PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HAMLET

The work 'Hamlet' presents characters with very particular traits that can be analyzed with the
theories of Sigmund Freud. As we can see in the case of Hamlet; he is related to THE
UNCONSCIOUS, due to having very impulsive actions and attitudes, meaning they commit acts without thinking about it.
good and by desire, as happened at the moment I accidentally killed Polonius for having hidden
behind the curtains. Returning to the topic of the unconscious, we can say that this is the source of our
motivations, whether they are simple desires, neurotic compulsions, or scientific reasons.
Hamlet exhibits feelings of anguish and indecision due to the great betrayal caused by his uncle for killing
his father and at the same time caused by his mother when she married his uncle. On the other hand, his indecision was provoked by
a mixture of hatred and revenge towards his uncle.
We can find another case of personality in King Claudius, he possesses a life drive and thereof,
to his desire to access the throne of king, for which he murdered his own brother.
These life impulses that are present in King Claudius perpetuate his life, and furthermore the energy
The motivational drives push our psyche towards desire or rather to 'I desire', this leads us
It means that each desire provoked by these so-called 'urges' gradually drives us to achieve the
satisfaction of desire as it happened to Claudio with the power and wealth of his brother.
Within this personality we also find the ID; this nervous system that will also be related
with people's wishes; this is a kind of translation from need to desire that is what has been given to
to know as a primary process. This process acts on Claudio at the moment of converting to his
need for power in a great uncontrollable and frustrating desire.
On the other hand, we have the personality of Gertrude, Hamlet's mother and queen of Denmark, in her we can
highlight THE MORAL ANXIETY; due to her betrayal and infidelity towards her deceased husband, she receives
accusations and reproaches from her son Hamlet for marrying her uncle once her father died. Gertrude
she feels guilty and ashamed for the actions she committed and above all, ashamed to think only of
maintain her position as queen. Given these attitudes, a 'moral anxiety' arises in her, which is that which
it provokes feelings related to the fear of punishment, to the guilt of our decisions, and to the shame.
It is a terminology that Freud related to those people who regret their actions and themselves.
guilt imposes on them a fear of punishment for their wrongdoing. It is quite evident in individuals who exhibit a
personality fundamentally constituted in 'THE IT', that is to say, those people who possess an ambition
personal; your very focused desire.
Finally, there is the character of Ophelia, who is Hamlet's beloved. She presents a degree of problems.
neurotics that then transforms into madness due to the loss of her beloved Hamlet and the death of her father
Polonius; we also find in this THE DEATH DRIVE, which arises because he begins to feel a
great anguish over the death of her father and the abandonment of the man she loved, this guilt is shown by Ophelia.
feels a great need to die, that is why he commits suicide by drowning in a river. The death drive that
it presents an idea that Freud postulated to explain that each person has a need to die for
some reason.
Ofelia is the one who within this work represents delicacy and kindness, her personality is characterized as
sincere, loving, and little by little it turned into a madness of love.
We can conclude by commenting that in this work, as we have seen, the second topic can be found.
Freud very easily.
William Shakespeare 'Hamlet'
Next, we must develop the play 'Hamlet' written by William Shakespeare:
This work deals with family betrayal and revenge.
Where the king of Denmark, father of Hamlet, dies and in his place his brother, Hamlet's uncle, ascends to the throne.
Claudio; who in turn marries Gertrudis, widow of Hamlet's father and his mother. Once it happened
Hamlet discovers all this through the ghost of his father, who had been murdered by his
brother Claudio, since he intended to take the throne. To achieve this, Claudio took care of
putting poison in his brother's ear, thus he achieved his objective.
In light of this, the ghost instructs Hamlet to take revenge without harming his mother Gertrude. Then
Hamlet decides to create a plan with two guards and his friend Horatio, the plan consisted of making themselves look like
the "madman", mistreating his beloved Ofelia and creating a theatrical work to be presented to the public in the
palace.
In this work called 'The Mousetrap', Hamlet wanted to express the murder of his father, upon seeing this, the king
Claudio gets angry and leaves.
At the end of the play, Hamlet takes his mother to another room to talk privately, where Hamlet...
blame their mother for having betrayed their father's memory by marrying their uncle. While they
They were talking, Hamlet notices a shape behind the curtains of the room and upon thinking that it was
Claudio, spying, decides to kill him, but mistakenly kills Polonius (the State advisor).
Claudio, furious with Hamlet, sends him to England to be killed along with two companions with a
letter to the king explaining that Hamlet should be executed, but the cunning Hamlet changes the letter
explaining that the guardians must be executed, this way he/she saves himself/herself from death.
During Hamlet's journey, his beloved Ophelia decides to commit suicide due to the death of her father, Polonius, and because of the
abandonment of her beloved Hamlet; given this, Laertes, brother of Ophelia and son of Polonius, intends to
take revenge on Hamlet and makes a plan with King Claudius, who entrusts Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a
duel in which their resentments will be dispelled, but Claudio, to ensure Hamlet's death, gives him a
poisoned sword to Laertes.
In the fight, Hamlet manages to fatally wound Laertes but at the same time Laertes manages to wound him with the
poisoned sword, both dying exchange weapons and as both have been wounded, they die,
but Hamlet, before dying, manages to kill his uncle Claudius in vengeance for his father.
After this, the queen accidentally drinks a glass of poisoned wine that was prepared for
Hamlet survives the duel and dies.
The theme of this work is revenge and honor. It represents a bit of society, how they intertwine.
these very good people and very ambitious people. It also represents the tragedy that can arise
to arrive thanks to revenge.

Hamlet: a psychoanalytical reading

Jeannette ~orn *
To be or not to be, that is the question; by the way, Lacan notes in his study on Hamlet that there is
A difference between being and having: the issue is therefore a matter of being; to be or not to be the phallus, to be it.
without having it corresponds to the feminine function. In the formations of the unconscious, Lacan points out
that in 'the second act of Oedipus: The father intervenes affectively as the privative of the
mother, in a double sense: in that she deprives the child of the object of his desire and in that she deprives the
mother of the phallic object. Here there is a substitution of the subject's demand when directing it towards another,
his law. The desire of each one is subjected to the law of the desire of the Other. It happens if the subject does not
does it accept this deprivation of the phallus operated by the father, over the mother? It maintains a certain form of
identification with that rival object, the phallus, the question that arises is this: to be or not to be the phallus.
The subject will choose or rather as the phrase, has been begun before him by his parents, to be so
passive as active9'.l "All of the above, says Lacan, suggests the echo of to be or not to be. This
formula gives us the style of Hamlet's position" Let's approach an aspect of Hamlet, as a
paradigm for thinking about obsessive neurosis. Oedipus means incest, Hamlet the
absence of castration. What happens then when there was none, when it was lacking? ... Something replaces the
absence. We could think that desire crosses us and we try to name it; we step out to
find it and we reach it in death. In the case of Hamlet whose pathetic existence unfolds
in the search for 'to be or not to be', 'to desire or not to desire'. He must commit the crime he could not
to perpetrate because another did it for him. Claudio's death will be the revenge; but revenge
What? In his death, a double metaphor will be fulfilled; that of the father's murder and his own death.
But will being be attained? Hamlet senses it; it is only after the father's death.
possibility to be: (to be), the death of the father? must Hamlet?, death? Killing the murderer will
rest the father; it will make him die, but he does not want to die. He appears as a ghost, like a
ghost, has a voice. It places itself in the position of the Other, exists for Hamlet. It once existed, but
remains as a voice that orders one death for another and, in addition, Hamlet's revenge.
We could say that when the father was absent or when his figure was so fragile, so absent, so
chaotic like in the case of the obsessive, when the paternal metaphor was present but was extreme
failed, its place is occupied by the distant voice of a ghost. The obsessive doubt could be
So it is posed with the unsettling question, did my father not exist? Or is it rather a paternal metaphor?
It existed, but is it on the run? Therefore, it is a ghost that must be crossed. To be or not to be also
echoes the ghost formula where ve1 has a 'o' slope that will mark the
oscillation, the impossibility of reaching the object of desire. Let's pause for a moment that the
Does obsessive make an analytical demand? That Hamlet takes a turn among the actors to
unmask the crime about which you have doubts? Create a story, recreate a pretext, seek the
text; symbolizes the meeting, the search, the voice-left, the voice that gives a truth. prevented to
Hamlet would have made a pact with the murderer, a peaceful life where he wouldn't have to
to take responsibility for his father's death? He would have everything at his disposal for a pleasant life.
But Hamlet wants to see the death of the Other, to execute the crime. Let's digress. Obsessive comes to
analysis to establish a desperate demand, asking the analyst to perform the function of
father; that is to say, to land the paternal metaphor that existed, but which is on the run and in which
Is there a ghost in the place? It demands castration from the analyst. It asks for help to pass, like
Hamlet, from thought to action. He also asks for a door, not so much to enter into
consultation, but to be able to escape from incest and be able to 'desire'. To be or not to be. Cessation of the escape from the
metaphor. Perhaps another way to put it is in the horizon of pleasure. The obsessive is very close.
of enjoyment ... it recreates thinking. From one ritual it jumps to another and another, with no possibility of limit;
testifies in that way his submission to the Other. which is so religious, even without belonging to one.
defined church? does it intend with the rituals? Does it perhaps aim to perpetuate pleasure; subordinate time and
space for enjoyment. Perhaps analyzing oneself represents for the obsessive the possibility of making it land.
the paternal metaphor, of undergoing castration, of being legislated and putting a limit to this enjoyment. Without
embargo, the only thing that can set a limit is pleasure. Castration, death, murder, pleasure...
To be or not to be. That is the question. To know or not to know what one does not want to know. What Hamlet must
to go look for "Su-el" the ghost of his father, because the ghost doesn't go look for Hamlet?, instead of
doing that leaves the mark of their presence in the gaze of others. At the moment when the
courtiers think of speaking to him, the ghost leaves. There is no voice... It appears and disappears... a
ghost to confuse with that being and not being so characteristic of the phallus? but at the same time
When that is not there, it becomes terrifying... is the Other to whom we call, is it terrifying?
speaks and does not listen? ... is it not then ghostly the absence of the Other and, in that sense, foundational
of the original ghost. Hamlet must go in search of his father's voice, in that place the
found sustained in a ghost without a body, only image. Fantasy, ghost ... listen
Hamlet for going to find, to cross his ghost?
Shadow, I am the soul of your father condemned for a certain time to wander at night and to
feed the fire during the day, until the clumsy crimes that are extinguished and purged
In life I committed. If I were not forbidden to discover the secrets of my prison, I could do you a
a story whose most insignificant word would horrify your soul, freeze your young blood, would act like
stars would jump out of your eye sockets and would separate your compact and curled locks, putting on
point each of your hairs like the quills of an irritated porcupine. But these same
mysteries of eternity are not for ears of flesh and blood ...
!Listen! !Listen! Oh, listen! Did you ever have love for your dear father?
Shadow! Avenge his infamous and monstrous murder!
Lacan in his writings points out: The sour grapes that the parents ate cause a toothache for the children.
that is why the son for whom those grapes are indeed too green for being the ones of disappointment
that bring him too often, as everyone knows, the stork will cover his face with the
mask of the fox.4
that the ghost points out to Hamlet his own offenses? crimes of which he cannot even
to speak, so as not to scandalize the ears of his son? but even more, he asks for vengeance for him
crime they committed with him. A murder for another. That is the phantasmagoric threat: the Other.
terrifying, omnipotent, malevolent, reckless that marks our lives for our crimes. The
ideal father who refuses to die. The obsessive gets lost there in criminal identifications.
Father? He will fall under the double vengeance for the crimes that his father committed and for which he...
The ghost's demand then becomes Hamlet's desire. To illustrate
this relationship between desire and demand, Lacan uses obsessive neurosis as an example: The
The location of desire is always ambiguous: beyond the demand, as it is torn from the ground.
from the needs, and beyond it as it relates to the Other and demands that it
recognize it as such. The obsessive is focused on desire, but in a not very obvious way,
Well, that desire is beyond the demand to which it points, it implies the destruction of the Other. A
An obsessive child has 'fixed ideas', certain demands that do not present themselves like the rest of
his demands seem intolerable to his parents, and they offer that unconditional nature of
desire and deny the Other. When the obsessive wants to breach the barrier of demand and seeks a
the object determined for its desire, the closer it gets to that desire, is always evanescent.
The obsessive constantly wavers between two demands: to preserve the Other, that Other that is
the essential condition for its own conservation as a subject and to destroy the Other. The clinic has
clearing that oscillation between a manifest destructive desire and the fear of the effects
destructive of a retaliation that comes from another. The obsessive shows and does not show, we call to
that ambiguity his fundamental aggressiveness. In fact, he places himself in an absolute dependency.
Regarding the Other. The 'solutions' that one achieves in the face of this dependency are known,
example: is always in a situation to ask for permission which constitutes a means to restore to the
Another position in danger, and a way to resolve the issue of the evanescence of his desire;
making it a supported desire, forbidden by the Other. In the same way, the theme of the feat:
the obsessive seeks to obtain the permission of the Other. In the name of their merits, at the same time,
that finding in it a means to tame a fundamental anguish. The Other as witness
only you can validate, your desire is the essential, what you want to preserve at all costs. We emphasize
Finally, how argumentatively organized the fantasies of the obsessive are.
They present as significant chains; rarely are they fulfilled or if they are fulfilled, they are disappointing.

Death, the decomposition of the flesh is the central theme of Hamlet.

From the first to the last scene, the shadow of death passes through the work. The horror of a
humanity doomed to death and decomposition, disintegrates the judgment of Hamlet. The
death is actually the theme of this work, as Hamlet's illness is mental death and
spiritual. Thus, in his most famous monologue, Hamlet focuses on the terrors of a life
future. The intellect without inspiration or vitality of a Hamlet who fundamentally thinks about the
passage of time; for him, the body disintegrates over time; the soul persists in time and
both are horrible. Their conscience thinking in terms of evil and denial of hell
but not from the sky. The intuitive faith or love or the purpose for which we must live if we want
to keep ourselves sane ... from these things taken from a timeless reality, Hamlet has been
despoiled mercilessly, therefore he expands on the obscenity of sex, the repugnant
decomposition of the flesh, the deception of beauty, be it of the spirit or the body, the torments
of eternity if eternity exists "The universe is a garden without scandal" "Or a prison", "The
the vault of the sky is nothing more than a pestilential congregation of vapors" "And man is only a
quintessence of dust, that awaits the worms of death." The silhouette stands out in the work.
of the pale Hamlet, dressed in black, who has seen what lies beyond benevolent smiles,
who has broken with the madness of love because he has discovered its ridiculousness and its deceit, who knows that
both the king and the beggar are destined for the same repugnant assembly of worms and
that even an indifferent but honest man is too vile to be dragging himself among the
sky and the earth. There is no fallacy in Hamlet's reasoning. We cannot choose this or
that of his bitterest words and to prove that it is false. The solitary and inactive figure of
Hamlet contrasts with the agitation and splendor of the court. Hamlet follows the orders to the letter.
diabolical order of the spectrum: goodbye, goodbye, Hamlet! remember me! (To God-To God!). This
Another terrifying thing is the one that asks for a death that is also terrifying. Hamlet remembers not only the
the ghost of his father, but all the death of which he is a symbol. What good will it do to kill Claudio? it will do nothing.
the honor of his mother? the life to the body of his father? to Hamlet himself who has lived for so long
In death, to find again a childhood joy with Ofelia's kiss? The woman for him
Obsessive is the one that must be confined in its purity or otherwise, if it is attractive or...
worrying has to repudiate it, keep it, distance it. If she promises to shine, if suddenly she radiates
the phallic brightness falls before Hamlet like a dishonored being. beauty, its phallic brightness is what
Do you want to turn it off?

Hamlet (Laughing) Yes, yes! Honest? Ophelia! Sir! Hamlet beautiful?

Wilson Knight
Ofelia wants to say your Lordship? Hamlet Yes, if you are honest and beautiful, your honesty does not
I should admit that dealing with your beauty is better trade than with
honesty? Hamlet Obviously; because the power of beauty will turn to the
honesty in a matchmaker long before the strength of honesty transforms the
beauty in its likeness. In another time this was a paradox; but in the present age it is a thing
You tested me. I loved you before, Ophelia! Ophelia Truly, sir, you made me believe that. Hamlet Well
you should not have believed me; because virtue cannot be grafted onto our old trunk without
I didn't love you!
The theme of Hamlet is death. Life destined for disintegration in the grave, the love that
does not survive the loved one: both, in their insistence on death as a primary fact of
nature, is marked with fire in Hamlet's mind, filling it with anguish. The sorrow
Hamlet and his consequent mental agony bordering on madness reflect the loss of love.
Death governs the entire work. Hamlet is obsessed with ideas about the putrefaction of
body. An element of Hamlet, of utmost importance, is the denial of all passion, whatever it may be.
so be it. His illness, his position is basically one of denial, of death. Hamlet is a
dead living in the midst of life. Finally, after many deaths that precipitate,
She, death, cruel and inexorable henchman, also reaches him. This is her mysterious strength.
the ghost's legacy, to which the others succumb. Hamlet gives throughout the entire play a faithful
testimony that death exists; and that he rejoices in it. Hamlet crosses the stage of life
with a ghostly halo; this halo is perhaps what Hamlet cannot forget, that is, what it
already paralyzed; paralyzed in death, pitied in death; that horrible death since
where life that gives birth is abhorred. Before concluding, it is important to point out, to avoid
mistakes, it's that Hamlet is not a clinical case, but a literary work and as such the structure
same as the desire.