Archetypes In Hamlet

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“While reading literature in Jungian style, the central character is viewed as real, while most other characters are seen as symbolic representations of aspects of the hero’s unconscious self,”(Ellis-Christensen, Tricia, and O. Wallace). In Shakespeare’s Hamlet the main characters, Horatio, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Ophelia are all foils of young Hamlet. They each represent one of the four main archetypes; the shadow, the persona, the anima, and the true self. These characters allow the reader to get a more whole view of the hero, Hamlet. Carl Jung is a psychiatrist who worked with Sigmund Freud to delve into the human mind, and make a theory on how the mind works. There are two parts to Jung’s theory: the parts of the mind and the …show more content…
For Hamlet the King is a constant reminder of the things Hamlet wishes to repress. “When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestoues plesure of his bed, At a game a swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in’t”(3.3.90-93). This quote is from a aside in which Hamlet has his first opportunity to kill his uncle-stepfather however he refrains from killing him. Throughout the play Hamlet continues to have the chance to avenge his father, but time and time again he refuses to act. From a jungian lense this is seen as Hamlet allowing his demons to play out without committing the sins, and subsequently having to pay the price. “Still he does nothing; and this very speculation on his own infirmity only affords him another occasion for indulging it. It is not for any want of attachment to his father or abhorrence of his murder that Hamlet is thus dilatory, but it is more to his taste to indulge his imagination in reflecting upon the enormity of the crime and refining on …show more content…
After speaking with his ghost father Hamlet decides to pretend to have gone mad. Everyone around him, except Horatio, tries to determine if he has gone mad from love of Ophelia, or from grief for his father. Meanwhile Hamlet is gathering evidence and determining if the ghost spoke the truth or not, all the while contemplating if there is a reason to continue to live. Before Ophelia loses her father she is a meek and submissive character, “I shall obey, my lord.”(1.4.136). Likewise Hamlet agrees to stay in Denmark, and is otherwise a loyal and obedient son/stepson/nephew, “I shall in my best obey you madam.”(1.2.120). While both of these characters seem to be obedient children only Ophelia is sincere. Meanwhile Hamlet is contemplating the murder of his stepfather/uncle. Not long after this Hamlet begins his elaborate, and slow moving plan, of faking madness. After Hamlet kills Polonius and is banished Ophelia goes insane, and drowns herself in the river surrounded by her flowers. These roles of loving child and madman are both contrasting ideas, much like the two characters that are used as foils for each other. Shakespeare uses Ophelia to be Hamlet’s persona because the mask the main character is
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