Hamlet Oedipus Complex Essay

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Hamlet Indecisive Personality: A Link to Oedipus complex and Other Causes
Introduction
This paper seeks to connect the causes of Hamlet’s indecisiveness with the theory of Oedipus complex, first postulated by Sigmund Freud, and the role of other characters and situations in Hamlet’s development of the personality trait. To achieve this objective, this paper analyzes William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. The approach to the subject of Hamlet’s indecisive personality and a possible association to Freud’s theory of Oedipus complex will be to connect the theory with the portrayed characters of Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play. Hamlet’s personality leads him to kill King Claudius, his uncle, and relate how various authors have interpreted the protagonist’s personal traits as a flawed trait common among most Greek tragedies. However, Hamlet does not grieve, mourn or admit his mistakes and shortcomings since he does not take responsibility of his actions. Prior to Ophelia’s suicide, he never expresses his guilt for his treatment towards Ophelia, and proudly boasts that he loved her more than her brothers did (Cameron 174). This scene introduces his obsession with incestuous relationships in comparing his love with Ophelia and that brother-sister, which is not sexual. Hamlet’s expression of resentment towards Gertrude, his mother, and an aggressive anger against Claudius, have resulted to the judgements of the audience that Hamlet has an indecisive personality. While a bulk of literatures depict the protagonists Hamlet with unresolved flawed personality trait of Oedipus complex, as evidenced in Laurence Olivier’s production of William Shakespeare’s tragic play Hamlet, this paper attempts to explore the role of other figures such as Claudius in Hamlet’s moral self-development that leads to his decision to slay his uncle.
In his adaptation, Lawrence Olivier’s film Hamlet builds around an insight into a relationship of mother and son to exploit the concept of Oedipus complex, a theory that was first coined by the Freud Sigmund to account for a child’s aggressive and sexual impulses concerning their parents, castration complex, and phallic monism (Hartke 893). Gertrude invites Hamlet, her son, to discuss about the King in her bedroom. Mistakenly, Hamlet murders Polonius, thinking that it is Claudius and a verbal clash spirals into physical abuse ad confrontation. Freudian theory becomes the fundamental reason for Hamlet’s decision to take revenge and revenge against Claudius, the man who killed his father. This aspect explains Hamlets indecisiveness in his personality, which, according to psychologists, is a normal developmental phenomenon. In “psychology of Hamlet” Cameron (161) attempts to show how a discussion that begins with Marcellus and Horatio about the appearance of a ghost resembling the King of Denmark later turns into a tragedy for all involved parties including Hamlet, except Fortinbras, Marcellus, and Horatio (Cameron 161). After Horatio hints Hamlet that he has seen a ghost of the King of Denmark, the protagonist exhibits no fear. Prior to meeting th...