Oedipal Complex Essay

The essential component to any catastrophe, Greek or Shakespearean, is a hotshot with a fatal daub. In Greek tragedy this is called hamartia. This Latin term translates immediately into the word flaw that is usually used to describe an excess of a personality sign virtue or vice ( spelunk 68). The protagonists fatal flaw pushes the the plot and spicy up to of the tragedy forward. It is this tragic flaw, which leads to the eventual d causefall of the character, his circumstances, and the denoue manpowert of the drama.In examining the bulk of the literatures protagonists, no opposite character embodies the essential role of the flawed protagonist like village. With bulge out the flaw there would be no drama, and no irony and would have ended dismally with a mind of utter frustration and inadequateness (Wilson 236). Many critics moot that settlements fatal flaw is his Oedipal Complex. Sigmund Freud and The Oedipal Complex The Oedipal Complex was first unquestion sufficie nt by Sigmund Freud. The theory revolves around the concept that individuals have a hidden desire for versed interaction with a foster of the opposite sex.At the same time the child feels a contenderry with the parent of the same sex. It may be that Freud named the oedipal complex after the infamous king of Thebes non because Oedipuss childhood experience mirrored the develop lesson phase he described save simply because Oedipus was readily graze adapted as a earthly concern who violent deathed his generate and had sex with his female parent. (Sugiyama 121). Freud intensely studied juncture, and wanted to be cognize as the firearm who diagnosed critical points mental disorder.He writes, in The Interpretation of Dreams, the play is seems to be nigh hamlet seeking revenge for his male parents finish up, but Shakespeare, at heart the text of the play, does not show a reason for why hamlet waits so long to kill Claudius. Freud states According to the ascertain which was originated by Goethe and is still the prevailing one today, Hamlet represents the type of man whose power of direct action is paralyzed by and excessive development of his intellect. (98). Ernest Jones Interpretation of Hamlet Dr. Ernest Jones offered one of the first indepth presentations of the theory that Hamlet suffered from the Oedipal Complex.He asserted, in Hamlet and Oedipus, The story thus interpreted would run somewhat as follows As a child Hamlet had experienced the warmest affection for his mother, and this, as is always the case, had contained elements of a more or less dimly defined erotic quality (98). There are two qualities which the fagot has which supports this reasoning. Shakespeare get windably shows her sensual nature. He also explains that she has a great deal of intense sleep together for her son. Jones believes The former is indicated in too many places in the play to need specific reference, and is generally recognised (98).Hamlet is a study of the powerful influence of infantile sexuality on the patterns of unconscious thinking in the lives of adults. (MacCary 114). Hamlets fatal flaw is his Oedipal complex which leads to indecision. The rising action, falling action, and resolution, in Hamlet, sack be attributed to the alkali of indecision. Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is a bright young man with many talents. He is an academic, a witty orator, and a flawless actor. Certainly, he has the potential to do anything he wants which may have included, in the future, cosmos the King of Denmark.His adroitness for all things calls into question why there is a great delay between Hamlets decision to avenge his fathers murder and the actual revenge. Hamlet laments oer his indecision O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew Or that the Everlasting had not bushel His canon gainst self-slaughter O God O God How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world ( Act I, sc ii) He continues, condemning his mother for leaving his father and more importantly choosing Claudius over him Within a month, Ere even the salt of most unrighteous tearsHad left the flushing in her galled eyes, She conjoin. O, most unsporting speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets It is not, nor it cannot come to superb. But break my heart, for I must represent my tongue (Act I, sc ii) Knowles, in his article Hamlet and Counter-Humanism, states Hamlets fathers death, his mothers concupiscence and hasty marriage to her husbands murderer, produce a grief and detest of such a profound degree that a sense of be created by emotion estranges him from the earlier identity of a princely role (1046). This grief is compounded by Hamlets oppress romantic love for his mother.The Problem Revealed Hamlet Identifies with Claudius It is Hamlets Oedipal Complex which leads to indecision and the reevaluation of his choice to kill Claudius. Claudius was able to ki ll Hamlets father and sleep with Hamlets mother. He was able to do what Hamlet could not. Hamlet is living out his Oedipal fantasies through Claudius (Joseph 26). Killing him would end Hamlets fantasies. Hamlet is disgusted by his mother marrying his uncle. In Conscience of a King, Bertram Joseph (28) believes that Hamlet showed all the signs of a noble and well up-balanced sanguine temperament. Joseph assumes that Hamlet is not experiencing insanity and he is in perfect mental health the embodiment of everything a good Elizabethan should be. Incest was not acceptable in Elizabethan times. When reflecting on the thought of his father and mother sleeping together, Hamlet states Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him, as if increase of appetite had gr sustain. He wishes he does not remember how his mother hung onto his father. His uncle and mother married at a most wicked speed and now sleep in incestuous sheets. The real interpretation may be that his belief system is causin g his anger.However, Hamlet goes on to say It is not nor it cannot come to good But break, my hear, for I must hold my tongue. Hamlet is not upset over his fathers death but is jealous because his mother choose Claudius (her brother in law) instead of Hamlet (her son) to marry. Hamlets high-mindedness Defined Hamlet actions should not attributed to mental illness but a repressed desire for his mother. Thomas MacCary asserts, in Hamlet A Guide to the Play, Shakespeares Hamlet, has its root in the same soil as Oedipus Rex. the secular advance of repression in the emotional life of humans (104).He continues thats In Hamlet it remains repressed and just as in the case of a neurosis we solo learn of its existence from its inhibiting consequences. . . . Hamlet is able to do anything except take vengeance on the man who did away with his father and took his fathers place with his mother, the man who shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized (MacCary 105). Hamlet b elieves fully that men were born good and were meant to do good things. His organic belief system contrasts strikingly with the reality and corruption of the world when he returns home and his own fantasies.He comments on the state of Denmark and more specifically his fathers house, Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed Things rank and uncouth in nature possess it merely (Act I, sc ii). He is disgusted not just by his home community but the evil which existed in his family. Upon the realization that the world was cruel, and that he will never actually be with his mother, he describes life as a prison (Act II sc ii). He finds it difficult to resolve his illusions of what he feels and what he should feel.It is his Oedipal Complex and the living out of his fantasies through Claudius which allows him to conceal his thorniness while his internal moral will pressures him to avenge his fathers death. Hamlet attempts to use logic, a typical idealist characteristic, to determine what course of action he must take (Gresset and Samway 7). Shakespeare uses Hamlet to issue new and revealing insights into the evolving Renaissance codes of honor, for Shakespeare creates characters in Hamlet that represent various stages in the evolution of a changing honor system.(Terry 1070). Hamlet struggles with idea that he may be a coward for his inaction and a sinner for his cardinal thoughts. Despite his nightly supernatural chat with the soupcon of his dispatch father, he is still unsure if justice should be done by his own hand. Fendt comments, in Is Hamlet a phantasmal Drama? An Essay on a Question in Kierkegaard, that The plot shows Hamlet to be a first class detective he uncovers a criminal who has committed a perfect crime, and only in his more scholarly moments of soliloquy has he time to consider despising himself (60).Fendt makes a good point in that Hamlet has to figure out for his own peace of mind what truly happened to his father. He understands that if Claud ius did kill his father he must kill Claudius. He understands that in a world of lies it was stark to tell truth from fiction, and a sinner from a saint. Hamlet states, the native hue of resolution is sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought(Act III sc i), and concludes that the death of Claudius must be establish on justice not emotional revenge. Therefore, Hamlet must have independent proof that his uncle murdered his father.Other Shakespearean plays exploit the device of the play-within-a-play as a form of recognition token, (234) comments Cave in Recognitions A have in Poetics. Cave is correct, play with in plays is a common bill used by Shakespeare. It is also the only way Hamlet, besides direct conformation, is going to be able to tell if Claudius is guilty. In addition Hamlet is able to prolong his Oedipal fantasies. It is for this reason that Hamlet invites players in to actualize a murderous play to ferret out the truth from his mother and new father.Symptoms of Oedip al Complex within Hamlet Shakespeare slowly reveals Hamlets complex through a series of subtle yet functional hints. Claudius comments on the relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude The queen his mother lives almost by his looks (Act IV, sc vii). implying an unnaturally close interaction between the two of them. This shows that Hamlet must have a place within his mothers life. His deep desire for his mother attributes to his inability to love Ophelia. Hamlet is displace to Ophelia because she, in some ways, resembles his mother.It is for this same reasons that Hamlet takes out anger for his mother on Ophelia. This accounts for Hamlets mistreatment of Ophelia throughout the play. Polonius believes that Hamlets is love sick over Ophelia and that is why he is going mad. horse parsley Welsh, in Hamlet in His Modern Guises, believes that Polonuis diagnosis of Hamlets madness as being due to unrequited love for Ophelia was not so far from the mark, and he certainly recognized that his sad condition was of sexual origin. Thus Polonius had the right idea though the wrong woman (Welsh 138). change surface the ghost urges Hamlet to Let thy soul contrive against they mother (Act I, sc v) and give up his desires for her, so that Hamlet can avenge his fathers murder. In it within Act III, that Hamlets Oedipal complex is directly seen. John Mills, in Hamlet on stagecoach The Great Tradition, states He was openly ignominious to Ophelia and Gertrude in the play icon, delivering the sexual innuendos loudly enough for the whole court to hear(Mills 236). In this scene Hamlet is hiding in her closet, watching her carefully. He confronts his mouhter about the murder of his father and speaks explicitly about her sexuality.He screams This was your husband. Look you now, what follows Here is your husband like a mildewd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? And batten on this moor? Ha have you eyes? You cannot call it love for at your age The hey-day in the blood i s tame, its humble, (Act III, sc iv) He explains that she could not love Claudius and that his father would not approve of her choice. He continues on, with the plays most explosive dialog Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stewd in corruption, honeying and making love Over the dire sty, (Act III, sc iv)It is important to note that this scene takes place in the Queens bedroom. The conversation presentd Hamlet and Gertrude essentially in bed together and hints to a sexual relationship. Hamlet confronts his mother with his sword displace which Freud considered a phallic symbol (Maccary 114). The conversation between Hamlet and Gertrude, is not a son lecture to his mother. Hamlet speaks like a jealous lover chastising his girlfriend for sleeping with a different man and making their bed enseamed. The Queen is intensely upset and actually asks Hamlet to help her figure out what to do.At this point when Hamlet should have told her to confess, he urges her to stop her relationship with Claudius, Not this, by no means, that I bid you do Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed (Act III, sc iv). Hamlets jealous orders restrictive his mother from being sexual with his father, making all Queens attention to be given to Hamlet. Fantasy Becomes Reality Hamlets inability to understand the motives of evil in actions and thought can also be attributed to his sole rattling(a) viewpoint. He does not understand why anyone would commit murder and therefore he is uncertain that he had ability to violently kill a man.Murderous revenge represents everything that Hamlet is not. Hamlets rational intellect allowed him the pellucidity of mind to understand both the good and bad in the act of the revenge and perhaps what his dead on target motives for waiting are. The mental degradation of Hamlet, is believed to be insanity by the other characters but it was clear to the audience that he is merely coming to terms with what he believes to be right. Hamlet is a religious man and murder was a sin. Hamlet is a man of unadulterated philosophy and revenge is not rational.In The Mind of Man in Hamlet, Levy writes In Hamlet, man is still the rational animal, but a revolution in understanding the operation of thought occurs. Hamlet is a man of classical philosophy and revenge is not rational (Levy). Choosing to appear mentally impair is good strategy because if the characters believe he is unwell, he will not be able to figure out the true. Hamlets true character remains unblemished. Hamlet is a man who believes in chivalry, and slaughter is not gentle. Hamlet is trying to be worthy of the times in which he lives is not so far in essence from the protagonists of Greek drama.His fear of the risk of damnation is not something that can be called a moral flaw yet it acts like one, paralysing his will, making him behave like a coward (Joseph 129). It is those idealistic qualities which causes the postponement of Claudius death. It is in the momen t that Hamlet allows his emotion to dominate over his intellect that Claudius was killed. He is consumed by the thoughts of his fathers demise and is haunted by the knowledge that his fathers soul will not be able to rest until his death is avenged. Hamlet willfully concludes, My thoughts be bloody or be nada worth (Act IV sc iv).It is then that Hamlet finally had the ability to suppress his idealistic nature, and do what is right. The murder is not a well planned scheme and occurs in the heat of the moment. Hamlet, after the murder of Claudius never once wavers in his decision. He has done what is right and believes that There is a special prudence in the fall of a sparrow (Act V sc ii). Oddly enough fatalism is part of idealistic theory and therefore Hamlet always remains true to himself and his idealism. This also further supports that the Oedipal Complex can be applied to Hamlet, because he succeeds in killing his father (Claudius).Jones comments And we have assumed as well th at the final murder of Claudius also represents, in its actual psychological significance, the murder of the mothers husband, do possible by the theme of vengeance for the father. This is the basis of the drama (124). The act of killing his mother, even directly, could symbolize the act sex. Therefore, Hamlet has finally succeeding in attaining his subconscious need to have a sexual relationship with his mother. Conclusion Hamlets indecision caused his desire for his mother makes him the perfect tragic protagonist and leads to theme of indecision.Reta Terry, in her journal article Vows to the Blackest Devil Hamlet and the Evolving Code of Honor in archaean Modern England, believes Hamlets tragedy is, in part, that he is forced to attempt to balance these rival ethical legacies as he struggles to remain honorable (Terry 1). Without his intense regard for the ideals of truth, justice, goodness and beauty being in conflict with his most basic physical desires there would be no play. His fatal flaw of indecision and his desire to sleep with his mother create a moral dilemma which the characters, and plot revolves.Even Hamlet, the academic, comments on the presence of hamartia in human nature. He states oft it chances in particular men That for some vicious mole of nature in them, As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty, By the oergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace, Shall in the general censure take corruption (Act 1, sc 4). Hamlet continues late in the resolution of the play, though I am not spleenative and rash Yet have I in me something dangerous (Act V. sc i.)Critics believe while Hamlet is Normally not rash at all, he is capable of extreme rashness when provoked extremely. The something dangerous is the proud impatience that there is in his otherwise noble sense of public mission. (Elliott 25). Freud states Hamlet is able to do anything but take vengeance upon the ma n who did away with his father and has taken his fathers place with his mother the man who showed him in realization the repressed desires of his own childhood (101). The pain which should have caused him to take immediate revenge was replaced by pity for himself.Freud continues by conscientious scruples, which tell him that he himself is no better than the murderer whom he is required to punish (102). It is Hamlets idealistic nature mismatched with his pragmatic circumstances of his Oedipal Complex, that creates the ultimate theme and driving force stinkpot all the rising action, falling action, and resolution of this tragedy.Works CitedCave, Terence. Recognitions A Study in Poetics. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1988. Croxford, Leslie. The Uses of Interpretation in Hamlet. Alif Journal of Comparative Poetics (2004) 93+.Elliott, G. R. Scourge and Minister A Study of Hamlet A tragedy of Revengefulness and Justice. Durham, NC Duke University Press, 1951. Fendt, Gene. Is Hamlet a Relig ious Drama? An Essay on a Question in Kierkegaard. Milwaukee Marquette University Press, 1998. Gresset, Michel, and Patrick S. J. Samway, eds. 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