An Analysis Of Hamlet's 'Complex Desire'

A Complex Desire Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic play that revolves around the protagonist Prince Hamlet in the 16th century. His father, late King Hamlet, appears to Prince Hamlet in act one, scene five after his tragic death to relay his message of his death to his one and only son. However, it seems that the rational Hamlet has already started to go mad with grief because the Ghost is a visual and auditory hallucination of Hamlet's. The Ghost mentions the two aspects of Oedipal desires such as the need to assert dominance and to receive a mother's affection through the quote “Ghost: Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,/ With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts-/ O wicked wits and gifts, that have the power/
However, Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, betrays his father by remarrying with Claudius. The Ghost calls Gertrude his “most seeming – virtuous queen” which implies that she only seems to be virtuous, but is not.(1.5.53) To be virtuous means to be honest and moral, Hamlet believes that his mother is no longer either because she remarried to another man right after the death of his father. To the kingdom she may seem honest and be seen as protecting the throne by remarrying, but by remarrying she is being immoral in the sense of throwing away her past relationship with her husband and son. In act one, scene one, Prince Hamlet accuses Gertrude of not missing her late husband because of the marriage that happened right after his father death. He believes that she did not mourn for him and therefore is not a faithful woman in a marriage. However, it is every boy's dream to marry their mother; Oedipal desire states that the boy will undergo castration anxiety or the fear of having his phallus cut off by his father to match his mother, one without a phallus, for desiring his mother. But now that his father is gone, Hamlet's castration anxiety was relieved which prompted him to desire to marry his mother as well as receive affection from her. Nonetheless, due to Claudius, another father figure, he is unable to assert dominance over Gertrude and marry her. Not only does Claudius take away Hamlet's chance of marrying Gertrude, he also takes away the affection that Hamlet craves. The affection that late King Hamlet once had and now Claudius has is what Hamlet desires so much. Hamlet believes that Claudius is unworthy of this love because he had to murder his brother in order to gain Gertrude's love. Hamlet, Gertrude's one and only son, believes that her affection should belong only to him because his father passed away. Claudius' “traitorous gifts” are only to be considered