The Psychology of Hamlet

The Psychology of Hamlet

Hamlet

Ophelia

Why does Hamlet delay so long

in carrying out his revenge?

"Her passivity and obedience leave her helpless when the guiding male figures of father, brother, and lover are all taken from her, and Hamlet's obscene taunts and his implication in her father's death leave her entirely demented"(Belling.)

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;

And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;

And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:

A villain kills my father; and for that,

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.

…

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:

When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,

Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;( 3.3.75-95)

During their conversation, Hamlet insults Ophelia and states,"GOD HATH GIVEN YOU ONE FACE, AND YOU MAKE YOURSELVES ANOTHER"(Shakespeare 129)

Theory #1: He doesn't believe the ghost.

Theory #2: Hamlet has some scruples.

Theory #3: Hamlet suffers from an Oedipus Complex

Freud’s theory the Oedipus Complex

2.And when he revenge……

No, no, the drink, the drink!—O my dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink! I am poisoned. (Dies) (5.2.305)

Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damnèd Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?

Follow my mother. (5.2.320)

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 his own childhood realized. .  - Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, tr. James Strachey, Avon, N.Y. 1965. p.299.

Its either Oedipal complex or not

“The difficulty critics have had lies in ... the critics' own unwillingness to consciously recognize the role that the oedipal conflict has played in their own lives."  - The Design Within. p.80

Anger towards his mother

That it should come to this!

But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: 

So excellent a king; that was, to this, 

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! 

Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, 

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: and yet, within a month–

Let me not think on 't—Frailty, thy name is woman! —(1.2.137-146)

"Ophelia's extreme distraction and mourning over her father's death culminates in her drowning"(brown)

After an interaction among the king , queen, and a distracted Ophelia, King Claudius exclaims,"O, this is the poison of deep grief. it springs /All from her father's death"(Shakespeare 209)

"In her madness, Ophelia eventually does make this realization and because of her lack of alternatives , she accepts death"(Maki)

Gertrude

Gertrude is wholly ignorant of Caludius' successful plot against her first husband and equally oblivious of Hamlet's protectively possessive feelings towards her. She finds his melancholic behaviour exasperating, and is unable to understand why he will not rejoice with the rest of the court at her marriage. She seems a kindly, slowwitted, rather self-indulgent woman, in no way the emotional or intellectual equal of her son. When Hamlet finally determines to make her see the ghastly error of her choice his cruelly-chosen words force her to feel guilty:

Claudius

"that incestuous, that adulterate beast"(1.5.43)

"rotten in the state of Denmark"

O Hamlet, speak no more.

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul,

And there I see such balck and grained spots

As will not leave their tinct. (III,iv.88-91)

very sexual being

represent

this explains how the queen is able to move so quickly after her husband's death.

Lust

Greed

Corruption

Excess

Psychology

Character's behavior in Hamlet.

1.Claudius

2.Gertrude

3.Ophelia

4.Hamlet

END