DEFENSIVE MECHANISMS AS COVER IN HAMLET
One of the aspects of tragedy is that the protagonist faces a great crisis that challenges his human power. In Hamlet, this aspect of tragedy is treated within one of the great tensions of the play which is Hamlet's indecisive attitude towards his main task. He has been given a compelling task to avenge his father's death. His continuous delay in his task creates suspense and suggests Hamlet's tendency to evade this task. His evasion of the task and rationalization of this evasion is covered by various psychological defensive mechanisms: Deep Depression, Hopelessness to the Value of Life, Dread of Death, Self Accusations, and Desperate Attempts to Excuse Procrastination.
The first psychological defensive mechanism to be studied is Deep Depression. Hamlet, having lost his father recently, his mother suddenly marrying his uncle, undergoes a serious depression. Thus, Hamlet is suffering from losing such a perfectly noble father, a king and witnessing the insensitive or incestuous, as Hamlet defines, act of his mother. Early in the play, Hamlet's depression is portrayed through his soliloquy about the futility of life, suicide, death, his nihilistic outlook towards everything. He wishes that committing suicide would not be a blasphemy against God because he cannot see any use or any meaning in his desperate life:
O, that is too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon gainst self-slaughter. O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!'
(I, II, 129)
After talking with his father's spirit, his depression increases because now he has the burden of the knowledge that his uncle has killed his father. Sometimes, he shares his deep depression with other people like Guildenstern and Rosencrantz when he says Denmark's a prison' or this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory' ( II, II). Metaphorically, Denmark is a prison to Hamlet which confines his mind and his actions. Moreover, he cannot leave Denmark because he has a task to perform but he cannot perform the task either. In other words, Hamlet's deep depression becomes both the result and cause for his evasion of the task: Hamlet's mind is occupied with his deep depression and he rationalizes his evasion with this occupation. However, his depression worsens as he delays his compelling task given by his respectable noble king.
Another defensive mechanism Hamlet operates in his evasion of the task is Hopelesness to the Value of Life. In relation to his deep depression, Hamlet has the habit of questioning the value of life and mankind in the world. His hopelessness is clear in the expression below:
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
( I, II, 133)
Hamlet cannot see any point of living in a desperate, painful life. Both he is hopeless to the value of life in general and he is also hopeless to his own life. He says: I do not set my life at a pin's fee' ( I, IV) when Horatio warns him not to follow the ghost for the fear of any possible harm to Hamlet. He is also questioning the value of man in the universe and is trying to understand the place of man who suffers, endures all the pains. In other words, he wants to see the big design behind all the futile and meaningless worldly deeds:
What a piece of work is a man: how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties;
in form and moving, how express and admirable; in action, how like an angel;
in apprehension how like a god; the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals;
and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
(II, II, 298)
While questioning the value of the life, Hamlet is questioning the value of fulfilling the task given to him. Since he doesn't see any value, purposefulness, meaning in the deeds of man and man itself, he is blinding himself to the purposefulness and value of his duty of avenging his father. He seems to ask himself what the point of avenging his father in this futile sterile life. His melancholic and philosophical quests compel him into deeper thinking before taking any action.
Dread of Death is another defensive mechanism Hamlet uses. He wants to die and put an end to his suffer and miserable life, he even wishes that suicide weren't a big sin. Yet, he fears death and cannot find the courage to commit suicide. He questions and finds some answers for himself the reasons behind the dread of death in his famous soliloquy, To be or not to be':
To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
(III, I, 64)
If humankind knew what is after death, no one would endure all the sufferings and pains in this world. Since we don't know what is waiting for us when we die, we fear the unknown. Fear for the unknown can be Hamlet's answer for the reason why people do not commit suicide. Another explanation might be the concept of oedipus complex. According to the oedipus complex, killing Claudius is killing himseld since Claudius occupies the status of his mother's husband that he yearns to have. Thus the dread of death is a kind of unconscious excuse for not taking any action of killing Claudius.
Towards the end of the play, Hamlet is more successful in coping with dread of death. He resigns to his fate and his death and decides not to run away from his destiny. Here, in the quotation below he presents another perspective which is As no dead man knows what he is leaving behind, does it matter if one departs early?' Not knowing what is after death is replaced with not knowing what is left behind when you die. In the quotation below Hamlet in a way, answers to the rhetorical question To be or not to be?'
If it be now, this not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now;
if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.
Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows: what is't to leave betimes? Let be.
( V, II, 215)
Self- accusations are mostly used as a defensive mechanism in the play. Hamlet has been so occupied with the deep thoughts about the value of life, the nature of death, his depression that he has delayed his task to avenge his father's death. The task is given by his noble father's spirit so the task must be respected and should be carried out right away according to conventions. Hamlet is clearly aware of his delay and accuse himself for it in many parts of the play. When he compares himself to the player who talks passionately with full of tears about Hecuba, he says:
Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak
Like John-a dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
(II, II, 550)
He calls himself a rouge and peasant slave', pigeon-livered', coward', a scullion" for not taking any action but just talking about his actions. It is possible that he knows he is not man of action and curses his nature for his profound thinking and his conscience which is an obstacle for his task. Additionally, when Hamlet thinks he is certain about the identity of the murderer of his father, he believes that has got no reason for delaying his task. Before that, he finds the excuse of not being sure of the killer of his father or whether the ghost is telling the truth. He has every appropriate circumstance but he stil cannot take an action. He constantly promises to take action when he sees he cannot, he starts to humiliate himself and accuses his motives for his failure. Hamlet tries to understand the reason why he cannot take action:
Now, whether it be
Bestival oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th'event, I do not know
Why yet I live to say This thing's to do'
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means to do't.
(IV, IV, 39)
The final defensive mechanism in the play is Desperate Attempts to Excuse Procrastination. Hamlet either evades the task of avenging his father or he makes up excuses for his procrastination. One of the excuses is that the ghost might be an evil illusion who tempts him to put himself into danger and Hamlet thinks that it is not a relative ground to kill someone. Although he has witnesses, he delays his task for finding more reliable sources to be completely sure of the murderer. As a result, he comes up with the play within the play idea to observe his uncle's looks and catch the conscience of the King:
the spirit that I have seen
May be the devil and the devil hath power
T'assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses met o damn me. I'll have grounds
More relative than this. The play is the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.'
(Act II, scene II, line 582)
Another example to Hamlet's excuse can be Claudius's prayer scene. In this scene, Hamlet sees Claudius while he is praying for forgiveness of heaven. The significant detail is that this is the best circumstance for Hamlet to take action because the king is alone. However, Hamlet chooses not to take action with his excuse that if he kills the king while he's praying, he will go to heaven. He tells:
Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying;
And now I'll do't; ( he draws his sword) and so goes to heaven,
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned
And am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
No. (He sheathes his sword)
( III, III, 73)
All the psychological defensive mechanisms, which are deep depression, hopelessness to the value of life, dread of death, self accusations and desperate attempts to excuse procrastination, serve as a cover for Hamlet's evasion of his task to avenge his father and rationalization of this evasion. Throughout the play, Hamlet's psychological development and his inner quests create the continuing suspense in the chain of events for the audience. The readers or the audience are provided with signs of Hamlet's defensive mechanisms so that they find their own answers for one of the main question of the play: Why does Hamlet delay his avenge? In the way of using defensive mechanism as a cover, Hamlet both delays himself and the audience. These defensive mechanisms reflect one more time that Hamlet is a man of thought rather than man of action.