The Main Focus Of The Play Is Hamlet’s Obsession With His Mother: Ideas Of Sigmund Freud And William Hazlitt

Sigmund Freud’s coinage of the Oedipus complex is a theory many critics tend to address when writing about Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Rather than centre their attention on the Aristotelian tragic elements of the play or the mistreatments and problematic relationship with Ophelia, critics seem far more enchanted by the sickening psychoanalytic approach and concern themselves with the intricate web that is Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationship. Shakespeare repeatedly uses the language of “incest” to sow the seed that there is a fundamentally sinister and sexual factor in their relationship. Indeed, this could have been coincidental as psychoanalysis was yet to be discovered or perhaps, he is attempting to expose the perverse nature of intimate relationships in aristocratic court. Despite the psychoanalysis of the play being largely important when it is discussed, the key elements that hold greater value to the understanding of the play are feminism and tragedy.

For Freud, and other psychoanalytic critics, the play’s driving force is essentially desired. He argues in “Psychopathic Characters on the Stage” that the audience both revels and resists psychopathic inclinations. In spite of Hamlet Senior’s directive to “leave her to heaven” Hamlet insists on obsessing and, indeed, becoming increasingly violent and contentious about his mother and her relationship with his uncle. Moreover, one could argue that his fixation is undoubtedly sexual since the language Hamlet repeatedly uses seems to centre on “incestuous sheets” and the sexual endeavours his mother encounters on. From a psychoanalytic approach, this would signify to the volcanic bubbling of Hamlet’s id, a subconscious obsession and persistent desire to claim Gertrude for his own.

For many other critics, many issues, as well as controversies, arise from the play that hold a greater importance than the “incestuous” relationship with Hamlet and Gertrude and one of them is feminism. The portrayal of Shakespeare’s female characters and the plots surrounding them are considered as anti-feminist due to either the role that the women play or how they were referred to within the text. The root of this belief is the women in Hamlet, Gertrude and Ophelia, are given demoted opinions and roles within the play. The play is from a male-centred viewpoint thus it exclusively focuses upon the male characters and their experiences instead of assimilating the view and impacts on women. This leads to the assumption that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet with the need to display male dominance. Subsequently, Hamlet could be perceived as a rivalling test towards feminist approach because some academics believed that Shakespeare wanted to make the world aware of the belittlement of women.

Although the psychoanalytic approach to the play is vital to the character development of Hamlet, the play’s true engine is its Aristotelian tragic elements. Without all the different critical lenses, this play is simply a tragedy. A tragedy usually consists of a tragic hero with a hamartia; Hamlet’s being his indecision. Hamlet’s numerous soliloquys debating “to be or not to be” epitomise his indispensable character trait that is eventually his downfall, which is what the play is truly about. A critic, such as William Hazlitt, agrees and says “still he does nothing” and describes Hamlet as the “prince of philosophical speculators”.

The main focus of this great play will always be its tragic melancholy everyone in Denmark seems to be plagued with and how that suffocating plague causes people to react. Whether its Hamlet’s “antic disposition” or Gertrude’s “incestuous” marriage, the country of Denmark lost their king before the play started in an unrighteous manner and this play is simply about how that affected the country. Psychoanalysis and feminism will always be critical viewpoints for understanding the depth of this play and the relationships within it but fundamentally, it is a revenge tragedy about a boy who had many troublesome thoughts. As William Hazlitt said, “it is we who are Hamlet”, he is a relatable character and that element is the true, essential engine of this play.