A Jungian Exploration of Hamlet

Since we have been discussing Jung's archetypes in class and their relationship to myth, it brought to my mind an essay I wrote for my British Literature class last semester in which I used Jung's archetypes and the process of individuation to analyze Shakespeare's play. Although it is not a perfect essay, I thought I might repost it here; and perhaps it will stimulate minds and help myself and others apply the Jungian analysis to a final term paper or presentation. So without further ado:

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