Hamlet And Oedipus

Work Cited Jones, Ernest. "Tragedy and the Mind of the Infant."� Hamlet and Oedipus. Ontario: Penguin Book Canada LTD, 1976: 71-91 In the literary world there are many complex character which require delving into to find the true meaning of their words or actions. The writer and playwright, Shakespeare, is one author who gives the reader characters that call for more than just a glance. One of his most perplexing characters is Hamlet, who has been the subject of many a literary analysis. Ernest Jones, a student of the psycho-analytic school of thought, makes an examination of Hamlet's character in his book, Hamlet and Oedipus. Jones attributes Hamlets odd actions, inactions, and words to the Oedipus Complex. The Oedipus Complex termed by Frued, is a syndrome developed during infancy when the child develops an unnaturally strong affection towards the parent of the opposite sex while being envious of the other parent's position.

David Garrick in Hamlet, I, 4

Book signing and Hamlet Au's interview with Julian...

Hamlet

Jones believes that it is the repression of these feelings and the awakening of the repressed feelings, which drives Hamlet to seemingly mad outburst and keeps him from avenging his father's murder.

The erotic feelings which Hamlet since birth has been trying to repress are soon stimulated to struggle for conscious expression upon his father's death and his mother's second marriage. First his father's death stimulated his repression in that his unconscious wish for his father's death is granted. The desire to take his father's place "is stimulated to unconscious activity by the sight of someone usurping this place exactly as he himself had once longed to do"�(82). But it is soon seized by his Uncle, which further provokes Hamlet's repression in that his desire was fulfilled through someone else. Hamlet's underlying anger can be attributed to this stimulation because he feels as a "jilted...