Hamlet, Tragic Hero or Self-indulgence

Abstract

The paper explores, examines and reinterprets the text Hamlet from a psychoanalytic point of view that has been suggested but has not been explored in detail. The paper tries to discern whether the actions of Hamlet truly qualifies as a revenge or if the associated tragic connotations are simply from family fallouts, disagreements and misunderstandings that lead to subsequent tragic actions due to Hamlet’s oedipal complex. Hamlet’s obsession and his self-indulgence seems to be key to his ‘actions’ in the play. The paper shows as to why Hamlet should be regarded as a story about petty ‘revenge’ and as to why Hamlet as a traditional tragic hero fails, based on the arguments on the actuality of the Ghost not to mention the actuality of the circumstantial situation represented Hamlet is not a traditional tragic hero for the simple reason that he does not satisfy the aesthetical reasons to be labeled a traditional tragic hero because the reasons for his actions are more for personal satisfaction then noble or honorable. Finally, Hamlet is a personnel vendetta story, a Prince who takes vengeance for something that he cannot posses, mainly his mother. The Oedipal complex is why and where the tragedy starts and ends in Hamlet. It is not something that is Epical in nature but personnel.