Nunnery or Necessity All of the characters throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, web together to create a series of complicated relationships in order to progress the plot forward and exhibit the importance that all of these relationships play. Hamlet diversifies from the typical views on females carried by society when he holds him at a higher exchange value for his own purposes in comparison to the value they see in him in order to try to obtain a more successful future. Both of the women in the play provide Hamlet with a service that he unconsciously needs in order to keep himself stable, therefore bettering his future as a whole. Gertrude plays an extremely important part in Hamlet’s life that proves to be both influential and
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Looking at the relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude through both a feminist lens and psychoanalytical lens, it is argued that they possess an Oedipal complex. This means that within Hamlet’s unconscious he desperately longs to be romantically involved with Gertrude even though she is his mother. The motivation for this relationship may be caused by the ambiguity behind who is Hamlet’s father figure. He knew who his father truly was but after the death of King Hamlet the void left in his life caused him to be unsure in who he should look up to as a role model. His disapproval of King Claudius caused him to need a stronger relationship causing him to unintentionally fall for his mother to satisfy this void. When Claudius married Gertrude, Hamlet showed a vast amount of anger and did not express many reasons behind the anger. This could be because he was upset that Claudius was taking her away from him, even if he was psychologically unaware of why he was feeling this anger. When Hamlet exclaims “She married. O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue” he is showing how upset he is about his mothers marriage but he also shows that he is aware that he cannot voice his opinion about the matter because people would not understand why he is so concerned (1.2.6). Hamlet does not realize how important his mother truly is in his life and may not intentionally realize that he holds his mother at extremely high importance because he psychologically longs for his
Looking at the relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude through both a feminist lens and psychoanalytical lens, it is argued that they possess an Oedipal complex. This means that within Hamlet’s unconscious he desperately longs to be romantically involved with Gertrude even though she is his mother. The motivation for this relationship may be caused by the ambiguity behind who is Hamlet’s father figure. He knew who his father truly was but after the death of King Hamlet the void left in his life caused him to be unsure in who he should look up to as a role model. His disapproval of King Claudius caused him to need a stronger relationship causing him to unintentionally fall for his mother to satisfy this void. When Claudius married Gertrude, Hamlet showed a vast amount of anger and did not express many reasons behind the anger. This could be because he was upset that Claudius was taking her away from him, even if he was psychologically unaware of why he was feeling this anger. When Hamlet exclaims “She married. O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue” he is showing how upset he is about his mothers marriage but he also shows that he is aware that he cannot voice his opinion about the matter because people would not understand why he is so concerned (1.2.6). Hamlet does not realize how important his mother truly is in his life and may not intentionally realize that he holds his mother at extremely high importance because he psychologically longs for his