ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis is based largely on the principle that mental trends hidden from the subject himself may come to external expression in ways that reveal their nature to a trained observer. Accordingly, Ernest Jones's interpretation assigns to Hamlet feelings and motives that are never directly expressed in the play. Indeed, Hamlet expresses nothing but love for his father and nothing but contempt and hate for Claudius. These facts do not in themselves contradict the psychoanalytic interpretation, for presumably Hamlet's conscience would not only demand that his guilty emotions be utterly repressed, but that his conscious mind avow only their direct opposites. It is true that the oedipal situation seems more overt in Hamlet than in other plays; however, as Jones himself admits, the dates and circumstances are too indeterminate to allow us to regard Freud's supposition from being any more than an inspired guess, which, however, may be greatly inspired. Finally, psychoanalysis suggests that Hamlet is a unified whole.
