A Jungian Exploration into the
Inner Psyche of Hamlet
The character of
Hamlet has been an object of intense scrutiny and literary analysis. Multiple
critics have attempted to dissect the inner-workings of Hamlet’s mind
throughout the duration Shakespeare’s play, striving to discover why his
character remains so fundamentally inactive and hesitant throughout the
majority its pages. Numerous theories have been voiced on the subject, and
many varied opinions have been suggested, but in order to understand Hamlet and
his actions it is necessary to delve into the psyche of his character. Carl
Jung’s theories on human psychology, in particular his theory of archetypes,
can be used to understand different aspects of Hamlet’s persona. The archetypes
help explain his sometimes puzzling and hesitant actions during the play, and
ultimately provide the reader with a deeper understanding of Hamlet’s conclusion.
Carl
Jung, a widely respected and influential psychiatrist born in the 1800s, was
highly researched in symbols and their relation to the human psyche. (Thury 476
) He used his theory of archetypes to interpret dreams and their connection to
the human unconscious, and his studies on the subject can be used to analyze
literature in order to gain a deeper understanding of characters’ personalities
and the motivation behind their actions. Jung identified three distinct archetypes:
the Shadow, the Anima and Animus, and the Self (Thury 478). These various archetypes symbolize
different aspects of a person’s personality, including repressed feeling and
emotions, manifested in a physical form. The first archetype, the Shadow self, represents little known
attributes about a person, and is usually personified by a same sex figure that
employs many characteristics opposite of the main character. The Anima is the
“personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a man’s psyche,”
and is represented by a member of the opposite sex. (Thury 479). The Animus
figure, in turn, is all the male tendencies represented in a female character.
The last archetype, the Self, is “the innermost nucleus of the psyche,” (Thury
481) and is only realized when the character undergoes a process call
individuation. This happens when the various archetypes are accepted as part of
the collective psyche of the individual and integrated into his persona (Thury
481). Jung also suggested that there is no limit to the number of archetypes
that can be identified, and also listed of some that overlapped within the four
main archetypal categories, such as the Wise Old Man figure, who embodies morality,
wisdom, and knowledge (Thury 480). All of Jung’s archetypes can be seen within
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and the
different characters Hamlet interacts with reflect various facets of his psyche.
At one instance in the play, Hamlet is speaking his mother and says, “Come,
come, and sit down….you go not till I set you up a glass where you may see the
inmost part of you” (pg 72). Just as Hamlet is attempting to reflect aspects of
his mother’s psyche to her, the characters surrounding him in the play function
as a mirror and reflect various characteristics of his persona so that the
reader may fully understand the workings of Hamlet’s mind.
As
previously stated, the Shadow archetype represents unknown characteristics of
the main protagonist, in this case, Hamlet. The Shadow self also embodies many
darker aspects of the main character’s personality as well as deeply repressed
impulses that aren’t always conspicuous to the reader. Hamlet encounters
multiple Shadow selves throughout the duration of the play. The first is the
Ghost, who appears at various instances throughout the story arc and urges
Hamlet to exact revenge on his father’s murder. It is unclear whether the Ghost
is truly an apparition of Hamlets father, a hallucination, or something else
entirely. It is a mysterious and esoteric character that perfectly embodies
Jung’s Shadow archetype. Hamlet’s
underlying suspicion that his father’s death was not an accident isn’t fully realized
till the ghost appears, claims to be his dead father, and informs him that Hamlet’s
Uncle murdered him. “But know,
thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown,”
(pg 24) the Ghost says to Hamlet, which is what initially catalyzes his pursuit
of revenge. When Hamlet becomes complacent in his quest for vengeance, the Ghost
appears and urges him to into action. The presence of this archetype represents
Hamlet’s suppressed suspicion that his father’s death wasn’t merely an accident,
and a deep-seated urge to exact revenge. This Shadow archetype reveals to the
reader Hamlet’s inner compulsions to kill his Uncle, and functions as a window to
his most basic instincts. The second Shadow self in the play is Hamlet’s Uncle
Claudias, who is the opposite of Hamlet in many ways. He is a character of
action, and gives little thought to the morality of his behavior, which starkly
contrast against the inertness and seeming lethargy of Hamlet. Claudias will do
anything to gain power, and he represents Hamlet’s desire to ascend to the
throne as well as what Hamlet will have to become in order to execute revenge,
a man of action and of little morals. By examining these characters through the
lenses of Jung’s Shadow archetypes, the reader can gain a deeper understanding
of Hamlet’s persona.
Another
archetype that is present in the play is the Anima self. The Anima is
represented by a member of the opposite sex, and for Hamlet, is a manifestation
of feminine impulses in his psychology. He encounters two Anima archetypes in
the play, Ophelia and his mother, Gertrude. Ophelia and Hamlet were once lovers,
but Hamlet stifles his affection towards her in order to focus on his pursuit
of vengeance. Ophelia seems to be a rather weak character, never acting out of
her own self interest, and instead, allows stronger males control her. She is
eventually driven mad by the death of her father, and in her broken down mental
state, finally emerges as a character of action and no longer adheres to the
strict behavioral standards women were expected to uphold during the time.
Hamlet’s own sanity is often questioned throughout the play, and at one point
Polonius, Ophelia’s father, tells the King, “Your noble son is mad….I swear I
use no art at all. That he is mad” (pg 36). Ophelia is only able to escape the
repression of her prescribed role in society through insanity, and she
represents Hamlet’s deteriorating mindset as he attempts to shed social constructs
and morality in order to become a character of action and indulge his
compulsion for revenge. The other Anima archetype present is Hamlet’s mother,
the Queen. She was married previously to Hamlet’s father, and soon after he
passed, married Claudius, much to Hamlet’s chagrin. Throughout the play, Hamlet
expresses rage and anger towards his mother, viewing her remarriage as a
betrayal. He confronts her at an instance during the play, and says, “such an
act…takes off the rose from the fair forehead of an innocent love, and sets a
blister there, makes marriage vows as false as dicer oaths” (pg 73). In this
quote, Hamlet is referring to Gertrude betraying her true love for his father in
order to marry Hamlet’s uncle. His idyllic family life is shattered by his
father’s death and his mother’s remarriage, which he views as incestuous and
wrong. Gertrude represents Hamlet’s view of women as corrupt and wanton
individuals as well as the shattering of child hood innocence. It is his anger
towards his mother and her remarriage that helps stimulate his urge for revenge.
One
of Jung’s sub archetypes is apparent in Hamlet
as well, the figure of the Wise Old Man who acts as the moral compass of the
story. Within the play, Hamlet’s friend Horatio, an intelligent and highly
moral character, embodies this archetype. When the Ghost first appears to
Hamlet, Horatio endeavor’s to keep Hamlet from interacting with it, saying to
the prince, “What if it tempt you to the flood, my lord…and there assume some
other horrible form, which might deprive your sovereignty of reason and draw
you into madness?” (pg 22). Horatio is warning Hamlet against the dangers of
giving in to his Shadow self and his craving for revenge. This quote essentially foreshadows
Hamlet’s descent into madness that results from Hamlet gratifying his appetite
for revenge. Horatio also attempts to dissuade Hamlet from participating in the
duel with Laertes near the conclusion of the play, and is the only major
character to survive the final catastrophic Act in which Hamlet, the Queen,
Claudius, and Laertes all die. He represents Hamlet’s conscience and moral
center, and his survival juxtaposed with Hamlet’s death exemplifies for the
reader what happens when one rejects morality to pursue vengeance.
The last of Jung’s
archetypes, the Self, is manifested in the play, but not in relation to Hamlet.
The Self is the cohesion of the archetypes, and is only fully realized when a
person accepts them all as part of his psyche (). From a Jungian perspective, Hamlet’s
inability to act stems from a dichotomy among his archetypes. His morals and
his deep underlying compulsion to revenge his father are at odds and cause him
to remain in a kind of paralysis for much of the play till the final explosive
act. By viewing the characters as different personifications of Hamlet, the
ending of the play takes on a vivid new meaning. All of the main characters, excluding Horatio, are killed,
either by each other or by accidental happenstance. Their deaths represent
Hamlet’s inability to reconcile the warring aspects of his personality, and as
a result, his archetypes die and he along with them. The only one that survives
is Horatio; the embodiment of the morality Hamlet casts off in order to pursue
his revenge. In the final pages of
the play, Jung’s last archetype, the Self, is finally seen. Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway,
marches in with intent to conquer the kingdom but is horrified at the sight of
the Denmark nobles lying dead on the ground. The Norwegian prince is attempting
to revenge his father’s death by taking back the land Hamlet’s father won from
Fortinbras’ own father. This is explained for the reader near the beginning of
the play when the King is speaking to his attendants; “Now follows, that you
know, young Fortinbras, holding a weak supposal of our worth…hath not fail’d to
pester us with message, importing the surrender of those lands lost by his
father” (pg 7). Fortinbras’ motives mirror Hamlet’s own, but the difference
between the two princes is that Fortinbras takes clear and immediate action
while Hamlet’s conflicting archetypes hinder him from any action for a vast
majority of Shakespeare’s play. Although Fortinbras is intent on revenging his
father, he is able to accept all of his archetypes as part of his psyche, and
does not lose his morality in the process of pursuing vengeance. This is
elucidated for the reader at the end of the play when Fortinbras agrees to
listen to Horatio, the voice of morality, tell Hamlet’s story. “And let me
speak to the yet unknowing world how these things came to be about. So shall
you hear of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts,” (pg 121) Horatio says to Fortinbras.
The Prince of Norway agrees to listen, realizing that something utterly wrong
had taken place in this kingdom, and commands that Hamlet be given a soldier’s
death. “Take up the bodies. Such a
sight as this becomes the field, but here shows much amiss,” (pg 122) he
commands to his soldiers. Fortinbras lays claim to the vacated throne, and is
named monarch of Denmark. His character represents the union of all the
archetypes, and the manifestation of the final archetype, the Self. Although he
is motivated for the same reasons as Hamlet, the cohesion between the different
aspects of is personality allows him to be a man of action and to retain his
morality even while pursuing revenge. Therefore, at the end of the play, he
ascends the throne of Denmark while the conflicted and immoral Hamlet lies dead
on the floor.
By viewing the
characters of Hamlet in terms of Jung’s archetypes, one can gain a better
understanding of Hamlet and the
overarching themes of the play. Although Carl Jung’s theories were published
hundreds of years after Hamlet had
been written, his insight into human psychology helps the reader understand
that many of the characters surrounding Hamlet are embodiments of certain aspects
of Hamlet’s persona, which in turn, lends meaning to the shift in power the
play concludes with. His theories elucidate for the reader that Hamlet’s
conflicting personas are what keeps him from following many of his impulses
throughout the play’s duration. A Jungian analysis of Hamlet also helps clarify that morality is an essential component
of the human psyche, and without it, a person can be destroyed by their
own self-interest. The renaissance popularized the idea that all the world is a
stage, and everyone in it is playing a part. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the parts these characters are
playing are merely different aspects of Hamlet himself.
Work Cited
Thury, Eva M. and Margaret K.
Devinney. Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical
and World Myths. New York: Oxford University Press. 2009
