Never Know For Sure

Before basing my interpretation of Hamlet’s character on V. The Material And Sources Of Dreams (continued) and Hamlet and His Problems, I stopped to remember my own, uninfluenced interpretation. Hamlet is a obvious troubled coward man, whose father’s death affected him profoundly. He experiences the re marriage of his mother and this repulses him, because the new kind is his uncle. He witnesses the appearance of his dead father as a ghost and it tells him to revenge, and ever since Hamlet looks for a way to ease his grief and disappointment through actions that he seems unable to fulfill. It angers him is the censorship he is put up to of his desperate disagreement with his mother’s marriage and his father’s murder. But he is limited to act because of his lack of bravery and too much hesitation.

Turns out I’m not so far off. Dr. Derwey agrees with me, “Hamlet represents the type of man whose active energy is paralyzed by excessive intellectual activity (…)” (V. The Material And Sources Of Dreams (continued)) this is a disease of upper class people caused by stress, diagnosed as neurasthenia. He is indeed “paralyzed", this can be seen in David Tennat’s performance of the famous “to be or not to be” where he practically doesn’t move while reciting the soliloquy. His mind is so full of a mixture of emotions, thoughts and feelings that he cannot move, less so act. It reminds me of a depressed person, who is numb and whose eyes are unfocused. Without a doubt Hamlet is a mentally ill character. T.S Elliot suggests something similar, “It is thus a feeling which he cannot understand; he cannot objectify it, and it therefore remains to poison life and obstruct action.” Hamlet does not understand himself. There is an excess of thoughts and hesitation. But then arouses the question why Hamlet acted on other persons and doesn’t really get to the real vengeance he is looking for?

Dr. Derwey interprets, according to Freud and psychoanalysis that Claudius is what Hamlet always wanted to be and he sees himself reflected on him and therefore inhibiting him to take action against him, as he is supposed to. Based on the ancient text Oedipus Rex, the male child will in most cases have a desire for the mother since she is his first sexual attraction. And for the father the male child feels a certain impulse of hatred because he threatens the child. Therefore, Dr. Derwey says that Claudius is “the man who shows him in realization the repressed desires of his own childhood.” (V. The Material And Sources Of Dreams) This is interesting. Duuh there are other interpretations, but this is accurate, according to Freud. T.S Elliot argues that Hamlet’s “madness” is feigned. For Shakespeare it was so. Hamlet’s levity, tricks and behavior are faked to trap any suspicion. But as Dr. Derwey proved with Freud and Professor Stoll of the University of Minnesota states, today we can interpret Hamlet’s characters in ways that Shakespeare would have never imagined thanks to the psychological discoveries. “We should have to understand things which Shakespeare did not understand himself.” As T.S Eliot closes his essay. There is no wrong interpretation. Maybe I’m wrong thinking that Hamlet lacks bravery, according to T.S Eliot he could surplus it enough to feign his madness. We may never know for sure.