Summary 02/12/11

 

In studying Hamlet student should be able to recognize what makes Hamlet human. Tragedies and so also Hamlet, Prince of Denmark puts the man at the centre of investigation. All human beings have the same nature and Shakespeare uses Hamlet as a paradigm to show that fragility is a feature of the human beings. Besides tragedies shows men with their qualities and flaws; for example Hamlet’s flaw is procrastination because he temporizes to kill his uncle.

Shakespeare is a Renaissance man who wrote a story that reminds the idea of the Middle Ages because everybody knows the Middle Ages stories.

 

C.Marlowe – Dr Faust

 

Dr Faust is a drama written by Christopher Marlowe and it tells the story of a doctor who sells his soul to the devil. So one of the most important themes within the drama is the sin, a typical theme of the Middle Ages.

 

The relationship between Hamlet and his mother

 

The relationship between Hamlet and his mother is one of the most important themes of the tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

The first time that the two characters interact on the stage is after the death of Hamlet’s father and in their dialogue it is very important to underline the Hamlet’s departure from his mother, because he calls her “madam” and maybe this happens because he is not able to understand why she married his uncle Claudius. This last hypothesis is confirmed when Hamlet in Act III, Scenes IV, when he kills Polonius, says that this bloody death is almost as bad as kill king and marry with his brother. So Hamlet has not a good consideration of his mother and he is disagree with her choices.

 

The Oedipal Relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude

Exploration of Hamlet’s oedipal complex using Freud’s theories

 

Analysing the relationship between Hamlet and his mother it goes without saying that the Freud’s oedipal complex theory comes to mind. This theory states that the child takes both of its parents, but in particular one of them, as the object of its erotic wishes. The child feels desire for the parent of the opposite sex and creates a rivalry with the parent of the same sex.

In the play Hamlet shows great hostility toward his Uncle Claudius because his mother has married him, while he wants his mother’s attentions and so maybe he is jealous of Claudius because, killing the King, he has got what he wanted. Besides Hamlet considers his mother’s remarriage as disgusting and sees murdering Claudius a way of freeing his mother of an incestuous marriage as well as avenging his father.

 

Hamlet’s inner monologues allow the reader to understand better the nature of the oedipal complex within the drama; for example in the first act, scene one, Hamlet, thanks to the use of a soliloquy, states that his torment is caused by his mother’s remarriage and not by his father’s death. He thinks that this marriage is incestuous and he is not worried about his father’s death until he sees the ghost. It goes without saying that with his father’s death he believed that his mother should be his but Claudius takes his object of desire away from him.

 

Within Act three, scene four it comes on surface that the relationship between Hamlet and his mother is more sexual than the traditional mother son relationship because Hamlet makes numerous sexually allusions, in particular he makes allusions to beds, where most of sexual intercourses occur. The allusions come out in Hamlet’s rage because before he had repressed them and so in this scene Hamlet’s repressed sexual desire for his mother comes on surface as rage in a form of sexual allusions according to the Freudian point of view that states that the complex is doomed to repression but it is influenced by unconscious.

 

Moreover Shakespeare sets the scene in Gertrude’s bedroom because bedrooms are places where sexual activity takes place. Besides this place allows Hamlet to have a private conversation with his mother.