Psychoanalytic Reading of William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet is not just the longest play written by William Shakespeare but it is also one that has inspired a number of psychoanalytic readings of the character of Hamlet. After seeing the ghost of his dead father King Hamlet at Elsinore, the Danish royal castle, Prince Hamlet, the protagonist of the play, is convinced that Claudius, his father's brother, has killed the king. Claudius has succeeded King Hamlet to the throne. He is now married to Gertrude, Prince Hamlet's mother and King Hamlet's widow. The ghost of King Hamlet urges Hamlet to take revenge and kill Claudius. However, throughout the play Hamlet hesitates to kill his uncle. His behavior becomes erratic and he is believed to have gone mad. Claudius becomes increasingly suspicious of Hamlet's behavior and plots to kill him by sending him on a diplomatic mission to England. However, Hamlet escapes this plot and returns to Elsinore where he, his mother, and Claudius are eventually killed in a climactic scene in Act 5 of the play.
As initially mentioned, Hamlet has inspired a number of psychoanalytic readings. One of the earliest of such readings was conducted by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. In Chapter 5 of The Interpretation of Dreams ([1900]) Freud writes, "Shakespeare's Hamlet is rooted in the same soil as Oedipus Rex. [...] In Oedipus Rex the basic wish fantasy of the child is brought to light and realized as it is in dreams; in Hamlet it remains repressed and we learn of its existence - as we discover the relevant facts in a neurosis - only through the inhibitory effects which proceed from it" (175). Freud's observations are significant in two ways. For one, Freud point out the parallels between the character of Hamlet and Oedipus who kills his father, becomes King and marries his mother. Freud posits that all men have an innate desire for their mother as a sexual partner and thus lo...