Oedipal Wrecks

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a Freudian approach to comparing Hamlet from "Hamlet" and Edmund from "King Lear". The paper confronts the Oedipal process at work in their subconscious desires to kill father-figures and take the father's place beside their mother-figures. The system breaks down in both plays when both characters try to take the place of the father-figure. Edmund's sexual interest in Goneril and Regan is analyzed in significant detail, as is Hamlet's sexual tension with his mother.

From the Paper:

"Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear both contain a multitude of driving forces at work behind the actions of the main characters, but common to both works exists an obvious Freudian interpretation of what is driving two of the most interesting characters in all of Shakespeare's canon, Hamlet and Edmund the Bastard. Shakespeare is dealing with two characters whose desires happen to be such that they upset the accepted balance of nature. The Freudian drive at work in both characters is the infamous "Oedipal Complex," which basically boils down to a desire to kill the father and take his place beside the mother. Hamlet and Edmund both wish to accomplish actions that will destroy the patriarchal system currently in place, and both thirst for unhealthy relationships with a mother or mother figures. If Hamlet and Edmund both succeed in their respective plots, the natural order of the world would be put into jeopardy, and that order is already being upset merely by the attempt of the two characters to carry out their wish-fulfillment of having their father (figures) replaced by themselves."

More papers on Oedipal Wrecks:

• Comparison Essay # 142881 : "Oedipal Wrecks"
• Analytical Essay # 1627 : "The Oedipal Complex in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'"
• Comparison Essay # 8098 : "The Oedipal Loop: Substance Abusers vs. "Royalty"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: