Free Hamlet Essays: Freud and Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

Hamlet Essay:   Freud and Hamlet    Freud believed that Hamlet did not kill Claudius the first time he saw him because Hamlet saw himself as the enemy. This sounds like a solid reason to me.   Who am I to say that it is not?   However,   I also find   Samuel Taylor Coleridge's   reasoning very interesting.   He believed that Hamlet did not kill Claudius the first time because he was praying.   This sounds almost too easy, although very legitimate.   Now, I am not one to say which interpretation is right, or even ponder if either is right; however, they both come credible critics. So, who is right and who is wrong--that is the question?   No?   Maybe both are right to an extent. We do not actually know what Shakespeare was feeling when writing Hamlet.     Ã‚   This brings me to the point Chris Early made previously.   I, like Chris, do not believe that works should only be investigated on the surface, but it is difficult to uncover every meaning of every aspect of every work.   Is there always something bigger and more meaningful than the original words?   Sometimes I would say yes, and sometimes no.   So, this leads me to my next question: how does one know if the words mean something bigger or not?   I believe that there is no actual way to know if something has hidden meaning or not; therefore, almost everything is scrutinized as if it does.   I am not trying to make silly excuses;   I am being completely serious.   No one, even the great critics, know what is symbolic and what is not; therefore everything is considered symbolic in the beginning, causing some sort of symbolism to be uncovered.  Ã‚   Whether this symbolism is correct, no one will actually know.   As Chris touched on, who knows what Shakespeare was thinking when writing Hamlet?   We can only make educated guesses at what Hamlet was thinking when he withdrew from killing Claudius the first time.   These educated guesses come from what the reader thinks, along with what critics have interpreted and written.