Sigmund Freud- Hamlet

[BillCosby]

Hi, i am from malaysia, and i was wondering if anyone can share their opinion on how sigmund freud can reflect his theories on the book of Hamlet. I would post on the Hamlet section but it is kind of dead :p. Thanks alot, i already have the basics of Sigmund Freuds theory down, just wondering if anyone can share their insight.

Thanks Alot

[omegaxx]

Hi, i am from malaysia, and i was wondering if anyone can share their opinion on how sigmund freud can reflect his theories on the book of Hamlet. I would post on the Hamlet section but it is kind of dead :p. Thanks alot, i already have the basics of Sigmund Freuds theory down, just wondering if anyone can share their insight.

Thanks Alot

I think that two essays by Freud stand out in importance, "Psychopathic Characters on Stage" and "Creative Writing and Day Dreaming". "Mourning and Melancholy" and "The Uncanny" may also be useful, I imagine.

To summarize, I believe Freud sees Hamlet as a neurotic fixated at the stage of positive Oedipus complex. His repressed desires are to commit incest with his mother and displace his father.
Claudius, in murdering Old Hamlet and marrying Gertrude, thus becomes the projection of Hamlet's own repressed desires. Furthermore, as Claudius is now Hamlet's new father, Hamlet may safely directly the death wish against him without repression.
Hence Claudius becomes the outward projection of the Id which Hamlet may safely punish as though punishing himself for his illicit feelings toward his mother and against his father. Also, in killing Claudius, Hamlet is satisfying his own patricidal impulses (also unconscious).
We as audiences are supposed to appreciate the play because we also have our Oedipus complexes. The play, in bringing the complex up under numerous guises of poetry and drama, thus evades the Superego and gives our repressed desires a way to satisfy themselves imaginatively. Freud uses this to account for the play's popularity.

I don't really agree with any of the above. I'm just putting on my psychoanalyst's mask:D

[MiZz XxClUsIvE]

Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious motivation: people are often unaware of their motives and why they do the things they do. "Freud saw Hamlet in a developmental crisis and introduced the notion of a “negative identity.” Hamlet, as a delayed adolescent, is in search for loyalty and fidelity to an identity which he seeks by playing and trying different ones. The frequent references to playing, his feigned madness, his sympathy for the players, and his appreciation for Horatio’s sincerity would all be signs of an adolescent in search for an identity. The player in Hamlet, the one seeking revenge, is not what he likes to be." but hamlet doesn't really know why he acts the way he does, so by putting Freud's theory into play it would help explain hamlets actions. but this is just my opinion on the subject, you should do some researching, because it'll probably be more accurate.