Still Harping On Daughters Analysis

Hamlet’s obsession of Gertrude’s sexual desire is indicative of his misplaced desire for his mother’s affection, also known as the Oedipal complex. In her book, Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, Dr. Lisa Jardine comments that: “It is the male characters who perceive free choice on the part of the female character as an inevitable sign of irrational lust, and as the inevitable prelude to disorder and disaster” (Jardine 72). Moreover, because Gertrude freely chooses to be with Claudius, she is denying Hamlet, therefore Hamlet inevitably suffers internal disorder. By “denying” Hamlet love, Hamlet’s outrage of his mother’s sexuality becomes even more complex. Psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, argued that Hamlet