Mother and Son: The Dynamics of Hamlet’s Cartesian Madness

Introduction In his Hamlet essay: "Hamlet and His Problems," T.S. Eliot conceived Hamlet as an artistic failure, pointing at the inexplicable manner in which Hamlet is obsessed with his mother's behavior; and how in terms of an objective correlative, Gertrude is not only an inadequate object for the emotions generated in the play, but also unable to support them. In other words, the problem of the play lies not in the character of Hamlet, but in the author's treatment of "the effect of a mother's guilt upon her son." (1) But might there be an image that distills Hamlet's emotional connection to his mother? Picture Hamlet standing in the graveyard contemplating the universal and fleeting nature of life, while also holding the skull of Yorick, the symbol of all that is wild, silly and ridiculous. Might such a juxtaposition of consciousness correspond to the conceptual form of Descartes' Cogito, whereby a determined reason and a determined madness stand both together, and yet separate? By the same token, while Elliot's superego considered Shakespeare, the artist, incapable of controlling his disordered subjectivity and to transform it to the literary tradition that preceded him or surrounded him, might the philosophical form of the Cogito, which Shakespeare implicitly pre-figures in the play, be the form which helps to understand Hamlet's intense feelings towards his mother's sexual behavior? (2) In keeping with the assertion that the play as a whole is problematic, Eliot also suggests that Stoll is correct in steering away from a psychological reading of the leading character, in terms of staying "nearer in spirit to Shakespeare's art." (3) In this respect, it seems that Eliot is correct in asserting that some other factor must be responsible for Hamlet's emotions. However, in asserting that the dominating emotion is "inexpressible, because it is in excess of the facts as they appear" (4) seems to be misleading in terms of Eliot's underestimation of the play's philosophical dimensions, and the degree that Hamlet's psychological response to his philosophical concerns spills over to his perception and judgment of his mother's behavior. In contrast, it will be developed how Hamlet's judgment of his mother's sexual behavior and her shameless attitude toward it, is intensified by his own restless sense of shame related to his unguarded philosophical doubts. A) Hamlet's Pre-Cartesian Doubt In keeping with Eliot's assertion that "there was an older play by Thomas Kyd," (5) most critics agree that Kyd probably wrote the UR-Hamlet, performed during the late 1580's and early 1590's. Considering that Kyd's version already contained the elements of the Ghost, the play within the play, etc, as well as the conditions of the Elizabethan stage and conventions of the revenge tragedy, it would give great insight into Shakespeare's innovations and underlying intentions. Since the primary source has been irrevocably lost, Shakespeare's intentions are not clear and remain shrouded in mystery. However, contrary to Eliot's assertion that "in the earlier play the motive was a revenge-motive simply; that the action or delay is caused, as in the Spanish Tragedy, solely by the difficulty of assassinating a monarch surrounded by guards," (6) MacCary asserts that while the questioning of the role of the avenger was a "creaking convention" in the genre of the revenge drama, as demonstrated in the Spanish Tragedy, which Hamlet closely parallels, it is undoubtedly raised to the level of profound philosophical speculation in Hamlet. (7) In other words, notwithstanding the "verbal parallels" between the two plays, Shakespeare was not, as Eliot suggests, "merely revising the text of Kyd." (8) In fact, as soon as the audience begins to experience the drama unfold before them, it is evident the customary authority has been altered, if not inverted. Rather than being asked by Francisco, who is on duty, Bernardo, who is obviously anxious about the strange visitations of the Ghost who has been "usurp[ing]" the "night"(I. …