ENG4U1 - A Study of Hamlet : Hamlet and Filial Duty
William Shakespeare - Father and Son Facts:
Shakespeare's only son was named Hamnet (also written “Hamlet”), who died of unknown
causes in 1596 at age eleven. In conceiving a play that begins and ends with a father and son so
named, Shakespeare must have been recalling his own personal loss. He may have also been
anticipating the death of his father in 1601 (due to a lengthy illness). Hamlet's compulsion to help
the ghost has sometimes been read as indicative of the playwright's own guilt regarding his father,
whom he left behind in Stratford in order to go to London.
The Role of the Father in Hamlet:
A recurrent theme in Shakespeare's histories and tragedies is the pressure on sons to live
up to the reputation of their fathers, and this is a pressure that Hamlet feels keenly. Though
he shares his father's name, he doubts that he has inherited the former king's virtues. In fact,
strangely enough, he seems to identify more strongly with his flawed uncle, Claudius, whom he
seems to despise.
It is partly on the basis that British psychoanalyst, Ernest Jones, developed his Oedipal
theory of Hamlet, based on Sigmund Freud's, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). In an essay
published in 1910, Jones theorized that Hamlet cannot kill Claudius because the latter has acted
on Hamlet's own subconscious desire to murder his father and then marry his own mother.
However, if Hamlet's feelings about his father are truly conflicted – perhaps existing as a
complex combination of hero-worship, resentment, guilt, and aggression – he is certainly not
alone in the play in feeling a duty to take revenge. Laertes plays the role of the avenging son
while Hamlet is absent in England, and what is at stake is usefully clarified by the dialogue
between him and Claudius. Where Claudius makes it a matter of proving filial affection in Act
IV, scene vii, Laertes is more concerned with proving his paternity in Act IV, scene v:
That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me
bastard.
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste unsmirched brow
Of my true mother.
This same question of legitimacy also deeply affects Hamlet: if his mother has committed
adultery before, then this whole relationship to his father is potentially cast in doubt. Other
Hamlet doubles in the play are young Fortinbras, heir to the throne of Norway, whose father was
killed by King Hamlet, and an allusion to the Greek warrior Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, who
avenges the death of his father at the fall of Troy (as recounted by the player's speech in Act II,
scene ii). Both men are capable of bloody and wasteful action in pursuit of revenge; they are
what Hamlet desires and partly fears to become.
Questions to Consider:
1. Is the theme of paternal influence framed in a positive or negative light in the play thus far?
2. Do you believe that Hamlet's hidden feelings toward his father (and perhaps his own
mother) are the root cause of his continued indecisiveness and his hesitation to kill
Claudius?
3. Identify one other father-child relationship in the play that explores paternal influence and
control. What ultimate affect do you think this relationship will have on the development
of the child character in the play? Why is this significant to the thematic progression of the
play?