Maternal Relationship Transformation in Hamlet
The relationship between a son and his mother will go on to define the ongoing. Hamlet, arguably the most complex and articulate character in all of English literature, never ceases to surprise and shock readers. His battle with Claudius is always going to be one-sided, as Claudius simply does not have Hamlet’s imagination or even his raw intelligence. No character, in all of literature does. Prince Hamlet’s power is such that he can even turn the very basic urges of humanity to his advantage, overcoming, and weaponizing, both his nature and the relationships of those around him to serve against his stepfather. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the concepts of betrayal and sexuality to display the dual nature of love and hate in Hamlet’s relationship with his mother. He moves from a state of resentment and hatred of Gertrude, based on these aspects of her character, back to an affectionate, loving relationship, by overcoming his disdain for his her and turning her sexuality and capacity for betrayal into a weapon against Claudius.
Hamlet feels betrayed in the first act of the play by Gertrude’s hurried grieving of his father and her quick remarriage to his uncle. Gertrude has failed to fully grieve the death of her husband and this brings into question her loyalty to his remaining heir: “O, God, a beast, that wants discourse of reason Would have mourned longer!” (Shakespeare, I.II 154-155) Hamlet is left to ponder whether, if he were to die, he would receive the same treatment. Additionally, Gertrude directly betrays Hamlet through her marriage to Claudius, allowing another man to rise to the throne which would have naturally fallen to Hamlet. Claudius proclaims to Hamlet and the assembled court: “Think of us as of a father; for let the world take note / You are the most immediate to our throne” (I.ii 113-114) to Hamlet, this almost feels like a taunt of his proximity to, yet inability to claim, the throne. By marrying Claudius, Gertrude betrays Hamlet by robbing him of his rightful place as king in the wake of his father’s death. These betrayals by his mother are so damaging to him that he denounces all women using his mother’s behavior as a precedent: “Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman!” (I.ii 150)This ideal of misogyny caused by Gertrude’s actions damages Hamlet’s understanding of women as the play progresses and eventually spills over into his relationship with Ophelia. T.S. Eliot examines the overflow of hamlet’s emotion in regard to his mother and the effect it has in his relationship with other women.
Hamlet is up against the difficulty that his disgust is occasioned by his mother, but that his mother is not an adequate equivalent for it; his disgust envelops and exceeds her. It is thus a feeling which he cannot understand; he cannot objectify it, and it therefore remains to poison life and obstruct action. (Elliot, 4)
Hamlet holds a deep resentment toward his mother for her actions before and during the first act of the play, as she hurried grieving and speedy remarriage alienates him and gives rise to his contempt for a loved one.
Hamlet also hates his mother because of the incestuous sexual temptation she represents. When Hamlet’s father dies it brings his sexual feelings caused by the Oedipal relationship with his mother, from repression back into his subconscious process. The sight of another man usurping the role from which he restrained himself for so long brings Hamlet almost physical pain: “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,” (I.ii 133-134) Hamlet describes his anguish from his mother’s remarriage as unbearable, wanting to escape his own body to be relieved of it. Hamlet is made uncomfortable by his own body and wishes to be freed of it because the subconscious incestuous desire for his mother is present and conflicts deeply with his religious morals.
“the long-repressed desire to take his father’s place in his mother’s affections is stimulated to unconscious activity by the sight of someone usurping the place exactly as he himself had once longed to do” (Jones, 142)
Jones speaks to this theory of multi-level conflict and the presence of subconscious intuitions. The conflict of the two reflexes of religion and oedipal relationship, put Hamlet through significant mental suffering, characterized by his suicidal thoughts and sensual, but degrading descriptions of his own mother. This conflict cause hamlet to take a much larger concern in his mother’s sexual life than any regular son would. “She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (I.ii 161-162). All of this pain being stirred up by his mother’s marriage to Claudius causes Hamlet to develop a deeply rooted hatred for her and all women.
As the play progresses Hamlet is allowed time to scheme and flip the very issues which causes his hatred for his mother and uses them as ways to love her. Hamlet’s nature as a thinker and a philosophical man make this emotional and intellectual maneuver possible. The duty thrust onto him by the ghost asks for not just vengeance against Claudius but for the protection of his mother, and this is Hamlet’s motivation to convert his hate to love. To respect the wishes of his father Hamlet must transform the negative to positive and that is no easy feat.
Hamlet uses the issue of betrayal, which previously enraged him so severely, as a way to try to love his mother again. Hamlet is a deeply religious man and wishes to cleanse his mother of her sin for her immoral actions. “Confess yourself to heaven. Repent what’s past. Avoid what is to come” (III.iv 152-153). Hamlet yearns for his mother’s redemption and salvation because he wants to have her avoid the fires of hell referred to as ‘what’s to come’. Through her abandonment of Claudius Hamlet feels she can return to a pious state and redeem her soul. Hamlet then directly pleads for her to withhold information from Claudius about the truth of his antic disposition:
’Twere good you let him know
For who that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib
Such dear concerning’s hidden?” (III.iv 210-213)
Hamlet tells Gertrude to tell Claudius that Hamlet is mad. He does this out of instinct for self-preservation and his love for his mother. He shows his love by his belief that she is above the king in moral quality and has a redeemable character. Hamlet’s love for his mother is exemplified by his hope for her redemption of quality in her religious soul.
Hamlet then uses the issue of sex to resolve his Oedipal resentment for his mother. Hamlet instructs his mother to withhold herself from the king. This act, if followed through on, would remove the necessity for competition that an oedipal relationship relies on. In Act 3 scene 4 after Hamlet has murdered Polonius, Hamlet towers over the lifeless body of Polonius and pleads for his mother to leave Claudius and refrain from her sexually conspicuous actions with him: “But go not to my uncle’s bed / Assume a virtue if you have it not.” (3.4 180). This quote shows Hamlet wishes to redeem Gertrude to himself by having her take a moral high ground to the king. This shows his love by his wish for her to have morality return to her actions and save her immortal soul from damnation which his religious beliefs demand. The sentiment of Hamlet working to save his mother is proof of how his hatred for his mother morphs into a love by the end of the play.
The transition is made possible by Hamlet’s deeply philosophical and self-aware mind. He knows his issues and seeks to fix them to avenge his father, save himself and redeem his mother. The relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude cannot be defined by one emotion but by a transition of hatred to love through the goodness of intellectual and philosophical analysis transcending emotion. While the dynamic between a mother and son can be overwhelmed with one feeling, the impermanence of that feeling and the inevitable growth and change cannot be understated. Through hatred, anguish and spite the maternal bond will always remain.
Annotated Bibliography
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Oxford University Press, 1922.
Hamlet was written in 1599 by sir William Shakespeare and is considered by many academics to be his greatest achievement. This play will be the subject of my comparison and contrast.
Jones, Ernest. “Hamlet and Oedipus.” Google Books, Google Scholar, 1949, books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2hsTCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA139&dq=ha et%27s%2Blove%2Bfor%2Bophelia&ots=iu74ZgyU06&sig=OJGx8OBNlRixdPBTZD o6S_TE6I&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=true
This article was written by Ernest Jones in 1949. Jones was a lifelong friend of Sigmund Freud and used the article to detail the application of Freud’s Oedipus complex theory in the case of namesake character young Hamlet in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. The articles’ insight into the multi-level consciousness and its conflicts in Hamlet will be useful.
Eliot, Thomas Stearns. “Hamlet and His Problems.” Academia Edu, Google Scholar, 1922,
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This article was written by T.S. Eliot in 1922. The article gives an interesting view on the overall achievement of Shakespeare in the work, maintaining Hamlet relationship with his mother as the centerpiece. This article will prove useful with its commentary on the larger effect of hamlet’s experience with his mother.