Oedipus Complex in Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet is one of the greatest tragedies of all times, having been put into film and play on numerous occasions throughout the past centuries. Aside from its current popularity, the play is also intriguing since it enjoyed immense success immediately after being written, a rare situation for other plays.
Hamlet, by the full name of the tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is still a mystery today and depicts scenes of love, passion, hatred and pure madness. In the play, the real and the metaphysical realms coexist as the people -- some of the characters -- see ghosts -- the ghost of the deceased King Hamlet. The ghost speaks to Prince Hamlet, the son of the deceased king and informs him that he -- the king -- had been poisoned by Claudius, his own brother, who had, meanwhile become the new king and wedded Gertrude, the queen…...
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References:
De Berg, H., Freud's theory and its use in literary and cultural studies: an introduction, Camden House, 2003
Macmillan complains of Freud's inability to accept his own influence on people's behavior or on the development of rather questionable theories: "he never accepted that influences transmitted unconsciously from him to them had important effects upon what they claimed to recall about the origins of their symptoms" (Macmillan 73). Freud has often forced his observations to fit his hypothesis and thus there is no way to validate his conclusions. There is no empirical studies conducted by him to support his theory on 'Oedipus Complex' instead what we get is series of generalizations based on Freud's rather dubious observations. This is proven by those who have cross-checked the validity of Freud's claims. For example his theory of superego and ego which he connected with 'Oedipus Complex' were based on nothing more than some anecdotal evidence and vague ideas as Esternon found:
[Freud] observes that the ego's 'three tyrannical masters are the…...
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References
Nuttin, Joseph. Psychoanalysis and Personality: A Dynamic Theory of Normal
Personality. Trans. George Lamb. New York: Sheed & Ward, Inc., 1962.
Webster, Richard. Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books, 1995.
Fine, Reuben. The Development of Freud's Thought: From the Beginnings (1886-1900)
Sigmund Freud believed humans early on in development had a sexual need. This was seen through his perspective of desire and emotion within the unconscious part of the human mind. To Freud, sexuality is a key component to human personality and thus plays an important role in a child's development. This is evidenced in Mary Williamson's article, "The importance of fathers in relation to their daughters' psychosexual development". Essentially, daughters develop their sexuality based on their interactions with their father. By having formed a sexual attraction in a metaphorical sense to the father, without the mother's intervention, a daughter can properly develop a satisfactory gender or psychosexual identity.
The beginning of the article is a rather lengthy introduction explaining how the information provided came to be. Williamson attempts to explain her intentions within the lens of various psychoanalytic approaches covering the father-daughter relationship. She also states that the formation of a…...
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References
Shoaib, M. (2014). Electra Complex in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Lapis Lazuli -An International Literary Journal, 4(1), 169-173.
Smart, J. (2012). Disability across the developmental life span: For the rehabilitation counselor. New York, NY: Springer.
Williamson, M. (2004). The importance of fathers in relation to their daughters' psychosexual development. Psychodynamic Practice, 10(2), 207-219. doi:10.1080/14753630410001699885
Oedipus is one of the most famous names in Greek mythology. His name has become both a psychological complex as well as a familiar joke. His story has come to be a synonym as well for the capriciousness of fate. But a truer picture of the character of Oedipus suggests that, rather than being an unwitting victim, Oedipus a clear hand in his own demise. Despite its reputation, Sophocles' play "Oedipus the King" is a tragedy of character rather than of an innocent condemned by fate. Oedipus' tragic flaw his confidence and his arrogance that he understands what is happening to himself and his city. Of course, Oedipus really understands nothing.
The play begins by Oedipus, king of Thebes talking to his "children" or citizens, bemoaning the fact that Thebes is now under a plague. (ines 1-5, source from iterature and Ourselves) The priest tells Oedipus, "Now we pray to you.…...
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Later, the young man Oedipus found his way to the capital and freed Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx. He did so as a confident action, confident of his own intelligence where other men had failed and been killed by the cursed monster. As a gift, Thebes gave him the hand of Laius' widow, Jocasta. This is where the term 'Oedipus Complex' comes from, according to the Gale Online Encyclopedia of Psychology. Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) "describes a subconscious feelings in children of intense competition and even hatred toward the parent of the same sex, and feelings of romantic love toward the parent of the opposite sex. He felt that if these conflicting feelings were not successfully resolved, they would contribute to neuroses in later life. The name "Oedipus" refers to Oedipus Rex, the classic Greek play by Sophocles, which tells the story of Oedipus, who is abandoned at birth by his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta. He later comes back and, as foretold by prophecy, kills his father and marries his mother before finding out his true identity. Freud saw in the play an archetypal dynamic being played out, and so coopted the character's name for his description."
However, Freud's passive Oedipus has little to do with the active Oedipus of the text. Perhaps a better reading of Oedipus is provided by Michael Pennington, who states, "The Oedipus complex is...inappropriate to the play. Oedipus sleeps with his mother and kills his father circumstantially, proving only his political sense and a violent temperament." (Pennington 100) Pennington states that it was simply astute of Oedipus to marry Jocasta, he did not do so out of desire. Oedipus chose to free Thebes of the Sphinx out of intelligence and ambition. It takes a particular character of man to act out of anger and kill an older individual in a dispute of early Greek 'road rage.'
It also takes a particular kind of individual character to blind himself. Oedipus' stated reason
The fact that most men sublimate this feeling, and instead identify with their father to obtain the maternal figure in the form of another woman, is the reason the Oedipus myth was generated in the first place.
Freud's theory was popular not only 'on the couch' but in literary theory. Ernest Jones suggested that it is the reason Hamlet cannot bring himself to kill his uncle: "Now comes the father's death and the mother's second marriage. The long 'repressed' desire to take his father's place in his mother's affection is stimulated to unconscious activity by the sight of some one usurping this place exactly as he himself had once longed to do… the two recent events, the father's death and the mother's second marriage . . . represented ideas which in Hamlet's unconscious fantasy had for many years been closely associated" (Jones 98-99).
Regardless of the merit of Freud's theory, Freud's…...
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Works Cited
Dunkle, Roger. The Classical Origins of Western Culture, the Core Studies 1 Study Guide.
Brooklyn College Core Curriculum Series. Brooklyn College, the City University of New York, 1986.
Jones, Ernest. "The Oedipus-Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery:
A Study in Motive." The American Journal of Psychology. January, 1910
He complains that his name "is now begrimed and black" (3.3.384) and fears that Desdemona has made him a "fixed figure for the time of scorn" (4.2.53). His fears might be those of any man, insecure in his position, concerned about how he is viewed. Thus, both heroes are true to life in that each has his own particular faults, like any man.
Aristotle's fourth condition of the tragic hero is "consistency: for though the subject of imitation…be inconsistent, still he must be consistently inconsistent" (43). As Aristotle suggests, both characters are inconsistently consistent, though in their own ways. Oedipus bounces from being high-minded, caring and affectionate to being almost simple-minded, careless and angry any time his pride is pricked. For example, even when the evidence all points to the truth of what the priest says, Oedipus is reluctant to admit it; yet when his wife tries to undermine what…...
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Works Cited
Aristotle. Poetics. (trans. By Gerald Else). MI: University of Michigan Press, 1970.
Print.
Lattimore, S. "Oedipus and Teiresias." California Studies in Classical Antiquity,
Oedipus: A King of Multiple Archetypal Meanings, as well as Multiple Tragedies
"hat walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?" In answering the question to the Sphinx's riddle with the word 'man,' "Oedipus the King" of Sophocles seals his fate. He will marry the widowed queen of Thebes, having unwittingly dispensed with his father during a roadside brawl. Perhaps because the answer to this riddle so perfectly embodies Oedipus' own struggle, this character's answer has a special poignancy for the reader or viewer of the play. Oedipus began his life crawling on all fours as one of the lowest of babes, retrieved by a shepherd shortly after being abandoned at birth. In the noontime of his life, he was raised high as a king, standing on two legs. Then, after being exposed as a parricide and of having engaged in…...
Oedipus Exemplifies or Refutes Aristotle's Definition of a Tragic Hero
Aristotle's, the Greek philosopher definition of a tragic hero and tragedy has been influential since he set these definitions down in The Poetics. These definitions were viewed as important during the Renaissance, when scores of writers shaped their writings on the works of the ancient Rome and Greece. Aristotle asserted that tragedies follow the descent of a tragic hero or a central character, from a noble and high position to a low one. A tragic hero posse some tragic flaws, which cause his, fall from fortune, or turnaround of fortune, and to some point, the tragic hero realizes that his own mistakes have caused the turnaround of his fortune. Aristotle also noted that the tragic fall of a hero or a central character in a play stirs up fear to the audience or the reader given that the audience sympathizes…...
In this sense, the time and setting of these two plays are less significant because each of the two addresses universal questions of fate, destiny, free will, and the meaning of life, which are as current today as they were over 2000 years ago, when Oedipus Rex was written, for instance.
The arker Face of the Earth reflects many of the themes and plot elements that also occur in the ancient Greek play by Sophocles entitled Oedipus Rex. In both cases, although the protagonists are faced with challenges by the powerful forces of destiny, their fate is direct consequence of their choice regarding the exercise of free will. Both Augustus and Oedipus are victims of their own bloody choices. Because their actions are no longer controlled by rational thought, they exercise their free will poorly hence they must accept the consequences of their actions and suffer the painful fate that…...
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Dove, Rita. The Darker Face of the Earth. Story Line Press, 1996
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Pocket, 1994
Vellacott, P.H. "The Guilt of Oedipus." Greece & Rome 2nd Ser., Vol. 11, No. 2. (Oct., 1964): 137-148.
Oedipal Hamlet
Of all the great works of illiam Shakespeare, arguably his masterpiece is Hamlet. It is also perhaps his most famous work. People who have never seen a production or read it still have a vague understanding about the play's basic plot. This is of course the story of a young prince of Denmark who is mourning for his recently dead father, also named Hamlet who may or may not have seen his father's ghost who claims the king was murdered by Prince Hamlet's Uncle Claudius. The uncle has very quickly taken control of the Danish throne and married Hamlet's mother Queen Gertrude. In the five hundred years since it was first written, Hamlet has been analyzed and criticized by some of the top minds in academia, in fields such as English, Psychology, and History. The play is rich enough to lend itself to a wide range of interpretations,…...
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Works Cited
Childers, Joseph W., and Gary Hentzi. The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism. New York: Columbia UP, 1995. Print.
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Tr. James Strachey. Avon, NY, 1965. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New Haven: Yale UP, 2003. Print.
For Oedipus to be considered successful, then, he would have had to challenge his own fate and succeed, rather than enact it entirely according to what was set out for him. In Hamlet, on the other hand, the enemy is tangible and human in the form of Hamlet's uncle, and thus Hamlet is able to confront and vanquish him. Thus, Oedipus represents a kind of ignorant struggle against the ideological forces which control anyone in society, a struggle that can never succeed so long as those forces remain indistinct and ephemeral. Hamlet, on the other hand, demonstrates a pointed struggle against some of the very same tendencies, but in this case, they are identified, named, and thus exists the potential for overcoming them.
Though written in wildly different historical contexts, Sophocles Oedipus Rex and illiam Shakespeare's Hamlet actually have a lot to say about each other, because the titular characters…...
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Works Cited
Gillespie, Gerald. "Swallowing the Androgyne and Baptizing Mother: Some Modernist Twists to Two Basic Sacraments." The Comparatist 33 (2009): 63-85.
Searle, Leroy F. "The Conscience of the King: Oedipus, Hamlet, and the Problem of Reading."
Comparative Literature 49.4 (1997): 316-43.
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Shakespeare Navigator. Philip Weller, 2012. Web. 28 Feb
Ignorance in Oedipus ex
The toll of ignorance and deception on Oedipus ex
Ignorance plays a major role in the fates of several characters in the Greek tragedy Oedipus ex. In the play, ignorance is not only contained to the characters and their backgrounds, such as Oedipus and Jocasta, but also to the former Theban king, Laius. Because of their complex relationship with each other, and the lies that Laius told Jocasta, the truth about the relationship between Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius remains a mystery until a messenger informs Oedipus of how he truly killed his father and assumed the throne in his place. Oedipus' and Jocasta's ignorance of their true relationship prior to becoming king and queen of Thebes was caused by Laius' ignorance of destiny and his (failed) attempt to defy a prophecy.
In the play, many, if not all, the tragedies that befall Thebes and the Theban throne are a…...
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References
Sophocles (n.d.). The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles. Trans. Paul Roche. New York: Meridian
In this, the individual does soak up the behaviors of those he or she is associated with. Yet, this is out of mimicking others behavior, with no regard for self gain. On the other hand, Bandura placed more emphasis as development being based on a balance between the environment and one's internally set goals. From this perspective, the individual mimics behaviors that lead to the achievement of certain goals, specifically engineering a more personal purpose to what is learned.
Bandura can also be seen as contrasting the theories of Jean Piaget as well. Once again, the two place a huge role on the nature of social environments on learning and development. Still, there are clear differences. First, there are clearly issues in regards to when the stages of development actually occur. The two present different age ranges for the important stages. Then, there is the increased importance of the social…...
Freud Concepts of Instincts, Drives
Desires, instincts, and drives are central to Freud's psychoanalytical theory. Although Sigmund Freud altered his theories throughout the course of his career, the core concepts of instincts and drives remain relatively constant. Freud first expressed the basic human instincts as being hunger and sex. Later, his theories matured, and Freud deeply analyzed the nature of human sexual drives. In his writings, Freud focused much on the conflicts that generally arise between the individual's innate instincts and the rules and mores of the society. All human beings continually struggle through various stages of their psycho-social development to restrain and express their desires, drives, and instincts. Freud framed these conflicts between desire and civilization into two major groupings: the conflict between sexual drives and civilization; and the conflict between self-serving happiness and civilization.
Freud's views on human sexuality are notorious and controversial. His Oedipus complex and other theories of…...
He questions whether he should try to clear the court of corruption or just give up and end his life now. It is this emotional doubt that drives Hamlet to act deranged at times, but he overcomes it, and almost manages to answer the difficult questions posed in his life. In Act V, when calm returns, Hamlet repents his behavior (V, ii, 75-78) (Lidz, 164).
In Lidz's book Freud is quoted as saying "that if anyone holds and expresses to others an opinion of himself such as this [Hamlet's "Use every man after his desert, and who shall escape whipping?"], he is ill, whether he is speaking the truth whether he is being more or less unfair to himself." Though Hamlet has proved his intellectual stability, he is quite obviously emotionally "ill."
This emotional illness and uncertainty is why Hamlet procrastinates in the killing of Claudius. On his way to see…...
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Works Cited
Babcock, Weston. A Tragedy of Errors. Purdue Research Foundation 1961.
Charlton, Lewis. The Genesis of Hamlet. Kenniket Press, Port Washington, NY 1907.
Elliot, T.S. "Hamlet and His Problems." Sacred Woods. 1920.
Leavenworth, Russel E. Interpreting Hamlet: Materials for analysis Chandler Publishing CO, San Francisco 1960.
Sigmund Freud's psychodynamic approach revolutionized the field of psychology in several ways:
1. Introduction of the Unconscious Mind: Freud's theory emphasized the role of the unconscious mind in shaping human behavior and experiences, challenging the prevailing belief that behavior is solely driven by conscious thought. This introduced a new perspective on the complexity of human psychology.
2. Development of Psychoanalysis: Freud developed the technique of psychoanalysis, a method of exploring and resolving unconscious conflicts and emotional issues through dialogue with a trained therapist. This laid the foundation for modern psychotherapy and counseling techniques.
3. Emphasis on Childhood Experiences: Freud's psychodynamic approach highlighted the....
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