Essay on Hamlet and the Oedipus Complex

Differently to what is thought nowadays, the Oedipus complex described by Freud goes beyond just the son 's desire to have sex with his mother. The Oedipus complex includes the teenager 's psychosexual idea of feeling jealousy, anger, and above all, competing with his father. Besides, Freud’s theory emphasizes that boys select their mother as their principal object of desire, and subconsciously wish to usurp or even murder their fathers in order to gain exclusive possession of her and become their mothers ' lover.

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

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

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 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

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

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

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).

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

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 tragic flaw of a human being is usually checked with the method he or she reacts with to the circumstances that life throws upon him or her. Contemporary society appears to be fixated on giving gatherings of people cases of such individuals who, in spite of the affliction of their lives, that still transcend. In fact, maybe nobody is more fit for indicating triumph over struggles than Sophocles and William Shakespeare. In both Oedipus and Hamlet, for example, the primary characters struggle with many obstacles and consequences and find themselves with unimaginable problems furthermore and are compelling to choose what the correct decision will be. This develops to Oedipus and Hamlet becoming motivated, courageous people and also becoming dishonest to themselves throughout the two books. Shakespeare and Sophocles’ plays show that sometimes when dealing with consequences and the obstacles there are different ways to react instead of leading to a tragedy. Oedipus and Hamlet’s motivation in dealing with problems is evident when the two primary characters want to find out the murderers of their father’s. Their courageous actions develop them towards having one goal, which was to kill the former King, and show courageous traits towards other people. They become dishonest to their themselves and is showed throughout the two books, which then causes misfortune for both of them in the end. Despite the resemblances of the two, Hamlet is in control of his activities, and he very

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

Oedipus and Electra complex in which the child unconsciously wishes to posses the parent of the opposite sex and rid themselves of the parent of the same sex. The result of this desire in boys would experience castration anxiety which would drive them to identify with their fathers. If there is no male figure in this stage of a child’s development it is thought that the child will have problems with authority figures later in life as he has never had the chance to conclude this stage. Freud’s explanation for the female development claiming that they would experience penis envy (a realisation they do not have a penis) they would eventually overcome by achieving motherhood and having their own baby. Latency stage from six years through puberty here the child will develop their confidence and mastery of the world around them. He believed that during this stage their experiences and excitations of previous stages are repressed and children develop infantile amnesia being unable to remember much of their earlier years. The Genital stage from twelve years upwards to adulthood is the culmination of the psychosexual development and the fixing of sexual energy in the genitals. This eventually directs humans towards sexual intercourse and the beginnings of the next cycle of life (Breger, 2009).

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.

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