PEP | Article - Hamlet's frailty - Krims, Marvin B.
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is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who spends part of his day treating adults and children at his office in Newton, Massachussetts, USA. Most of the rest of his professional time is spent thinking and writing about Shakespeare's words.
184 Ward Sreet, Newton, Mass. USA.
Abstract
The Purpose of This article is to extend traditional psychoanalytic understanding of Hamlet's oedipal complex to his desire for his father and rivalry with his mother.1 Consideration of this less well explored side of his oedipal feelings might deepen our understanding of his personality and key scenes in the play.
We first meet Hamlet in mourning for his father, who died unexpectedly two months before the play begins. His mother, perhaps feeling guilty about her remarriage only one month after her husband died, asks why Hamlet seems unhappy. He replies:
‘Seems’ madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’.
'Tis not alone my inky coat, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
Together with all the forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That denote me truly. These indeed ‘seem’,
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