Hamlet And Oedipus Similarities

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Hamlet is seen by some scholars to have an Oedipus Complex. Sigmund Freud wrote that Hamlet had hidden desires to sexually enjoy his mother. Freud created the ‘Oedipus Complex’ which shows that all men have an unconscious desire to have sexual relations with their mother.Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, unknowingly to him. Oedipus and Hamlet were seen as similar characters as they were both loyalty, and in the eyes of Freud, wanted to love their mothers. Hamlet holds intense feelings for his mother as displayed throughout the play. This could possibly be seen as a way for Hamlet to replace his father after his death. Hamlet reveres his father and plans to avenge his death. Through the visions of the ghost, Hamlet…show more content…
And according to Freud, they are even closer alike because of their unconscious love for their mothers. The difference in their lives, however, is that Oedipus has actually physically been able to love his mother, and even has had several children with her. Hamlet, on the other hand, only is able to love his mother from a far and through his actions. Hamlet can be seen as a character who would avenge his father’s death. He plans his revenge slowly to get back at Claudius for loving his mother. John Kilgore wrote in an article discussing the possibility of Freud’s analysis and went further into analyzing Hamlet’s love for his mother. He does this by reviewing the ‘closet scene’. This scene is described by Kilgore as Act III, Scene IV when Hamlet kills Polonius during a private conversation with his mother. Kilgore discusses how different interpretations of the play deal with the emotions between both Hamlet and his mother. Depending on the play, Hamlet could be in love with his mother, or just feel for her as only his mother. Kilgore can be agreed with when analyzing that directors today seem to show Hamlet to be more affection for his mother as a lover. He humorously describes these modern scenes as containing kissing, touching and holding that can be thought of as Hamlet getting to ‘second base’. Kilgore supports the idea of the Oedipus…show more content…
The tapes I have been viewing confirm the conventional wisdom here…” (Kilgore 4). The new plays, however, can be seen as a way to further develop on the possibility of Hamlet’s possible complex. The introduction of this idea does not make directors throw out common sense, but instead brings out the questioning of the viewers to see the play in their own beliefs. Kilgore watched Lawrence Oliver’s Hamlet which began the whole contemporary sexual tension between Hamlet and his mother as theorized by Freud. Beginning with Oliver’s Hamlet, the closet scene stays sexually tension filled throughout future iterations of the play. Franco Zefirelli’s iteration of Hamlet makes the scene seem ‘orgasmic’ in Kilgore’s eyes. Hamlet pushes his mother on the bed, and while reciting his lines holding her down, she seems to shake. Kilgore describes this scene as uncomfortable to the viewer as it has them question why it is happening (Kilgore 4-6). However, in modern films, leaving the audience questioning has been growing. Different forms of this method appear in movies such as cliffhangers, confusion and constant plot twists. This is no different from those methods as it leaves the audience pondering to how Hamlet feels and to whether
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