The "Oedipus Complex" compared to "Hamlet"

Freud delved into this idea of children desiring the parent of the opposite sex for themselves and hating the parent of the same sex because they take away the parent of the opposite sex. His idea of this psychosexual attachment of a parent, which is taboo in most societies, was later named by Freud “The Oedipus Complex”, after the play Oedipus the King, which was written by Sophocles, one of the great ancient Greek tragedians. For example, “At the core of Freud’s sexual theory is the so-called “Oedipus Complex”, something Freud believed all children experience as a rite of passage to adult gender identity” (Rivkin 391). In order to cope with this desire which is not acceptable in society these children learn to repress these feelings and identify with the parent of the same sex. This action allows these feelings to remain in the unconscious and to overcome this desire. For example, “The male child learns to give up his initial ‘pre-Oedipal’ desire for and attachment to the mother; instead, he identifies with the father…and learns to desire other women than the mother” (Rivkin 391). This is displayed in Shakespeare’s story Hamlet which shows the protagonist struggle with his desire for his mother once his father has been murdered and his uncle has taken his Father's place with the mother. With Hamlet's Father's role being retaken, Hamlet must relive all over again the psychosexual feelings that he has repressed for his mother since a child. Hamlet’s expresses this "Oedipus Complex" struggle in the scene where he goes to visit his mother in her bedchamber. The intimate quarrel that appears between the two during this scene seems to trigger about Oedipus’s already disturbed repressed feelings.