Hamlet, a Tragedy of Suspended Subject

Traditionally, Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been regarded as a literary reference for psychoanalysis. In the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis, Hamlet is a tragedy of a man whose predicament is having lost the way of his desire as it is confused with the desire of the Other. The case study of prince Hamlet indicates that he is entangled within blocked desire whereof no escape seems probable. He mourns upon his dead father (that works as a sign of phallus in Lacan’s term), but it helps him no withdrawal from a loved one. Normally, it is accepted that when the work of mourning is complete, then the subject is free and able to direct his desire toward the other objects. Lacan argues that Hamlet is unable to mourn his father because his mother unexpectedly married the uncle, and so replaced the symbolic father. It is only at the end of the play, when fatally injured, that Hamlet finally distinguishes his position as a subject.