Ernest Jones [HAMLET AND OEDIPUS]
Notes:
- Hamlet’s mysterious procrastination is a consequence of the Oedipus complex. He
continually postpones the act of revenge because he finds himself in this strange
psychodynamic situation.
- It is as if his devotion to his mother had made him so jealous of her affection that he
found it hard enough to share this even with his father and could not endure to share
it still with another man.
- Hamlet is being deprived by Claudius of no greater share in the Queen’s affection
than he had been by his own father, for the two brothers made exactly similar claims
in this respect - namely, those of a loved husband.
- What if Hamlet’s reason for procrastination on the act of revenge was because he
bitterly resented having to share his mother’s affection with his father, had regarded
him as a rival, and secretly wanted him out the way so that he could bathed in his
mother’s affection and attention undisturbed?
- Ophelia’s character (naive piety, her obedient resignation, and her unreflecting
simplicity) sharply contrasts that of the Queen’s, seeming to indicate that perhaps
Hamlet has unknowingly deviated towards the extreme opposite as he feels impelled
to choose a woman who should least remind him of his mother. [An unconscious
effort to attempt to wean himself off her?]
- “You give yourself to other men whom you prefer to me. Let me assure you that I can
dispense with your favours and even prefer those of a woman whom I no longer
love.” [Points unequivocally to the sexual nature of the under-lying turmoil.]
- Ophelia is sent to lure him on and then, like his mother, to betray him at the behest
of another man.
- When sexual repression is highly pronounced, as with Hamlet, then both types of
women are felt to be hostile: the pure one out of resentment at her repulses, the
sensual one out of the temptation she offers to plunge into guiltiness. Misogyny, as in
the play, is the inevitable result.
- He only acts on revenge when his mother dies [the idea that he has lost his mother
and her affection forever is the cause of revenge - not the death of his father, further
reinforcing the idea of him internally struggling in the psychodynamic situation].
- By refusing to abandon his own incestuous wishes he perpetuates the sin and so
must endure the stings of torturing conscience. And yet killing his mother’s husband
would be equivalent to committing the original sin himself, which would if anything to
be even more guilty.
- Ernest Jones is Sigmund Freud’s student.
Notes:
- Hamlet’s mysterious procrastination is a consequence of the Oedipus complex. He
continually postpones the act of revenge because he finds himself in this strange
psychodynamic situation.
- It is as if his devotion to his mother had made him so jealous of her affection that he
found it hard enough to share this even with his father and could not endure to share
it still with another man.
- Hamlet is being deprived by Claudius of no greater share in the Queen’s affection
than he had been by his own father, for the two brothers made exactly similar claims
in this respect - namely, those of a loved husband.
- What if Hamlet’s reason for procrastination on the act of revenge was because he
bitterly resented having to share his mother’s affection with his father, had regarded
him as a rival, and secretly wanted him out the way so that he could bathed in his
mother’s affection and attention undisturbed?
- Ophelia’s character (naive piety, her obedient resignation, and her unreflecting
simplicity) sharply contrasts that of the Queen’s, seeming to indicate that perhaps
Hamlet has unknowingly deviated towards the extreme opposite as he feels impelled
to choose a woman who should least remind him of his mother. [An unconscious
effort to attempt to wean himself off her?]
- “You give yourself to other men whom you prefer to me. Let me assure you that I can
dispense with your favours and even prefer those of a woman whom I no longer
love.” [Points unequivocally to the sexual nature of the under-lying turmoil.]
- Ophelia is sent to lure him on and then, like his mother, to betray him at the behest
of another man.
- When sexual repression is highly pronounced, as with Hamlet, then both types of
women are felt to be hostile: the pure one out of resentment at her repulses, the
sensual one out of the temptation she offers to plunge into guiltiness. Misogyny, as in
the play, is the inevitable result.
- He only acts on revenge when his mother dies [the idea that he has lost his mother
and her affection forever is the cause of revenge - not the death of his father, further
reinforcing the idea of him internally struggling in the psychodynamic situation].
- By refusing to abandon his own incestuous wishes he perpetuates the sin and so
must endure the stings of torturing conscience. And yet killing his mother’s husband
would be equivalent to committing the original sin himself, which would if anything to
be even more guilty.
- Ernest Jones is Sigmund Freud’s student.
