The Hamlet In The Perspective Of Freudian Psychoanalysis

William Faulkner is one of the greatest writers in modern America. His works have been widely studied, but most of the critical attention goes to his several classic works such as The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom and Go Down, Moses, while the works created in his later life are not adequately analyzed.The Hamlet is a representative work among Faulkner's later works, and it plays a very important role in Faulkner's writing career. The thesis is to analyze Faulkner's later work The Hamlet from three perspectives of unconsciousness and consciousness, personality structure and symbolism.Firstly, the thesis analyzes unconscious desires and conscious rationality of the major male characters in The Hamlet based on Freud's consciousness and unconsciousness theory. The three major male characters can be said as combinations of unconscious desires and conscious rationality. Flem Snopes, Will Varner and Ratliff are three major male characters in The Hamlet. They have their own unconscious desires for social position, reputation or fortune. However, their desires are against morality and social customs in the Frenchman's Bend. Therefore, these desires are repressed into their unconsciousness. A sense of nervousness would appear in the unconsciousness due to the repression, and one must look for a way on the consciousness to release the sense. Their rationality could be considered the way of realizing their unconscious desires on the conscious level. Their rationality is seen in their language, actions or manners and so on. Therefore, the major male characters could be taken as combinations of unconscious desires and conscious rationality.Secondly, the thesis will analyze the major female character Eula Varner based upon the theory of personality structure. Freud believes that the personality structure of man contains the id, the ego and the superego. The id is the bottom part of the unconscious mind, and it acts according to the primary principle of pleasure. The ego serves as intermediary between the external world and the id. It operates according to the reality principle. The superego holds up certain norms of behavior, without regard to any difficulties coming from the id and the external world. Eula is a major female character in The Hamlet. There is a corresponding relationship between the id, the ego and the superego and her devil nature, human nature and saint nature. Her devil nature and the id, human nature and the ego, saint nature and the superego correspond with each other. According to the theory, the three parts of personality structure are unified and coordinated mutually. Therefore, we could say that Eula is the trinity of devil nature, human nature and saint nature.Thirdly, the thesis is going to analyze symbols in The Hamlet from the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis. According to Freud, arts are systematized, objectified and visualized day-dreams. They symbolize the writer's unconscious desires. In arts, symbols are often used as the agency to combine the outer and the inner, the conscious and the unconscious together. Therefore, to analyze a literary work well, we should ruin the surface structure of arts to seek the unconscious meanings from symbols like incidents, plots, details and sceneries in the work. From the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis, many symbolic images are related to the unconscious desire. There are two main symbols that symbolize people's unconscious desire in The Hamlet. The first one is buggies Eula uses, and the other is activities such as singings and baptizing. Both symbolize the original sexual desire of the male villagers in the Frenchman place. To analyze these symbols deepens our understanding of the nature of human embodied in the novel.In conclusion, after analyzing The Hamlet from three perspectives of consciousness and unconsciousness, personality structure and symbolic psychoanalysis, we get to know that Flem, Varner and Ratliff are combinations of unconscious desires and conscious rationality; Eula is the trinity of devil nature, human nature and saint nature; the transporting tool Eula uses and activities people organize are related to people's unconscious desires. Thus, a conclusion could be reached that William Faulkner's The Hamlet is a great novel of demonstrating the depth and complexity of nature of human in the perspective of Freudian psychoanalysis.