Examples Of Oedipus Complex Theory In Hamlet

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The Oedipus Complex Theory is a theory made by Sigmund Freud that implies that individuals have a unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex. Hamlet can be seen throughout the play portraying this type of behavior towards his mother. “Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him/ As if increase of appetite had grown” (1, 2, 143-144), this shows Hamlet’s discontent and frustration with his mother and father’s relationship. Sigmund Freud’s theory also states that individual show feelings of jealousy and anger for the parent of the same sex, which Hamlet displays in the lines 143-144. “She married. O most wicked speed, to post/ With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!/ It is not nor it cannot come to good,/ But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (1, …show more content…
Hamlet can be seen being invasive in his mother’s sexual life in this following quote also, “Nay, but to live/ In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed, /Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love/ Over the nasty sty—” (3, 4, 92-95), this is not normal colloquy between mother and son. The Oedipus Complex Theory also comes into play when instead of murdering Claudius for revenge of his father’s death, Hamlet murders Claudius to avenge his mother after she died from drinking the poisonous wine Claudius made. Despite the respect for his father and hatred for Claudius, Hamlet had always looked for his mother’s approval to murder Claudius. These pieces of evidence show that Hamlet had a deep sexual love for his mother that had kept Hamlet from murdering Claudius and avenging his
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