Study of Freud on psychology aspects on Hamlet. Or Hamlet madness.

In Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he defines the concept of the repetition- compulsion principle. Camden expands on this concept in Compromise Formations: Current Directions in Psychoanalytic Criticism. “The repetition-compulsion principle has rich clinical implications, includingthe need to repeat traumatic experiences for the purpose of mastery. Repetitions may be creative or destructive, depending upon whether they result in working through or acting out conflicts” (166). In Hamlet this repetition-compulsion is first achieved through the murder of Polonius, then consequently, through the murder of Laertes. It is ironic that Hamlet replicates the traumatic experience of losing a father for Ophelia and Laertes. Also, it is ironic that the only way that Hamlet can kill Claudius is by confronting his own Shadow which takes the physical form and nature of Laertes who is also avenging his father’s murder in a violent battle with Hamlet. One of the most complex facets in Hamlet is the replication and mirroring of several characters in the play.

The psychoanalytic argument expressed by Berryman supports the fact that Hamlet began to detest Ophelia because of her obedience to Polonius. On a subconscious level, it may have reminded him of Gertrude’s submission and obedience to Claudius. The women that were central in Hamlet’s lifewere submissive and obedient to other men. Coincidentally, after the murder of Polonius, Hamlet does not exhibit hesitation or guilt with respect to murder and death in all of its forms. This all becomes played out through various instances of replication and mirroring. This becomes apparent first throughthe murder of Polonius, then consequently through the suicide of Ophelia. Through a strange twist of fate, this pattern of Hamlet’s inability to murder Claudius results in the mirroring of Hamlet through Laertes. The idea of Laertes existing as a shadow or a reflection of Hamlet is most apparent when Hamlet kills Laertes. “In folklore, to lose one’s shadow is to be castrated or made infertile. In somelanguages, the same word does duty for ‘soul’ and ‘shadow’ so that images and reflections are also projections of the soul. One’s image or double may also be a rival, as son of father, the act of doubling is itself a reflex of the Oedipal theme” (Kermode, 227). The murder of Laertes is a symbolic, metaphysical, and quite literal interpretation of the death of Hamlet, himself. Subsequently, the replication and mirroring of Hamlet represents the ambivalent expression of Hamlet’s fate. This suggests that Hamlet was inevitably destined to avenge his father’s murder in the final hour before his own death through this complex, most indirect route of his own hesitation and indecision.

According to Bloom, “by the start of Act V, Hamlet no longer needs to remember: the ghost is gone, the mental image of his father has no power” (405). This would indicate that by this time Hamlet is acting on his own will when he murders Laertes and Claudius. Hamlet is also indirectly responsible for the murder of his mother. She mistakenlydrinks wine containing poison in a drink that was meant for Hamlet. Perhaps, by this time, Hamlet implicitly knows that Claudius is conspiring to kill him. Interestingly, Hamlet does not kill the one personhe expresses the most resentment towards, his own mother. After Hamlet kills Claudius, he says: “Herethou incestuous, murd’rous damned Dane,/Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?/Follow my mother”(Hamlet 5.2.277-279).

The fact that Hamlet kills Claudius when he himself is dying is an extreme example of therepetition-compulsion principle.“Freud linked the repetition- compulsion principle to a metaphysicaldeath instinct, an urge inherent in organic life to restore an earlier state of things which the living entityhas been obliged to abandon under the pressure of external disturbing forces” (Camden, 36). Although in Hamlet’s case these disturbing forces arise from an internal instinctual source rather than an external one, since Hamlet is experiencing conscious awareness of unconscious drives as well as guilt and fear of the unknown. It is remarkable that the play ends with Hamlet feeling a sense of victory and finality after the deaths of Gertrude and Claudius who represent the inner torment and imprisonment that Hamlet feels. The play comes full circle when Claudius and Gertrude die of poison just as Hamlet Sr. died of poison when Claudius murdered him. The climax of the play is when Hamlet dies after achieving redemption. The basic premise of the play is not a revenge plot, but rather a means through which order is restored. Hamlet’s life was not in vain, for the only way he can resolve his internal conflicts is to seek revenge and die in a state of pride and victory.