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Psychoanalysis has cast light on the parricidal motives underlying Hamlet's inhibition in killing his uncle. A similar problem explains previously puzzling aspects of the behavior of other Shakespearean heroes, as in the decision of Brutus to join in the assassination of Caesar and the conflicts of Macbeth over the murder of Duncan. Kris (6) has found that the same ambivalence with respect to the father was responsible for the cleavage in the personality of Prince Hal, who was a tavern roisterer in his youth but showed an apparently complete change in personality after ascending the throne.
In the Shakespearean plays, however, the role of the father figure is usually relatively unimportant except as a motivation for the action of the other characters. Hamlet's uncle is scarcely more than a shadowy figure and King Duncan receives even less substance. Julius Caesar himself is not a major character in the play, and the relations between Prince Hal and his father are seemingly of secondary importance.
It is in the relationship of the hero to the feminine characters that the real emotional impact of the Shakespearean drama lies. Hamlet emerges from behind his masks to show unalloyed feeling and interest in the remarriage and sexual life of his mother. Then he becomes straightforward and gives us a glimpse of his real self. It is during the scene in her closet that he breaks through his inhibition and stabs Polonius, and after her death, he at once dispatches the king. Shakespearean tragedy finds its focus in the problem of the fidelity of the heroine. Othello and Desdemona are of course outstanding