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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
Being a student of Psychology, I really apreciate these questions about Hamlet and the Oedipus Complex. But I want to know what people really think about Oedipus Complex. As Mr.Hamlet said, you cannot think about the Oedipus Complex only as a lust for the mother and hate for the father. This happens only in Childhood, when the boy is about 4-6 years old. The Oedipus Complex is much more "complex" than this. Involves not only the lust for the mother, but also the fear of a retaliation (castration) by the father. Involves also a guilt feeling, not only for the incestous desire, but also for the death's desire against the father. In addition, the"lust-for-the-moter" is latent (unconscious), and cannot be observed by the "manifest" speech of a person. So, unless you can read the text searching for the latent desire, you will find nothing in the text that says that Hamlet has an Oedipus Complex.I also disagree with Mr. Justin Bacon, when he says that Hamlet's feelings for his father are the oppposite feeling of the Oedipus Complex. Yes, Hamlet loves his father, but it's a very idealized love, he thinks that his father was perfect, when, in fact, he was not. A high level of idealization of the father's figure is also a clinical "symptom" of the Oedipus Complex.
I sugest to people who want to do a essay about this topic to search for more information about the Oedipus Complex, instead of thinking it in a simplist way. If you are not familiar to Psychology or Psychoanalisys, I think it will not help to read the Complet Works of Sigmund Freud. But I think that a good reading, together with the book of Ernest Jones (Hamlet and the Oedipus Complex), is also The Intrepretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud. It's not necessary to read all the book, but just the pages about the "dreams about the death of dear persons" (chapter V, part D- beta). Please, get informed about the Oedipus Complex first, and only then make your decision if Hamlet has it or not!
P.S.: never forget that Hamlet is just a character of a play. He is not a real person and for this reason, we cannot "pshychoanalize" him. Even using the text, we can only make suppositions about him.
Posted by Cristina on March 20, 1997 at 19:59:54
In Reply to "Hamlet and Oedipus Complex" posted by Jake on March 19, 1997 at 17:02:32
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help