The Mind Of Hamlet Through A Psychoanalytic Lens

The Mind of Hamlet Through a Psychoanalytic Lens To understand Freud’s perspective of Hamlet, it is important to note his theories and beliefs regarding the human mind. His psychoanalytic approach to psychology delves deep into a part of the mind called the “unconscious.” The unconscious mind reveals a person’s deepest unknown thoughts, feelings, and memories that are outside of conscious awareness. It unravels character complexes and archetypes found deep in the human mind. Freud’s interpretation of Hamlet through a psychoanalytic lens works because it explains Hamlet’s repressed feelings towards his mother, and his procrastination to avenge his father– his competition.

One of his theories used to analyze literature, especially Hamlet, is the Oedipus complex, which refers to Sophocles’s Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex. In the play, Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. Freud believed that the Oedipus complex began in little boys during the phallic stage of their psychosexual development, which is around four to five years old. He believed that boys of this age become aware of their sexual instincts, and needed to compete with their fathers for their mother’s attention due to their

Another one of Freud’s theories which is probably more prevalent in old literature is the Madonna/Whore Dichotomy. This is the belief that women can either be pure, innocent, and morally righteous; or they can be promiscuous whores. There is no in-between. A Madonna is a saint-like figure who upholds chastity, while a whore is a woman who acts upon her sexual needs. After Gertrude's marriage to Claudius, Hamlet’s view of women shifts, and he begins to see them as whores, which he projects onto Ophelia. He can never be satisfied by his mother because of her new marriage, and now he can never develop a love for Ophelia, and merely views her as a sexual