginary Order comes after the Mirror Stage. It is the world of images. In this stage the child still perceives itself an inseparable part of its environment. It still feels control over its mother. It feels a union of mutual satisfaction with her. But, in the Imaginary Order the child lacks individuality because of its excessive mother-fixation.

Hamlet also reflects the same case. His neurotic state is accelerated by his feeling of the lack of individuality. He lacks individuality because his mother-fixation. He still lives in the stage of Imaginary Order. His lack of individuality is the inherent cause behind his inaction, dilemma and other complexities.