Analysis of Hamlet's Inability to Take Action
Analysis of Hamlet's Inability to Take Action
“So, what's up with Hamlet?” This is a question that’s been asked by many people about the character of Hamlet. Why was he unable to kill Claudius, even after his father commanded him to? Many people have their own explanations for Hamlet’s action, or rather in-action, in the play Hamlet, but I propose that Hamlet’s inability to act boils down to his Oedipus Complex. In Greek mythology there is a myth of a man named Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother. The psychologist Sigmond Freud developed the notion that some people can develop a sort of disease in which they want to do the same. Hamlet suffered from this complex, and this might just be the reason that Hamlet was incapable of action. The action that Hamlet was incapable of was of course killing Claudius. Previously, English scholars have debated that Hamlet was incapable of his action because of his cowardice, and thus Hamlet invented different excuses as reasons why he could not kill Claudius, but maybe that has less to do with it then you might think.
If Hamlet has the Oedipus Complex, he should want to kill his father and marry his mother. Perhaps the reason Hamlet couldn’t kill Claudius had nothing to do with him being incapable of murder. In the play, you can see some of Hamlet’s real character. Throughout the whole thing he was never a polite person incapable of violence and evil, in fact his tongue was quick with insults. Whenever Hamlet put on his antic disposition, he would spout out insults at those around him. He made Polonius out to be a fool. He signed the death warrant to his two old school chums Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He even sent his love, Ophelia, into a suicidal state of mind. No, the reason Hamlet couldn’t kill Claudius wasn’t that he couldn’t murder, but that he was angry with himself that he couldn’t kill his father first. Claudius did what Hamlet couldn’t do: murder Hamlet’s father and marry Hamlet’s mother. This made Hamlet jealous. But, Hamlet was a reasonable person.
While Hamlet still had the Oedipus complex, it had now been reverted onto his new father, Claudius. He still wanted to kill his father and marry his mother. The...