Hamlet’s Id, Ego, and Superego condition in his internal conflicts in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

ABSTRACT

The solar system including earth and its contents, such as human beings, animals, and plants, are perfectly created by God. He creates this life without any mistakes. He divides his creatures into two categories; those that are living and those that are dead. Humans and plants, both are living organism. One thing that distinguishes human beings from other creatures is humans have a brain. With this surplus, humans are able to think, differentiate right from wrong, and create. An example of humanity’s ability to create can be seen in literary works, such as poetry, novel, prose, and drama. The drama chosen is a tragic drama written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet Prince of Denmark. In this drama, Hamlet is uncertain what to do or how to react. We could say it as Hamlet’s mind conflict which happens in his Id, Ego, and Superego.

Related to this case, in accordance to answer the question in the statements of the problem, this study is intended to discover Hamlet’s Id, Ego, ad Superego condition in his internal conflicts he suffers in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

The method used, indirectly, handles a great role in constructing the study systematically. In proportion to the purpose of the literary study, the suitable research design for this study is literary criticism. Literary criticism is an effort to estimate and comprehend the creative writing, the literature of an author. Literary criticism is usually expressed in the form of a critical essay. This study is a literary criticism since in this study the researcher conducts discussion of literary works, a drama, which is related to psychological condition of the main character, Hamlet. That is why Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis is selected. In this research, the researcher uses psychoanalysis literary criticism because the story of Hamlet shows the influence of Id, Ego, and Superego drives the main character’s actions, thoughts and decisions of his personality.

For the findings, the researcher found three internal conflicts. In every Hamlet’s internal conflict, the researcher found more than one mind conflict happened in the id, ego, and superego of Hamlet which role his actions. In Hamlet’s first internal conflict is found three mind conflicts, they are the result of the loss of his father, back to Wittenberg, and The hasty marriage of his mother. While in Hamlet’s second internal conflict, three mind conflicts are found, they are Horatio’s information about the ghost appearance, the first meeting with the ghost, and the truth revelation of his father’s death. In his third internal conflict, two mind conflicts are found; they are a plan to make a play within a play and a perfect time.