Vol. 4 Issue 10 – Research Paper: ‘A Psychoanalytic Study of Pivotal Characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth’ by Jay Mehta

Abstract

Psychoanalysis; fathered by Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), is primarily a process for the analysis and therapy of neurosis. It has altered the course and content of twentieth century literature. Interestingly, Freud derived some of his concepts from literary works like ‘Oedipus Rex’ etc. Often mired in controversy, Freudian ideas resulted in a redefinition of the ‘human’. Questions have frequently been raised regarding its veracity. The researcher intends to construe the applicability of Psychoanalysis as a literary theory for the study of two of Shakespeare’s most remarkable tragedies: Hamlet and Macbeth. The characters of these plays have been analyzed from the perspective of psychoanalytic criticism as they are the goldmine of the traits of psychological studies. Be it Hamlet or Macbeth, Ophelia or Lady Macbeth, there have been several character traits in them which have been the focus of critics and scholars world over. The current paper is an earnest endeavor to take a fresh look at them from the prism of Freudian theories of psychoanalysis.

A Psychoanalytic Study of Pivotal Characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth

From the times immemorial, literature and psychology – the two universal aspects of human life go hand in hand. We can look at the behavior of characters in a play in the light of modern psychological knowledge and if their behavior confirms what we know about the subtleties of the human mind, we can utilize modern theories as a means of elucidating and interpreting the work.

Psychoanalysis developed by Dr. Sigmund Freud, is a rather detailed and complicated theory of personality and motivation, of what makes people do what they do.

According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,

 “Any of a number of the theories of the human personality, which attempt to examine a person’s unconscious mind to discover the hidden causes of their mental problems”

One of the most popularized psychoanalysts of all time was Dr. Sigmund Freud. Pramod K. Nayar observes:-

“Freud’s work, often the subject of much controversy and attack by feminists, homosexuals, and others, resulted in a radical redefinition of the human. He demonstrated that the human is not really a rational creature. The human is subject to desires and fears over which s/he has no control. There are deeper recesses of the mind that cannot be governed and may ‘erupt’ given the right circumstances.” (Nayar, 317)

Freud’s theories on repression most directly explicate Hamlet’s actions in Hamlet. This theory states that much of what lies in the unconscious mind has been put there by consciousness, which acts as a censor.

Psychoanalytic criticism is a sort of literary criticism that analyzes and classifies many of the forms of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature.

Literature is an art which efficaciously manifests the thoughts, feelings and attitudes of universal humankind. Shakespeare, being a towering figure in the arena of English literature is no exception to this feature. On the contrary, he has done it with unparalleled excellence and panache.

To quote his own character Hamlet in Act-III Scene-2

“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action… for the purpose of playing is to hold the mirror up to nature.”

(Jenkins, 288)

His characters, and those of tragedy, in particular, have been the bull’s eye for the intensive and extensive study among the critics regardless of time and place. Myriad psychological concepts, conflicts and disorders find their expression in the tragedies Viz. Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. Let’s have a bird’s eve-view of some of them.

The Oedipus complex pertains to infantile sexuality by elucidating that sexuality starts at infancy with the relationship of the infant with the mother. This concept assesses that the infant has the desire to discard the father and become the sexual companion of the mother. The Oedipus complex, Freud explained diligently, was the heart of the neurosis and the foundational source of all art, myth, religion, philosophy, therapy—in fact of all human culture as well as civilization.

In the interpretation of Freud’s disciple Earnest Jones, Hamlet is the victim of an oedipal trauma. In analyzing Hamlet, the Oedipus complex is clearly apparent to the reader. As a child, Hamlet always expressed the warmest fondness and affection for his mother. This adoration contained elements of disguised erotic quality, especially noticed in the bed chamber scene with his mother. The Queen’s sensual nature and her passionate fondness of her son are two traits that show her relationship with Hamlet goes beyond the normal mother-son relationship.

Hamlet’s emotions which were favorable and pleasing at infancy are now emotions of abhorrence and disgust because of his repressions. The incestuous marriage of Claudius and Gertrude resembles Hamlet’s imaginary idea of having an erotic relationship with his mother. These unconscious desires are struggling to find conscious expression, without Hamlet being the least aware of them.

In Act-I Scene-5 of the play, when the ghost unearths the conspiracy of his murder allegedly involving Gertrude, Hamlet pours out his frustration about both his mother and Claudius in such a manner,

“O most pernicious woman!

Oh villain, villain, smiling damned villain!

That one may smile, and smile and be a villain;”

(Jenkins, 222)

Such psychological disorders resulting from mental disturbance are also  in Macbeth.

Compulsive obsessive disorder is an abnormal state of mind in which the subject is unconsciously forced to involve in an activity repeatedly. This, usually, is an outcome of some emotional turbulence and needs a clinical treatment. e.g., in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth plots to assassinate Kind Duncan and instigates her husband to turn her plan into reality. In Act-V Scene-1 however, she is much tormented by her guilt and believes that her hands are stained with blood. It is revealed in her lunatic behavior as,

“Out, damned spot, out I say!

Here’s the smell of the blood still,

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!”

(Verity, 70)

Hallucination, again, is an unusual psychological condition of having a vision of something which is not actually present. Such sight is available only to the victim which others fail to comprehend.

Visions and hallucinations recur throughout Macbeth. In the second act, when he is about to eliminate Duncan, Macbeth notices a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood and pointed toward the king’s chamber, the dagger stands for the macabre course on which Macbeth is about to embark. He is in two minds whether that dagger is an offer of help to him or is it just ‘a false creation’ of his ‘heat oppressed brain.’

On top of that, Macbeth beholds Banquo’s ghost sitting in a chair at a feast, piercing his conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered his former friend. In Act-III he freaks out,

“Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves shall never tremble.”

(Verity, 46)

‘Pathological Jealousy’ is a jargon of the clinical psychology. It implies the elements of insecurity and envy resulting in a rift between a husband and a wife. Such tendency, generally, has no concrete base, but grows only on assumptions and doubts.

Othello-One of the four touchiest tragedies of Shakespeare is an epitome of pathological jealousy. Othello is a man of dignified spirit but severely brutal, too. He has been deceived by a villain and consequently believes that his wife whom he adores is disloyal to him. Infuriated by her supposed infidelity, the black moor smothers Desdemona with a pillow and ultimately puts an end to his own life as well.

Melancholy is a state of profound gloom or depression. Hamlet is the prey of excessive melancholy. Due to the hasty marriage of mother, his ethical nature receives a terrible shock, and his entire mind is poisoned.

A nature morally corrupt would have felt it less keenly, but in the case of Hamlet, it comes as a terrible shock and leaves behind a boundless weariness and sick longing for death. He becomes subject to melancholia and depression. He grows sarcastic, callous and bitter, insensitive even to the feeling of those he loved.

His melancholy is not a mere depression of spirits, neither is it insanity. It is a pathological condition only a step removed from insanity.

Insanity of various types is presented in Shakespearean tragedies. To begin with Macbeth, Lady Macbeth in the end, fails to come to terms with her guilt of causing the death of Duncan. She suffers from insomnia and starts to walk in sleep. At last, she meets her fatal end by committing suicide.

Add to that, Ophelia – the poor and undeservingly tortured beloved of Hamlet finds it hard to handle his harassments. She commences singing the irrelevant and lunatic songs in the end. Not unlike Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, too, strikes to her ambiguous death by drowning into deep waters.

However, the most perplexing yet the most fascinating madness is that of Prince Hamlet. Almost all the characters are troubled with his crazy behavior which he actually feigns ‘to catch the conscience of Claudius.’ In actuality, he is still in some way removed from insanity. That’s what Polonius observes in Act-II, Scene-2 when he utters,

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. … How pregnant sometimes his replies are-…”

(Jenkins, 248)

This shows the dual aspects of his personality or we can say his split personality.

To define in a simple term, a person possessing two polar opposite characteristics is known as split personality. To exemplify, Hamlet, there are two Hamlets in the play, one, the sensitive young intellectual and idealist, the other, a barbaric Hamlet who treats Ophelia and Gertrude so cruelly.

The similar is the case with another tragic hero-Macbeth. He, at one side, is brave, loyal, and ethical warrior. In the second half, however, he emerges as a ruthless tyrant to the state. Such intricate feelings are found in the treatment of sexuality, too. One of the most fundamental tenets of psychoanalysis, as propounded by Sigmund Freud, is the concept of Id (Pleasure Principle), Ego (Rationality Principle) and Superego (Morality Principle).  Id is that realm of the human unconscious which is chock-a-block with boundless, primal instincts; that Id is curbed by Ego and Superego, causing a lot of repression. These bottled up, repressed desires find free play either in dreams or day-dreams (fantasies).

This basic instinct of human life is referred to every now and then in Shakespearean tragedies be it the concept of Oedipus complex or Hamlet’s disgust for her mother’s lecherous life. Hamlet’s frequent use of the words like ‘whore’, ‘harlot’, ‘nunnery’, ‘frailty’ to mouth his anger targeted to Gertrude and Ophelia and largely to the whole womankind is an evidence of Shakespeare’s free and frank treatment of human eroticism. The repression of physical needs gives rise to conflict in the characters’ life.

Conflict is the heart and soul of each and every Shakespearean tragedy. Apart from the external world conflict, the most interesting aspect is the internal turbulence of a character. Macbeth is tortured by the conflict between his vaulting ambition and his loyalty towards the king.

In Julius Caesar, Brutus is sandwiched between his patriotism which demands to murder Caesar and his heartfelt friendship for Caesar which makes Brutus reluctant to kill Caesar.

The most appealing conflict is reflected in Hamlet. The conflict of the protagonist is universally significant. He is unable to reconcile his paradoxical ideas. This is because of his noble inaction and his over-contemplative mind. Hamlet’s conflict finds its acute manifestation in his soliloquies.

Soliloquies in Shakespearean tragedies display the innermost layers of human psyche. Like a tip of the iceberg, outward behavior demonstrates only tenth part of what a person is. Hamlet’s following soliloquy, shows that human mind is highly erratic and volatile.

“What piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, … and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

(Jenkins, 253-254)

However, the most soul-searching soliloquy appears in Act-III Scene 1 which shows the conflict of human mind that tortures almost all the human beings at one or the other stage of life, and that is,

“To be, or not to be, that is the question;

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them; To die – to  sleep,

…

To sleep, perchance to dream – ay , there’s the rub: …”

(Jenkins, 277-278)

Soliloquies are the most authentic means to analyze the inner psyche of any character. His or her inner struggle is revealed in such a situation. In Shakespearean tragedy, there is always an element of psychomachia or the struggle within the soul; which may be externalized in many ways. The point about evil here is that it is absurd, unmotivated and inconsistent.

Such a character is Iago’s, whom generations of critics have struggled to psychoanalyze but in vain. His one object is to devastate Othello and he can have no good reason for it. Through Iago’s character, Shakespeare shows how a certain kind of evil is apt to manifest itself.

I quote Germaine Greer,

“Iago’s ubiquity in the play as he skips from character to character, organizing the complicated scenario which will entrap Othello, is more than natural.”

(Greer, 53-54)

Psycho-analysis, thus, comes, into literary criticism in several ways. It provides a means of illuminating a writer’s work and it can also help to elucidate the true meaning of the given text. However, just like literature, human psychology too, is multi-layered. To comprehend it is not a cake walk.

Many critics of the psychological school have been either literary scholars who have understood the principles of psychology imperfectly or professional psychologists who have had little feeling for literature as art: the former have abused Freudian insights through oversimplification and distortion; the latter have bruised our literary sensibilities.

Wilfred L. Guerin pens,

“Though the psychological approach is an excellent tool for reading beneath the lines, the crucial limitation of the psychological approach is its aesthetic inadequacy.”

(Guerian, 153-154)

Shakespeare, thus, has surpassed the confines of the Psychologists’ capabilities. It has been a usual practice of the psychologists to treat Shakespearean characters as an object. Rather, any character should be assessed in the light of its context.

Having considered the prolific production of 37 plays of Shakespeare, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that not a single attribute of human psychology is left untouched by the pen of his unparalleled flair.

Works  Cited

Greer, Germane ‘Shakespeare : A Very Short Introduction’ –

Jenkins, Harold, ed. Hamlet. London: Routledge Publications, 1982. O.U.P. 1986 Indian Edition, p#53,54

Verity, A.W. ed. Macbeth by William Shakespeare. London: Cambridge University Press, 1966.