Freud's
theory of the Oedipal complex argues that all young boys have two desires they must learn to
repress: first, they want to kill their father, and second, they want to marry their mother. As
Freud--and many others--have pointed out, this is exactly whatdoes in .
Claudius enacts 's most secret desires by killing Hamlet's father and marrying Hamlet's
mother.
It's no wonder this fills Hamlet with rage against his uncle even
before he hears what his father's ghost has to say. Even before Hamlet knows that Claudius
fulfilled his other repressed desire (to kill his father), he knows that Claudius is sleeping
with his mother.
Of the two acts, murder and sex, Claudius sleeping with his
mother seems to obsess and enrage Hamlet the most. He can't seem to get beyond lurid images of
them in bed together, and when he does murder, it is when he mistakenly thinks Claudius is
hiding behind the arras while, he, Hamlet, is in a state of rage over his mother having sex with
her new...
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