Hamlet's Displacement as a Recurrent Case

Freudian Neurosis and Displacement

Freud's theory suggests that suppressing desires due to both obvious and hidden reasons can result in neurosis.
Individuals who are unable to achieve success may experience neurosis and redirect their frustrations toward others or objects.
This article examines how displacement is subtly addressed in Shakespeare's Hamlet and how it recurs in Willa Cather's A Lost Lady (1923) and Laila Al Halaby's Once in a Promised Land (2007).
It explores the underlying causes of neurosis in each work, how these causes lead to displacement, and the shared implications regarding displacement across different literary contexts.

Psychoanalysis and Literature

Both psychoanalysis and literary analysis encourage readers to contemplate the inner human psyche by exploring intense emotions and desires.
Psychoanalysis focuses on real individuals, while literary analysis examines fictional characters that reflect real-life situations.
Eileen McConnell argues that both fields offer insights into our inner world and how unconscious feelings shape our interactions with the external world.
Both psychoanalytic processes and literary reading offer ways of self-discovery, exploring both inner and outer worlds and their interaction, leading to greater self-understanding.

Freudian Psychoanalysis: Neurosis and Displacement

Freudian psychoanalysis explores how the mind responds to failure and investigates the unconscious motivations behind characters' carelessness, misery, disappointment, depression, and madness.
Life involves a cycle of gains and losses (sexual, emotional, social, etc.), where loss and the suppression of feelings of victory can lead to anguish and suffering.
In Studies of Hysteria (1895), Freud attributes anguish to unfulfilled desires that are beyond a person's capacity, often absorbed by the unconscious mind.
Hidden unconscious motives can explain why the relative intensity of different ideas seems inexplicable by psychological determinants alone.
Restless emotional or mental states arise from the perception that certain desires or goals will never be attained, affecting neurotic individuals consciously or unconsciously.
Unachievable ambitions can drive the mind to behave irrationally and trigger disturbing emotions. Neurosis has become a significant psychological disorder in the twenty-first century.
The Freudian interpretation of neurosis has sparked considerable debate among literary critics, especially in analyzing Hamlet's psyche.

Hamlet: A Neurotic Character

Shakespeare introduces Hamlet as a neurotic character whose personality significantly contributes to his restless mind.
Hamlet's neurosis stems from suppressed desires, including his inability to defy his uncle, his failure to gain love from his mother, and the loss of his throne after his father's murder.
Literary critics often analyze one element as the primary driver of Hamlet's behavior, blaming people who are not the root cause of his problems.
Terry Eagleton defines neurosis as a mild psychiatric disorder characterized by anxiety, depression, or hypochondria, associated with suppressed beliefs and desires lacking proper outlets.
Hamlet is seen as a prime example of a neurotic character, portrayed as mad, evil, and lost, a recurring archetype in modern and postmodern literature.
Edith Kurzweil notes various interpretations of Hamlet, from evil to good, lunatic to feminine, reflecting his reaction to a dissatisfying situation.

Interpretations of Hamlet's Behavior

Some critics view Hamlet as losing his rationality by unwillingly giving up both the throne and his mother to his uncle, resulting in an unreasonably long delay in avenging his father's death.
Joseph Carrol argues that Hamlet's broader perception leads him to think deeply instead of immediately killing his uncle.
Emily Anglin suggests that Hamlet shrewdly uses his melancholy to create privacy and eliminate his uncle.
R.S. White argues that smiles are psychological reactions that either reveal or conceal something.
Hamlet's delay in killing his uncle is attributed to his neurotic behavior, interpreted as madness or smartness; he is aware of his actions but lacks the courage to defy his uncle.
Hamlet displaces his hatred onto less threatening female characters, such as his mother and Ophelia, using displacement as a defense mechanism to overcome painful experiences, leading to hostility, madness, and indecisiveness.
Displaced people are often seen as mad or mentally unstable, leading to further losses and defeats.
According to Freud, when conscious purposive ideas are abandoned, concealed purposive ideas assume control, and superficial associations substitute suppressed deeper ones.
Frustration can be transferred to humans, animals, objects, and involve irrelevant actions/reactions.
In literature, male characters often attribute failure to female partners.
Neurosis and displacement have various connotations, all stemming from the fear of facing failure, which prevents characters from achieving their goals.

Positive Images of Family

Literature also offers positive images of family life, such as in Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story, where Jerry is surprised to meet Peter, who enjoys genuine mutual love with his wife and daughters.
Despite economic hardships, Peter maintains an ideal family life without external pressures affecting his psyche.
In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Scrooge breaks up with his fiancée, Belle, for wealth but later realizes her happiness with a loving family, highlighting her choice to avoid greed and hatred.
Scrooge's difficult childhood led him to pursue money as compensation for the loss of family life.

Hamlet as a Template for Family Literature Analysis

Hamlet provides a template for analyzing contentious family relationships in literature, especially concerning neurosis and displacement's influence on family members.

Displacement of Hostility Towards Women in Hamlet

Hamlet's plot shows how characters react irrationally to sudden changes; Claudius kills his brother, seizes the throne, marries Gertrude, and prevents Hamlet from becoming king.
The ghost urges Hamlet to seek justice, but Hamlet displaces his detestation for his uncle onto his mother, Gertrude, due to his inability to confront his uncle.
Hamlet's disappointment with his mother and her hasty marriage masks his weakness to defy his uncle, leading to misplaced fury against all women.
Hamlet considers Gertrude's deed an act of lust, becoming complicit in his father's murder by focusing on revenge against those who love him instead of Claudius.
This perplexity leads to his own destruction.
Hamlet's paradoxical happiness in unhappy situations signifies intentional displacement; he rejoices about life in the graveyard scene instead of feeling sad.
Stuart Schneiderman notes that Hamlet evades the truth about his weakness, making him appear mad and indecisive.
Even if Gertrude refused to marry Claudius, Hamlet would likely continue to accuse her of disloyalty and not defending the throne.
Hamlet directs far-fetched reactions towards his mother, urging her to repent and stop sinning, while he himself is sinful for targeting her instead of protecting her.
Hamlet's anger extends to Ophelia, with Eileen Cameron noting a transference of negative energy causing her death rather than Hamlet's.
Hamlet expresses anger about marriage and love to Ophelia, advising her to enter a nunnery to avoid breeding sinners, possibly alleviating his neurotic state by imagining his mother doing the same.
The displacement of hatred from Claudius to Gertrude to Ophelia is complete.
Hamlet describes his uncle's hideous face and soul indirectly through Ophelia's face, insisting on no more marriages to protect himself from facing his uncle.
The ghost clarifies that Gertrude is innocent and helpless, yet Hamlet's meetings with her and Ophelia are merciless, while encounters with his uncle are timid.
Hamlet avoids killing his uncle when praying, justifying it by religious belief, and instead asserts it to his mother, attempting to kill his uncle indirectly but killing Polonius instead, followed by Ophelia's death.
Hamlet realizes his irrational behavior hurt loved ones, but regret is futile; he discloses the true cause of suffering to Horatio, acknowledging Ophelia and his mother as victims of his fear.
In the end, Hamlet fights Laertes instead of his uncle, finally killing Claudius after his mother's death from poisoned wine; Hamlet himself dies from a poisoned blade.
Hamlet represents an individual imprisoned by his own fears of facing a challenge or changing his situation.

Other Characters Exhibiting Similar Displacement

Niel Herbert in A Lost Lady (1923) and Jassim Haddad in Once in a Promised Land (2007) also direct anger towards weaker female characters whom they love and ultimately lose.
Niel Herbert directs his anger towards Mrs. Marian Forrester because she is less threatening than Ivy Peter, who represents industrialism, and loses her love.
Jassim, a hydrologist, directs his hatred towards his wife Salwa because he cannot defy the political repercussions against Arabs after 9/11, and both regret their behavior after losing everything.

Hamlet's Incarnation as Niel Herbert in A Lost Lady

Hamlet's displacement gains new meaning when re-read psychoanalytically, and similarly, in Cather's novella, Niel Herbert becomes attached to Mrs. Marian Forrester, finding a father and mother figure in her and her husband.
Life was ideal when Captain Forrester was young, but old age, health issues, and the arrival of Ivy Peter threaten this, representing the intrusion of filthy industrialism and avarice.
Like Claudius stealing the throne, Ivy tries to take over Captain Forrester's plantation.
Susan Rosowski summarizes that the characters and settings symbolize ideas in a social allegory of the decline of the West.
The Forrester family is an ideal family for Niel; he admires Mrs. Forrester most in relation to her husband.
Like Gertrude, Mrs. Forrester is perceived as weak and unable to live alone, with residents anticipating Captain Forrester's death and highlighting the vulnerability after her husband passes.
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Forrester realizes she must sell the farm to Ivy Peter, remarry, and leave, similar to Hamlet's situation with his mother.
Unlike Hamlet, Niel is not portrayed as a hero, but after the death of the Captain, Niel views Mrs. Forrester as disloyal and discovers her drinking and affairs with Frank Ellinger and Ivy Peter to escape her weakness.
Anneliese H. Smith finds that this novella is similar in plot to Hamlet, echoing Hamlet's lines, and Cather identifies with Hamlet's sensitivity but also sees him as a boy.
Mrs. Forrester cannot face life alone after her husband's death; Willa Cather describes her aging and losing her vitality, weak and defeated like Gertrude.
Niel knows Mrs. Forrester faces winter with terror, but he never helps her, shocked by her affair with Ellinger and her allowing Ivy Peter to touch her.
Like Hamlet, despite being aware of her fragility, he blames her for being disloyal and sinful.
Susan J. Rosowski notes that Niel assumes Mrs. Forrester puts away her exquisiteness during her affair and recovers herself afterward.
Niel rejects Mrs. Forrester after overhearing her call with Ellinger, echoing Shakespeare's disillusionment and muttering about lilies festering worse than weeds.
The emergence of Ivy Peter devastates Niel's life, but despite awareness, he reprimands Mrs. Forrester instead of protecting her, similar to Hamlet's displaced hatred of Claudius onto Ophelia; Niel dislikes Ivy's selfish attitude and feels agitated but fears refusing him.
Niel resists hideous truths but is powerless, which allows Ivy to win the farm and force Mrs. Forrester to remarry, leading Niel to weary contempt.
Unlike Hamlet, who dies regretting his behavior, Niel chooses to bury the past and appreciates having known her but realizes he lost the plantation, Marian Forrester, and his ideal life.

Jassim Haddad in Once in a Promised Land

Similar to Niel, Jassim Haddad establishes a similar relationship with his wife, with his inability to be responsible leading him to lose his dream of being successful.

Events after 9/11 and Losing the Dream in Once in a Promised Land

Twenty-first-century literature by Arab writers in the diaspora reveals tensions between East and West due to terrorism, with Laila Al Halaby's novel offering insights into the struggles faced by Arab Americans post-9/11.
The clash is based on false stereotypes; Jassim Haddad, dreaming of becoming a renowned hydrologist, sees this dream dissipated by life in exile with his wife, Salwa Haddad, who also feels isolated.
Accusations of being a terrorist anger him, leading him to redirect frustration toward his wife, who has an affair with Jake, while he has an affair with Penny.
Marta Bosch-Vilarrubias notes that Arab American men suffer from a life-changing identity crisis post-9/11, experiencing both national and personal trauma.
Salwa blames Jassim for their situation and lack of love, while Jassim begins an unrequited love affair.
Characters are unable to challenge the hostile atmosphere, blaming each other instead, like Hamlet regretting behavior against the woman who loves him.
Ulrike Tancke proposes that trauma suffered by Salwa and Jassim has little to do with 9/11, but the repercussions from it influence state sponsored racism and resulting effects.
Before the 9/11 attacks, Jassim and Salwa Haddad led a positive life in Tucson, Arizona; afterward, Jassim becomes an FBI focus and Salwa longs for her homeland.
Like Niel Herbert, Jassim loves Salwa but consistently takes out his frustration; he follows Hamlet’s advice to Ophelia by compelling his wife to take birth control pills, possibly fearing the burden of children given his situation.
After 9/11, Jassim feels chained by suspicions and isolates himself from Salwa; Salwa watches TV and recognizes mental illnesses, feeling Jassim’s fear and nausea, while Jassim feels he has lost his position as a hydrologist.
Jassim does not dare to face the FBI to prove them wrong due to limited ability to challenge harmful stereotypes, which justifies Jassim and Salwa's choice of new friends
Jassim’s ignorance of Salwa's needs diverts frustration, especially regarding pregnancy; similarly to Hamlet, his behavior affects her emotionally and spiritually.
Salim Al-Ibia notes that attacks quickly turn the Haddads' happiness to misery, breaking them physically and spiritually, but Jassim prevents her from becoming pregnant, finding her alienated.
As a result, Salwa finds in Jack’s love some compensation. She finds that he is deceitful, leaves U.S., and returns to Jordan emotionally dead.
Jassim’s extends his frustration to Penny who finds Jassim unstable and unable to remain happy with her, then feels the need to reconcile his relationship with Salwa.
Jassim lacks a deep love for Penny, which is found in marital respect, predictability and security in romantic life between Salwa's friends.
At the end of the novel, like Hamlet, Jassim realizes that he has devastated loved ones and says he is ready for a family with Salwa, whether in the US or elsewhere.
Both characters suffer consequences of the political situation and the disconnection from one another; similar to Hamlet, Niel, and Jassim have lost the company of women they love.

Conclusion

Freud states that happiness comes from satisfying needs that have been dammed up, while neurosis and displacement bring more misery, due to improper reactive way to the dilemmas they face.
Hamlet's dilemma stifles him and makes him incapable of doing anything, and is aware of his actions but unable to act properly.
Thomas MacCary comments on Hamlet’s situation. Hamlet wants to but cannot avenge his father's death, feeling resentment toward the one who can do so.
Hamlet's soliloquy expresses the psychological state of many literary characters. Likewise, the characters of Niel Herbert and Jassim Haddad choose their respective situations of death, failure, and pain.
Irrespective of social position, cultural background, and time period, the three characters choose to avoid encountering the true cause of their suffering, thereby emotionally damaging the love and respect of other characters.
Steven Salaita says that Once in a Promised Land is not just about Arab problems post 9/11, but generally regards the universal flaws and desires of humankind.