Revenge is more important than the Oedipus complex in HamletA boy's revenge streak is not always simply Oedipal. Hamlet's revenge and the situations that prompt it are not based on his love for his mother, but on the need to avenge his father's death. Although Hamlet is the only one who hears the ghost speak, others experience it. This proves that he is not unconsciously creating the hallucination to rid his mother of her new lover. After learning that his father was murdered and that no one witnessed his death, Hamlet feels obligated to punish the killer. Even though the murderer is his mother's new husband, Hamlet acts to avenge his father's death, not out of jealousy toward his mother's partner. Hamlet is very angry with Gertrude, his mother, for marrying so soon after the death of her first husband. His fury is based solely on his mother's quick marriage and who she married, not on Hamlet's sexual desires toward his mother. Even though Hamlet loves his mother, his vengeful actions are based on his need to avenge old Hamlet's untimely death. The Oedipus complex is a "universal law" that suggests that all boys become their mother's lover in dreams. “Freud believed that at the stage of phallic development, every boy becomes his mother's lover in his dreams”(1). This may lead them to try to rid their mother of her lover out of jealousy. In Hamlet's case, his revenge is not based on his sexual desires for his mother but on his need to punish his father's murderer. Old Hamlet's mind, which was seen by Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus before they even had access to Hamlet, is not a product of Hamlet's imagination. Hamlet did not unconsciously create the mind as a means to create a reason for ...... middle of paper ...... revenge on a faithful son. Works cited and consulted: Adelman, Janet. Suffocating mothers: fantasies of maternal origin in Shakespeare's plays, from “Hamlet” to “The Tempest”. London and New York: Routledge. 1992. Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reeseman, and John R. Willingham. A handbook of critical approaches to literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Heilman, Robert B. “The Role We Give Shakespeare.” Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965. Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeare's Women. Np: np, 1981.Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Shakespeare by the River. ED. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Haughton Mifflin Company, 1974.