Hamlet’s failure of mourning: other characters’ interference and Hamlet’s melancholia

This thesis explores how Hamlet’s mourning is obstructed by first Hamlet’s mother and Claudius, then Ophelia, and last by other substitute family members, so that Hamlet reaches melancholic suicidal desire. To clarify the dependence of Hamlet’s revenge on his mother’s sexuality and Hamlet’s attempt to repress his Oedipal desire as a reason of Hamlet’s inability to finish mourning, I first argue that Hamlet’s melancholia, following Sigmund Freud’s conceptualization, is caused by his anxiety, following the reading of Jacques Lacan. Next, I question how Hamlet’s mourning with his mother and transference of his mourning to Ophelia and other substitute family members is obstructed. My main argument is that, while Claudius rejects his mourning and confirms his obligation to revenge, Hamlet’s mourning is rejected by all characters he mourns with: his mother, Ophelia, and his substitute siblings. Moreover, his mourning is interfered with by Ophelia and other substitute family members – Polonius and Laertes.