Hamlet

In his quest to claim power and command, Hamlet incorporates his father’s desires “to revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (I. Yet, as Jones states, “killing his mother’s husband would be equivalent to committing the original sin himself”. “Wretched Queen adieu” would be seen in Freud’s’ view as sign of reaction formation, which occurs when the ego unconsciously makes unacceptable impulse look like their opposites. Jones’s weaknesses partly attribute to the fact that Hamlet was not a real character and that Shakespeare could not replicate the Oedipus complex theory perfectly because Freud did not invent it at the time. In Act 3, Scene 4, Hamlet unleashes his childhood fantasies with his mother, revealing that his intention to kill Claudius is not to revenge his father, but for his lust for Gertrude, giving more reason for Hamlet to procrastinate on the murder. By allowing Claudius to live, he imagines himself in Claudius’s place, fantasizing Gertrude, while at the same time, he is suffering seeing another man sleep with her. However, this quote can be viewed as a strength to Jones’s view through Freudian theory. Through identification process, children’s superegos gain strength as they incorporate many of their parents’ values. Another weakness in Jones’s view lies in Act 3, Scene 4, when Hamlet kills Polonius, thinking it was Claudius. Since Hamlet is a fictional character, proving any point is difficult. The Oedipus complex brings up much debate resulting in Hamlet’s procrastination of Claudius’s murder. The last weakness to Jones’s view is when Hamlet says “wretched Queen adieu”.