爱与恨之间的徘徊—对哈姆雷特的心理分析

湖北师范学院外国语学院

2012

届英语系毕业 论文

Wandering between Love and Hate

—

A Psychological Analysis of Hamlet

1

．

Introduction

1.1 A Brief Introduction of

Hamlet

Hamlet

is considered the summit of William Shakespeare?s art. The story comes from an old

Danish legend. Before Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd had written a play on the same subject. It was

a tragedy of “blood and scheme.” But under Shakespeare?s pen, the medieval story assumed a

new meaning.

The action of the play is laid in Denmark. Gertrude, Queen of Denmark widowed by the

sudden death of the

King, within two months marries the late king?s brother Claudius, who thus

becomes the new King. Prince Hamlet son of the late king, returns home from the university of

Wittenberg.

He suspects about his father?s death. Later his father?s ghost appears to h

im at the

castle of Elsinor, and confirms Hamlet?s suspicion. He plans to take a revenge of the murder. To

dull Claudius? vigilance, Hamlet pretends to go mad. However, his madness is taken by Polonius

,

to be an emotional disturbance due to his passion for Ophelia, daughter of Polonius. But under a

strange combination of circumstances, Hamlet killed Polonius for mistake, and the King also

find that he is not really mad, he determines to destroy Hamlet. He sends Hamlet to England,

intending to have him killed there, but Hamlet gets rid of it by luck. Heart- broken at the death of

her father, poor Ophelia goes mad and then is drowned in a stream. Hearing of the news that

father and sister are both died because of Hamlet, Ophelia?s brother Laertes vows to avenge

it.

The king arranges that Laertes wounds Hamlet but is himself struck with the same poisoned

weapon. Before death, Laertes reveals the plot. The Queen at the moment was killed by the wine

that planed for Hamlet. Hamlet stabs the king, and then dies through his poisoned wound. The

story ended with the death of the major characters.

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湖北师范学院外国语学院

2012

届英语 系毕业论文

The part above is a simple summary of the tragedy

, and we know the process of Hamlet?s

revenge is full of difficulties, the most important difficult is his hesitation.

1.2 Surveys the S

tudies on Shakespeare’s

Greatest Tragedy

William Shakespeare (1564

—

1616) is a great dramatist and poet during the English

Renaissance period. Ben Jonson once dedicated a poem in praise of the author: “soul of the

Age!”(A Short History of English L

iterature, 59) He has written 37plays, 2 long narrative poems,

and 154 sonnets. Among them,

Hamlet

, is believed to be the summit of his art. Just like Mona

Lisa smiling mystically, Hamlet is an attractive and mystical art, on which critics and readers of

many generations continually discuss.

We know, tragedy, a supreme of literature, is a kind of beauty that is grave and majestic. It

has witnessed the advancement of human beings. Shakespeare is a genius of characterizing tragic

heroes and heroines. Proud King Lear, ambitions Macbeth and credulous Othello, their tragic

flaws or sins justify their punishment. Of the four great tragedies of Shakespeare,

Hamlet

is the

most prominent one. Besides the impression of vastness of topics it covers, the characterizatio

n

of the hero Hamlet contributes greatly to its success. Most Shakespearean tragedies are classified

as character tragedies, and for many Shakespearean scholars, so is

Hamlet

, the diamond on the

tragic crown. The idea has ever been prevailing in Shakespearean research that the tragic flaw of

Hamlet?s character that delays his revenge action should be responsible for the tragic ending.

Different from other three heroes, proud king Lear, ambitious Macbeth and credulous

Othello, each of whom has a sin or tragic flaw in nature that leads him to the tragic ending,

Hamlet is characterized as a brilliant humanist; he is educated in Wittenberg, where there is thick

atmosphere of humanism; he advocates equality and is quite sincere to his friend:

I am glad to see you well.

Horatio

—

or I do forget myself!

…Sir, my good friend, I will change that name with you. And what make you from

Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?

(Hamlet, Act1 Scene2, 28)

Hamlet

is a masterpiece of Shakespeare in his third

period. This period of Shakespeare?s

dramatic career is mainly the period of “great tragedies” and “dark comedies.” In the plays of

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湖北师范学院外国语学院

2012

届英语系毕业论文

this period, the tragic note is aggravated. The sunshine and laughter of the second period has turn

into clouds and storms.

The cause of such a change should be sought from Shakespeare?s change

of moods as influenced by the social upheavals at the turn of the century. In

Hamlet

we see the

bright and happy life of the young prince darkened by the lust and ingratitude of his mother and

by the revelation of his uncle?s foul murder of his father, and, after long hesitations and suspense,

the Danish prince in his own death carried out the task of revenge, while the pure, weak Ophelia

shares the same fate with him.

2. Literature Review

2.1

A Concise History of Shakespeare’s

Hamlet

One of the reasons why Hamlet?s story so popular in the world is that the unique character

of him. Hamlet is neither a vase and a weak person nor a thought-sick book-worm. In this play,

nobody thinks of him in that way. Though he is deprived of his right to the throne, he is still

loved and respected by everyone. And in the other aspect, he is a prince full of love. Just as he

describes Ophelia:

“O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to

reckon my groans; but that I love

thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.

Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him”(Hamlet, Act2 Scene2,86)

First, Hamlet is a humanist, a man who is free from medieval prejudices and superstition. He

has an unbounded love for the world instead of the heaven. He praises human beings, he says:

“W

hat a piece of work is a man! Now noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and

moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god!

The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!” (Hamlet, Act2 Scene2, 98)

Second, Hamlet is a young prince who has the spirit of humanitarianism. He condemns

highly of the social that against humanity

. He deeply observes the social reality and looks down

upon the brutal and inhuman reality

. He makes a loud appeal for it:

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湖北师范学院外国语学院

2012

届英语 系毕业论文

“For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor?s wrong, the proud man?s

contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law?s delay

, the insolence

of office, and the

spums”(Hamlet, Act3 Scene1,124)

Third, starting from his humanist love of man, he turns to those around him with the same

eagerness. He loves goods and hates evil. He adores his father, love Ophelia and greets his

school- fellows with hea

rty welcome, while he is disgusted with his uncle?s drunkenness and

shocked by his mother?s shallowness. In his contact with the people around him, he cares for

nothing but human worth and shows contempt for rank and wealth.

Fourth, he is a romantic prince who is always so gloomy

. It is said that without a doubt that

the most important character of Hamlet is gloomy. But this kind of character is not negative, it is

rather the result of his penetrating habit of mind. When there is a sudden situation, he would ask

himself:

“what can I do for it?

When? How? What will be the consequence to the State? What is

the good of doing it in such a world as this?” Such as:

“Denmark?s a prison. Then the world one. A goodly one; in which there are many confines,

words, and

dungeons, Denmark being one o? the worst.”(Hamlet, Act2 Scene2,

95)

All his life is thinking about and exploring how to destroy the “prison”, although he perishes

with the enemy at last, he sets a good example for struggle on and does not compromise with the

enemy.

The never waning interest in

Hamlet

has, since the beginning of the twenties century, spilled

over to fields of intellectual endeavor beyond that of literary criticism, causing Hamlet to be

interpreted more variously than before. Throughout the lay world reader and audience response

continues to be enthusiastic, a credit to Ben Jonson

?s prophetic tribute that Shakespeare ?was not

of an age, but for all time?. It is true that Hamlet?s forte does not lie in an unswerving resolve or

in a single- minded and vigorous execution of it (Shakespearean Tragedy, 1904). Charles Lamb is

an essayist, poet, and critic. He began to read Shakespeare?s works when he was six years old.

He once wrote a very popular book of evaluating Shakespeare, he said: as for Hamlet himself, he

has the deepest sorrow, the silent thoughts that afraid of light and voice, and dare not face to the

wall or empty room.”(On the Tragedies of Shakespeare, 29)

Goeth describes Hamlet as a noble,

weak and retiring man, who is too sentimental or spiritual weak and not fit for the task set to him;

Scholoegel and Coleridge think that Hamlet is an over-reflective intellectual and he has the

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湖北师范学院外国语学院

2012

届英语 系毕业论文

philosophical cast of mind that inhabits practical action, and so the cause of the irresolution is an

excess of the reflective or speculative habit of minds; Wilson Knight believes that Hamlet is

overwhelmed by the sense of evil that makes him disillusioned about the cruel society.

Samuel Johnson, as a neoclassicist said that the prince was an instrument rather than an

agent:

Hamlet is, through the whole play, rather an instrument than agent. After he has, by he

stratagem of the play, convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him, and his death is at

last effected by an incident which Hamlet has no part in producing.(Preface to Sh

akespeare?s

plays,69)

In the later half of the 18c, as more and more critics began to become interested in Hamlet?s

delay, Hamlet became the synonym for sensitivity. As a romantic critic, Goethe declared that an

over-sensitive so

ul burdened with an arduous task was the key to Hamlet?s procrastination:

A lovely, pure, noble, and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a

hero, sinks beneath a burden which it can not bear and must not cast away. All duties are ho

ly for

him; the present is too hard. Impossibilities, but such for him. He winds, and turns, and torments

himself; he advances and recoils; is ever put in mind, ever puts himself in mind; at last does all

but lose his purpose from his thoughts; yet still without recovering his peace of mind.(Wilhelm

Meister?s Critique of ?Hamlet?”,97)

In the early 19c, romanticist like Coleridge and used individualistic qualities in Hamlet to

explain his delay. Coleridge said that Hamlet, not a doer, but a thinker:

Hamlet?

s character is the prevalence of the abstracting and generalizing habit over the

practical. He does not want courage, skill, will, or opportunity; but every incident sets him

thinking; and it is curious, and at the same time strictly natural, that Hamlet , who all the play

seems reason itself, should be impelled, at last, by mere accident to effect his object. I have a

smack of Hamlet himself.

(A Concise History of Shakespeare Criticism, 69)

Ernest Jones, in The Oedipus Complex as an Explanation o

f Hamlet?s Mystery(1910), A

Psycho-

Analytical Study of Hamlet(1923), argue that the reason for Hamlet?s

hesitation was that

if he had killed his uncle he will be a person who just want to fulfill his desire:

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湖北师范学院外国语学院

2012

届英语系毕业论文

It is his moral duty

, to which his father exhorts him, to put an end to the incestuous activities

of his mother, but his unconscious does not want to put an end to them, and so he cannot. By

refusing to abandon his own incestuous wishes he perpetuates the sin and so must endure the

stings of torturing c

onscience. And yet killing his mother?s husband would be equivalent to

committing the original sin himself, which would if anything be even guiltier. So of the two

impossible alternatives he adopts the passive solution of letting the incest continue vicariously,

but at the same time provoking destruction at the king?s hand

. ( Eenest Jones,1-90)

In this chapter, with my limited knowledge, I have listed several literary writers?

commentary about

Hamlet

. It?s a very simple summary

.

3. Wandering between the Edge of Love and Hate

As we know, this tragedy mainly talked about the revenge of Hamlet, and around the plot

develops, there are some people who have the distinctive personalities. Shakespeare vividly

show us a soul-stirring story about conspiracy

. In this play

, the treatments that Hamlet towards

the different person is worth to study

.

3.1 Love of Hamlet

Hamlet is a gloomy prince who is always thinking too much. And we can easily guess that

before his father?s death he must be a very romantic man, the world

that he knows is beautiful.

Then things changes: his father is murdered by his uncle; his mother is over-hasty to marry to his

uncle after his father?s death; his former friends are dispatched by the king to spy on him; his girl

friend is sent as a tool to find out whether he is really mad or not. Although one incident after

another, Hamlet did not compromise to the evil. He still persists in loving the people who cares

him.

3.1.1 Love of His Father

In the beginning of the play, Hamlet comes back to Denmar

k after hearing his father?s death.

To start with the sadness, his mother conciliates him to cast his knighted color off, and be look

like a friend on Denmark. Although Hamlet was an humanist and full of new ideas, he also could

not hide his sadness, he says:

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湖北师范学院外国语学院

2012

届英语 系毕业论文

Nor customary suits of solemn black,

Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,

No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,

Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,

Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,

That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,

For they are actions that a man might play;

(Hamlet, Action1 Scene2, 22)

Yes, all of those surpass a show, the real trappings and woe are hided in the heart. When he

see his mother sits beside the new king and she seems do not very grief, Hamlet can not help but

ffeel angry, he says:

So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face to roughly. Heaven and earth !

Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on;

(Hamlet, Act1 Scene2, 26)

After he meets the ghost, and the ghost tells him the old king Hamlet is murdered by

Claudius with juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, he is extremely angrily. He hopes himself with

wings as swift, as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to his revenge. Because of the

love of his father, he decides to take a revenge at all costs.

3.1.2 Love of His Mother

His mother, Gertrude,

is the source of all the conflicts in the play. And Hamlet?

s deep

thinking on his mother?s remarriage and his later assault on her are the key point to make him

live in agony. Some scholars insisted that in fact Hamlet do not love his mother because she

ma

rries to the new king just after old hamlet?s funeral. As Hamlet says: “the funeral baked meats

did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

” (Hamlet, Act1 Scene2, 28) But I do not agree with

them. Just as A.C. Bradley points out:

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