CRITICISM
Ernest Jones
Jones applies Sigmund Freud's techniques of psychoanalysis to Hamlet's character, asserting that
the prince is afflicted with an Oedipus Complex. This psychological disorder involves the
unconscious desire of a son to kill his father and take his place as the object of the mother's love.
According to the critic, Hamlet delays taking revenge on Claudius because he identifies with his
uncle and shares his guilt. Thus Hamlet's inaction stems from a "tortured conscience," and his
affliction is caused by "repressed" feelings. Furthermore, this theory accounts for Hamlet's speaking
to Gertrude like a jealous lover, dwelling on his mother's sexual relations with Claudius, and treating
his uncle like a rival. Significantly, the critic also claims that while his father's murder evokes
"indignation" in Hamlet, Gertrude's perceived "incest" awakes his "intensest horror." In addition,
Jones maintains that the prince suffers from "psychoneurosis," or "a state of mind where the person
is unduly, often painfully, driven or thwarted by the 'unconscious' part of his mind." This internal
mental conflict reflects Hamlet's condition throughout much of the play.
[The] whole picture presented by Hamlet, his deep depression, the hopeless note in his attitude
towards the world and towards the value of life, his dread of death, his repeated reference to bad
dreams, his self-accusations, his desperate efforts to get away from the thoughts of his duty, and his
vain attempts to find an excuse for his procrastination; all this unequivocally points to a tortured
conscience, to some hidden ground for shirking his task, a ground which he dare not or cannot avow
to himself. We have, therefore,… to seek for some evidence that may serve to bring to light the
hidden counter-motive.
The extensive experience of the psychoanalytic researches carried out by Freud and his school
during the past half-century has amply demonstrated that certain kinds of mental process show a
greater tendency to be inaccessible to consciousness (put technically, to be "repressed") than
others. In other words, it is harder for a person to realize the existence in his mind of some mental
trends than it is of others.
Bearing these considerations in mind, let us return to Hamlet … We … realize—as his words so
often indicate—that the positive striving for vengeance, the pious task laid on him by his father, was
to him the moral and social one, the one approved of by his consciousness, and that the "repressed"
inhibiting striving against the act of vengeance arose in some hidden source connected with his
more personal, natural instincts. The former striving … indeed is manifest in every speech in which
Hamlet debates the matter: the second is, from its nature, more obscure and has next to be
investigated.
This is perhaps most easily done by inquiring more intently into Hamlet's precise attitude towards the
object of his vengeance, Claudius, and towards the crimes that have to be avenged. These are two:
Claudius' incest with the Queen, and his murder of his brother. Now it is of great importance to note
the profound difference in Hamlet's attitude towards these two crimes. Intellectually of course he
abhors both, but there can be no question as to which arouses in him the deeper loathing. Whereas
the murder of his father evokes in him indignation and a plainPage 212 | Top of Articlerecognition of
his obvious duty to avenge it, his mother's guilty conduct awakes in him the intensest horror.
Now, in trying to define Hamlet's attitude towards his uncle we have to guard against assuming
off-hand that this is a simple one of mere execration, for there is a possibility of complexity arising in
Ernest Jones
Jones applies Sigmund Freud's techniques of psychoanalysis to Hamlet's character, asserting that
the prince is afflicted with an Oedipus Complex. This psychological disorder involves the
unconscious desire of a son to kill his father and take his place as the object of the mother's love.
According to the critic, Hamlet delays taking revenge on Claudius because he identifies with his
uncle and shares his guilt. Thus Hamlet's inaction stems from a "tortured conscience," and his
affliction is caused by "repressed" feelings. Furthermore, this theory accounts for Hamlet's speaking
to Gertrude like a jealous lover, dwelling on his mother's sexual relations with Claudius, and treating
his uncle like a rival. Significantly, the critic also claims that while his father's murder evokes
"indignation" in Hamlet, Gertrude's perceived "incest" awakes his "intensest horror." In addition,
Jones maintains that the prince suffers from "psychoneurosis," or "a state of mind where the person
is unduly, often painfully, driven or thwarted by the 'unconscious' part of his mind." This internal
mental conflict reflects Hamlet's condition throughout much of the play.
[The] whole picture presented by Hamlet, his deep depression, the hopeless note in his attitude
towards the world and towards the value of life, his dread of death, his repeated reference to bad
dreams, his self-accusations, his desperate efforts to get away from the thoughts of his duty, and his
vain attempts to find an excuse for his procrastination; all this unequivocally points to a tortured
conscience, to some hidden ground for shirking his task, a ground which he dare not or cannot avow
to himself. We have, therefore,… to seek for some evidence that may serve to bring to light the
hidden counter-motive.
The extensive experience of the psychoanalytic researches carried out by Freud and his school
during the past half-century has amply demonstrated that certain kinds of mental process show a
greater tendency to be inaccessible to consciousness (put technically, to be "repressed") than
others. In other words, it is harder for a person to realize the existence in his mind of some mental
trends than it is of others.
Bearing these considerations in mind, let us return to Hamlet … We … realize—as his words so
often indicate—that the positive striving for vengeance, the pious task laid on him by his father, was
to him the moral and social one, the one approved of by his consciousness, and that the "repressed"
inhibiting striving against the act of vengeance arose in some hidden source connected with his
more personal, natural instincts. The former striving … indeed is manifest in every speech in which
Hamlet debates the matter: the second is, from its nature, more obscure and has next to be
investigated.
This is perhaps most easily done by inquiring more intently into Hamlet's precise attitude towards the
object of his vengeance, Claudius, and towards the crimes that have to be avenged. These are two:
Claudius' incest with the Queen, and his murder of his brother. Now it is of great importance to note
the profound difference in Hamlet's attitude towards these two crimes. Intellectually of course he
abhors both, but there can be no question as to which arouses in him the deeper loathing. Whereas
the murder of his father evokes in him indignation and a plainPage 212 | Top of Articlerecognition of
his obvious duty to avenge it, his mother's guilty conduct awakes in him the intensest horror.
Now, in trying to define Hamlet's attitude towards his uncle we have to guard against assuming
off-hand that this is a simple one of mere execration, for there is a possibility of complexity arising in
