Psychological perspective in Hamlet.

             Psychological perspective in Hamlet.

v Introduction:-

                        ‘Hemlet’ considered as renowned tragedy of shakespere. it is a revenge play but but it deals with the many perspectives. One the major perspective is psychological approach. Psychological approach focused personality, behavior and ways of thinking. So, here we are concerned with psychological approach in Shakespeare’s play with reference of Sigmund frued and ernest jones essay.

Psychological criticism in hamlet.

Shakeperare’s tragedy one can viewed through the eyes of different psychological. if we look upon hamlet’s character and his action towards claudious and his mother gertude, it is some extent evident that the protagonist hamlet suffers frome an odepus complex that lat him towards finale conclusion in a play rather than just the simple revenge upon his fathers murderer. Before we look how odepus complex applied in hamlet. Eanest jones ,who explains his reasoning through Sigmund frud’s odepus complex theory. in present century my psychologist disapprove of frued’s theories but literary analyst still rely on his theories to explain much of hamlets reasoning. 

Odepus comlex-

 That are described child’s attraction respective mother and  jealousy toward his father.

·       Definition:- The odipal complex is a term used by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages of development to describe a boy’s feeling of desire for his mother and jealousy and anger towards his father. Essentially, a boy feels like he is in completion with his father for possession of his mother. He views his father as a rival for her attentions and affections.

This idea developed further into the freud’s theory of the mind and what the difference the conscious mind and unconscious mind is. By 1899 freud had published the interpretation of dreams in which it not only lays out the principles of psychoanalytic theory, it also suggest the importance of dreams. As that is, in ferud’s mind, dreams are the way the brain works to understand the minds unconscious offering. From this, the idea that there is a unconscious mind which we repress, comes the thought of repressing thoughts and ideas in which we would not normally act.

Could someone act without really knowing why they are acting this way? Is it possible to harbor feelings that one isn’t truly aware of? It is here the Shakespeare’s play hamlet comes to question were hamlet’s actions conscious in that he wanted to kill Claudius for his betrayal, or were they unconscious, full of instinct and wishes towards his mother Gertrude? The odepius complex is in hamlet, that is for sure, but where didi it come from? Was it just a term used by freud that he pulled out of nothing? The answer is no. Oedipus was actually a Greek myth, and finale of the myth itself is what gave freud the idea to term this ”complex” after Oedipus. Oedipus, a greek king, killed his father and married his mother. Sounds fitting then to term “Oedipus complex” something that involves familial relations. How does the Oedipus complex work though? In simple terms, the young boy starts to harbor sexual feelings for his mother and jealousy towards the father for being with the mother. For example, did you ever look at your mom and dad and start identifying the difference between them and finding that your more attracted towards your mom? May be try to push “dady” away so you can be with her? A Freudian would identify this as an oedipal case. Further more, the Oedipus complex main antagonist in Freudian theory is the development of the super ego whose job is to basically police desires that would otherwise unacceptable to society. So what if the super ego never fully develops and the Oedipus complex is able to carry out its desires and thoughts? This would lead to the subconscious mind acting in place of the conscious mind and things that, at face value, seem to propose a true idea are actually hidden intentions in the bodies instincts and desires.

Has it occurred to you that while reading hamlet, he offers different thoughts as to why he cant kill Claudius? Especially when he had the opportunity right there before him in which he could have gotten away with it. Why did not he do it then? Was it really because he is a coward, or because the ghost wasn’t real and then even when he has the chance to kill caludius as he kneels to pray. All of these are very plausible, but that doesn’t change that fact that hamlet is still able to harbor and Oedipus complex. Furthermore, some people would argue that due to hamlet’s intelligence, he is unable to act quickly for he views the different outcomes that are possible from a single event, Jones would go on to argue that there are at least there objections to this; general psychological consideration and objectives evidence found in the play. From the play, one van garner that hamlet was indeed a man of actions and not indecisions. His killing of polonius, the death of guiildenstern and Rosencrantz, his scorn towards his enemies and Ophelia, all of these are facets of a character who is able to act, even if he is quite intelligent. To exemplify further, in the quote, “unhand me, gentleman by heaven, I will make a ghost of him that lets me;/ I say, away!” hamlet shows a clear train of thought in what he wants nor is there anything to show he isn’t fit to the tasks at hand. Goethe says hamlet is “ A lovely, pure noble and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burden which it cannot bear and must not cast away and I wholeheartedly disagree with this just as jones. There is no difficulty in the task. To kill Claudius, that is what hamlet must do. Where does the difficulty lie, if not within his own subconscious. Besides Goethe, other critics rose up to say that once again, the gravity of the task is what held hamlet back. Their argument being that had he killed hamlet outright then the nation would not support his actions. This being easily refutable by Claudius not punishing hamlet in his killing of Polonius.

Yet must not we put the strong law him; he ‘s loved of the distracted multitude, who like not in their judgment, but in their eyes” by this quote, already has the argument that the people would be against hamlet for killing polonius been struck away. Furthermore into Jones’s essay on Hamlet, he argues on historical criticism of Shakespeare. It is common knowledge that he named his son hamlet, and that the date of his father’s death is September, 1601 Jones’s argues that this death of his father would awaken “repressed” memories would, in turn be written into the play in the form of the character of hamlet. This view of hamlet by Jones gives a new light to the issue. In the heart of his argument towards hamlet having an Oedipus complex. Jones has linked the crime towards his mother and the crime towards his father as both having a significant impact on hamlet, but only the first has a true impact on him. As aforementioned, the Oedipus complex is repressed in individuals so in hamlet, he must either come to realize that he wants to kill his uncle, his mother’s husband who he abhors, and that this is the true reason he wants to, or that he must answer the call of duty and seek vengeance.

In the end, hamlet does neither throughout the play due to having to repress his innate, sub conscious reason and thus by repressing this one, he is also repressing the more obvious one which is to kill him for betraying his brother. In final closings of this knowing that the Oedipus complex is a repression of feeling towards the mother, looking at hamlet in this view gives the ideas that he does have this complex. During the play scene, hamlet can be seen as almost telling his mother off for her betrayal of him by his preferring to be beside Ophelia. It challenges her for being able to sleep with other men. Going so far as to say that hamlet not only envies Claudius for being with his mother, but for Claudius having the gall to carry out the murder and take his mom for himself. In the end, this great tragedy written by hamlet can be taken for its face value; that of a tragic hero fated to die at the end, or it can be seen as the story of a man who has repressed his feelings towards his mother and thus is unable to act throughout the play due to these repressed feelings keeping him from action for if he does act, he would be admitting to himself his jealousy of Claudius and his sexual feelings towards his own mother. Hamlet is neither the man described by other critics, that of one who’s task is too large for him to accomplish, or one who’s afraid of the people’s reactions. He is a man, like any other, who is tasked with killing the man who has killed his father and taken his mother. The difference lies in his inability to act due the repressions of feeling that he has towards his mother. Hamlet is a man with an Oedipus complex ever since William Shakespeare wrote hamlet, the question on everyone’s mind has been “ why did’nt hamlet kill Claudius when he had the chance? Some people believe that fear of punishment keeps hamlet from acting. Others believe that hamlet refuses to kill Claudius during prayer because that would send Claudius to a “heavenly” afterlife. Although at first glance these interpretations may seem valid, they are taken out of context. For example, hamlet has no qualms about sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths. As far as hamlet not killing Claudius during prayer, there are times when Claudius is alone in which hamlet could have killed him. If Claudius is alone long enough to be able to kill king hamlet without witnesses, surely hamlet himself could have found Claudius alone at some time. Its not fear that fear that keeps hamlet from acting. Hamlet delays killing Claudius because Claudius represents hamlet’s innermost desires to sleep with his mother Gertrude. And by killing Claudius jamlet would be killing a part of himself

Hamlet has the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius in act 3 scene 3. Why doesn’t he ? one interpretation is that hamlet fears that killing Claudius will automatically send Claudius to heaven without punishment hamlet himself remarks:

And now I will do’t. and so ‘a goes to  heaven; And so I ma revenged. That would be sanned:

A villain kill my father, and for that I his sole son

Do this same villain to heaven.

Hamlet may believe he is delaying he is delaying from fear of sending Claudius to a “heavenly” afterlife however, there are times when hamlet could have killed Claudius when he was not at prayer. According to lesser Claudius is not always well attended. In act iv. Scene 1 Claudius and the queen are able to confer privately simply by dismissing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. There are no attendants about. If Claudius and Gertrude are able to be alone, even for a few minutes, surely hamlet colud have seized an opportunity to kill Claudius, simply by having the queen sent away. There is another reason why hamlet delays killing Claudius, and hamlet himself is not even aware of it.

Sigmund freud, the father of modern psychology, was first to attribute hamlet’s delay to his oedipal complex. Freud’s discovery of the oedipal complex is based on Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. In this drama, Oedipus unknowingly murders his fathers sleeps with his mother. Through his research freud discovered that all men unconsciously desire to sleep with their mother. Freud also discovered that the human mind is composed of three distinct personalities- the id ego, and the superego.

According to booker:-the relationship between the oedipal drama and Freud’s tripartite model is quite clear and quite direct. The infantile mind is essentially the source of the id; the authority of the father, which triggers the oedipal crises, becomes the principal source of the superego by limiting the id based desire for the mother according to freud’s model of the human mind, hamlet’s oedipal desire to sleep with Gertrude stems from his id, and his desire to avenge his father’s death stems from his superego. What does this have to do with hamlet’s delay in killing Claudius ? in his the interpretations of dreams, freud remarks:

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.

Thus the loathing, which should drive him on to revenge, is replaced in him by self reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish.

Claudius represents hamlet’s id the part of hamlet that desires to sleep with Gertrude. King hamlet, however, represents hamlet’s superego,. The part of Claudius, hamlet’s id is gaining strength. This is what makes it impossible for hamlet to kill Claudius. The strength of his id is stronger than his superego, especially since his superego is dead. The strength of hamlet’s id is quite apparent in the scene between hamlet and Gertrude in act 3 scene 4 hamlet is berating Gertrude for her sexual behavior and the “ rank sweat of an enseamed bed “ at this moment king hamlet appears as a ghost. At this point, hamlet’s desire to sleep with Gertrude is at its strongest when hamlet’s desires are about to become conscious, king hamlet appears to prevent the desire from being realized. Hamlet remarks to the ghost, this revealing his guilty conscience of both his desire and delay:

Do you not come to tardy son to childe,

That lapsed in time and passion lets go by

Th’important acting of your dread command

O. say !

 Hamlet, replies to his father’s ghost

        Do not forget! That visitation

        Is but whet thy almost blunted purpose.

It symbolize that. Hamlet’s superego has gained and control of his id , thus enabling hamlet to get on with the business of avenging the ghost’s death.

      One thing which is noticeable that hamlet killed claudious  because gertude has now died. Because grtude is the medium of hamlet’s desire, now gertude is died so, his deep desire towards his also gone with her. we can say that desire is out of lust.

One thing is also noticeable just because of his attraction to his mother his internal mind does not allow him to harm his mother. so his ghost told him that  ‘don’t harm your mother’.  

ü Conclusion

                Hamlet himself does not that why he delays in killing his father’s murderer. That’s why any kind of interpretation can be possible. So earnest jones interpreted hamlet in a psychological approach.

Thank you……………….