Psychological, historical context Hamlet

Question 1

What are Hamlets main flaws?

Answer 1

1. Harmatia= Excessive, rumination of ethics, morality, reaching epistemic certainty. Leads to paralysis, inability to reconcile thought and action.

Epistemic certainity (knowledge/ truth)

Question 2

What are Hamlet’s key traits?

Answer 2

1. Excessive rumination of philosphical matters.
2. Intelligent, Introspective, self-analysing to a fault
3. Moral perfectionist, puritan, absolutist, repressed
4. Dualistic (torn between forces)
5. Nihilistic, disillusioned

Question 3

How does the oedipus complex express in Hamlet?

Answer 3

• Freud saw this complex manifest in Hamlet’s preoccupation with the mother and hatred for Claudius.
• His obsession with Gertrude’s sexual relationship with Claudius is disproportionate and revealing.
• Hamlet’s hesitation to kill Claudius= result of unconcious identification. Claudius has done what Hamlet secretly desires. Killed the father and possessed the mother.

Question 4

How does Freud’s theory of death drive (Thanatos) express in Hamlet?

Answer 4

• Preoccupation with death/ suicide.

Question 5

How is Freud’s triad represented in Hamlet?

Answer 5

• Hamlet’s Id= represented by his raw, primal instincts
• Superego= Moral conscience (conflicts with Id)
• Ego= Mediates between the id and supergo. Paralysis= Ego caught between Id/supergo.

Question 6

Name 2 literary archetypes that Hamlet symbolises.

Answer 6

• Tragic hero
• Renaissance man (interested w/ science, nature, individualism)

Individualism- grapples with questions of personal morality and individual duty,

Question 7

How can you apply Jung’s archetype theory onto Hamlet?

Answer 7

• Hamlet’s shadow is evident in his repressed rage, cynicism, guilt.
• Hamlet’s internal conflict can be seen as a battle between these archetypes (hero vs shadow)
• Not just a journey of external revenge but an internal struggle for psychological integration.
• Claudius- exernalisation of Hamlets shadow? A figure of curroption Hamlet must confront to restore balance.

Shadow Archetype: Represents the darker, unconcious aspects of the self. Often manifesting as repressed desires/ negative traits.

Question 8

What is the shadow archetype?

Answer 8

• Represents the darker, unconcious aspects of the self.
• Often manifesting as repressed desires/ negative traits.
• Hidden from the conscious mind because they conflict with a person’s ideal self-image.

Question 9

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 9

• Freud suggested that sons experince unconcious sexual desire for the mother and hostility towards the father.

Question 10

What is Freud’s theory of the death drive (Thanatos) ?

Answer 10

is the instinct toward self-destruction, aggression, and the return to an inanimate state. It exists in opposition to the life drive (Eros)

Question 11

Can u name 3 ways in which Hamlet’s character reflects the times in which the play was produced in.

Answer 11

1. Renaissance Humanism: Hamlets introspection reflects the influences of RH. Emphasises indiviudal though, human potential, introspection. Unlike traditional Medieval thinking (fate/will)
2. Religious tension/ uncertainty: Fear of life after death
3. Skeptism= Questioning nature of truth, justice, reality itself, mirror contemporary debates influenced by thinkers like Montaigne. Reflects the era’s growing skepticism about the reliability of outward appearances/ traditional authority, especially in religion and politics.