Hamlet's Oedipus Complex towards his mother linked with his profound feelings of melancholia are the direct roots of his other problems. What is the Oedipus complex and what is melancholia? To start, here is the definition of the Oedipus Complex. ... This is a direct cause of Hamlet's constant feelings of deep melancholia throughout the play. ... The king proposes a duel in which Hamlet will meet his "assured" doom. ...

• Word Count: 1687
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

"A was a goodly king." ... Fortinbras vows revenge on King Hamlet. ... This is why he decides to use the play within a play to provoke a reaction from Claudius. ... "I doubt some foul play." ... There is also a suggestion of the Oedipus complex, which would obviously have made Hamlet crave revenge even more. ...

• Word Count: 2360
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

In Shakespeare's play, the death of Old King Hamlet triggers different actions in its major characters; especially Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and to a lesser extent Polonius and Ophelia. ... Because of this tendency, psychologists have concluded that Hamlet must have suffered from an Oedipus complex (pinkmonkey.com). According to the renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, all males possess this tendency, which is marked by a desire to kill their fathers and marry their mothers; as occurs in the earlier Greek play of Oedipus the king. ... This weakness was copied from Thomas Kyd&#...

• Word Count: 1979
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

This is foreshadowed in the opening of the play; "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." ... The murder of Old King Hamlet has caused Claudius' mindset to become corrupted in order to control Denmark for himself. ... Shakespeare uses sexual imagery to signify Hamlet as a literary example of a child, who never overcame his Oedipus complex. ... At the beginning of the play, Claudius is appearing to be a good king in order to reinstate stability to Denmark after the death of their former king, Old King Hamlet, "Yet we with wisest sorrow think on him Together with remembrance of ...

• Word Count: 1108
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However this could be due to the fact that Gertrude is, more than any other character in the play, the antithesis of her son, Hamlet. ... Nonetheless, whether Gertrude lacks the Familial love Hamlet craves, or was too self involved to give it; it has a negative effect on Hamlet as it causes his passionate hatred for the new King. ... Their relationship throughout the play is strained; it is in the passage after Blanche's confession of the loss of Belle Reve that Stella starts to understand what actually happened and places Stanley above her. ... The film version of the play, ends very di...

• Word Count: 3412
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Undergraduate