Hamlet the Characters of Hamlet Term Paper

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Of course, the last thing on Hamlet's mind would be marriage since he is wrestling with the tragedy of his father's death and his mother's betrayal. In light of all of these facts it is very unlikely that Polonius would be wrong, and it seems that his observations and expectations of his daughter are quite astute.

On the opposite end of Ophelia's situation is Hamlet, who is very much the Id. Hamlet himself is extremely emotional and impulsive, allowing his Id to overcome him in many situations. He wrestles with his own conscious, and as a character, he is truly one of the most fully developed, showing evidence of the inner conflict that Freud set out to illustrate with his components of personality. However, when it comes to his relationship with Ophelia, he is very much her Id. Though she has convinced herself that Hamlet loved her, he himself states that this is not the case. The confused emotional state of Ophelia, and the escalating intensity of Hamlet's own madness makes is difficult to determine which, if either, is true. Ophelia's love for Hamlet drives her to convince herself that his love was true, and that she did not give in to her baser impulses by being with him. He, on the other hand has lost all of his impulse control and allows his perceptions of his mother's betrayal seep into his own relationships, convincing himself that Ophelia is a fickle and deceitful lover, just as all women must be. Hamlet's lack of impulse control and his lustful desires of Ophelia place him clearly in the realm of the Id, at least where Ophelia is concerned.

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Ophelia is clearly torn between two worlds and the accompanying impulses of those worlds. Just as the Ego must regulate the mostly opposing views of the Superego and the Id, Ophelia must attempt to balance the expectations of her father with the desires of Hamlet. Freud speculated that it is the inability to find a place of stasis between the Id and the Superego that causes neuroses, which then leads to dysfunction, and then, in the most extreme cases, to insanity. A healthy individual is able to moderate both the extreme demands and expectations of the Superego and the base impulses of the Id. Ophelia clearly lacks the ability to moderate and reconcile the opposing demands of her father, or Superego, and Hamlet, her Id. This failure to balance the expectations and desires ultimately leads to her sinking further into madness, and her eventually succumbing to the overwhelming tug-of-war by taking her own life. In this particular battle of the Id vs. The Superego, it is neither the Id or the Superego that ultimately suffers from the conflict, it is the Ego. Poor Ophelia is caught in a cycle that is irreconcilable and ultimately chooses the only solution that she can find to solve….....

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