Explanation of Hamlet’s Mystery (by: Ernest Jones)

pg. 101 Explanation of Hamlets Mystery by Ernest Jones Much as he hates him, he can never denounce him with the ardent rage that boils straight from his blood when he reproaches his m opposite, for the to a greater extent vigorously he denounces his uncle the more powerfully does he stimulate to activity his own unconscious and pent-up complexes. He is there- fore in a dilemma between on the one hand solelyowing his natural detestation of his uncle to have free play, a consum- mation which would make him aware of his own horrible ishes, and on the other ignoring the exacting bellyache for ven- geance that his obvious duty demands. He must either have his own evil in denouncing his uncles, or strive to ignore, to condone and if attainable even to forget the latter in continuing to repress the origin his moral fate is bound up with his uncles for good or ill. The call of duty to slay his uncle cannot be obeyed because it links itself with the call of his nature to slay his moth ers husband, whether this is the first or the second the latter call is strongly repressed, and in bit necessarily the former also.It is no mere chance that he says of himself that he is prompted to the revenge by heaven and hell, though the true significance of the expres- sion of pass over quite escapes him. Hamlets dammed-up feeling finds a partial vent in other directions, the natural one being blocked. The petulant irascibility and explosive outbursts called forward by the vexa- tion of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, and especially of Polo- nius, are evidently to be interpreted in this way, as also is in part the burning nature of his reproaches to his mother. In- deed towards the end of the interview with his mother the hought of her misconduct expresses itself in that almost physiological disgust which is so often the manifestation of in- tensely repressed knowledgeable feeling. Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed lead wanton on your cheek call you his mouse And le t him, for a pair of reechy kisses, Or paddling in your neck with his damnd fingers, Make you to ravel all this matter out. His attitude towards Polonius is highly instructive. Here the absence of family tie, and of other influences, enables him to mollycoddle to a relatively unrestrained degree his hostility towards the prating and sententious dotard.