At the heart of Lacan's reading is the concept of desire, which plays a crucial role in understanding Hamlet's delay in avenging his father’s death. Lacan emphasizes that Hamlet’s desire is not merely personal but is shaped by his relationship to the symbolic order, particularly his position in relation to language, law, and the Name-of-the-Father (a concept central to Lacan's work, representing the authority of the father and the law).
Lacan interprets Hamlet’s hesitation as stemming from a fundamental misrecognition of his own desire. Hamlet's desire is intertwined with the desire of others, particularly the desire of his mother, Gertrude, and the lost paternal authority of King Hamlet. For Lacan, Hamlet is caught in the web of what Lacan calls "triangular desire"—the idea that desire is always mediated by another, and in this case, Hamlet's desire is mediated by his unconscious identification with his mother’s desire.
Lacan states:
"Hamlet’s desire is essentially desire for the desire of the Other, and this is precisely why he hesitates and delays." (Lacan, Seminar VI)
Hamlet is thus unable to act because he is not fully in touch with his own desire. His desire is displaced, particularly onto his mother, Gertrude, which complicates his relationship with both Claudius and the task of revenge.
Lacan’s theory of the phallus is also central to his interpretation of Hamlet. In Lacanian theory, the phallus is not just a physical organ but a symbolic representation of power, authority, and desire. Hamlet’s dilemma revolves around his relationship to this symbolic phallus, which has been usurped by Claudius when he took both the throne and Gertrude as his wife.
For Lacan, the phallus represents the law of the father (the symbolic order), and Hamlet is caught in a struggle to reclaim it. However, Hamlet’s problem is that he cannot fully identify with the phallic authority because he has lost his father (the ultimate symbolic bearer of the phallus), and Claudius has taken his place. Claudius’s role as both father-figure and rival to Hamlet places him in a position of symbolic authority that Hamlet cannot immediately overthrow.
"Hamlet is immobilized because the phallic signifier has been taken by Claudius. The usurper not only takes the father’s life and throne but also symbolically castrates Hamlet, leaving him powerless and incapable of assuming his paternal legacy." (Lacan, Seminar VI)
Thus, Hamlet’s delay is rooted in his sense of symbolic impotence; he cannot act until he regains the phallic authority that has been stolen from him.
Lacan’s theory of the "mirror stage," a foundational concept in his psychoanalysis, helps explain Hamlet’s fragmented sense of self. The mirror stage refers to the moment when an infant first recognizes itself in a mirror, an act that creates a split between the idealized image of the self and the actual, incomplete subject. Lacan argues that this moment inaugurates the subject’s entry into the symbolic order and the beginning of alienation.
In Hamlet, this split between the idealized self and the fractured, alienated subject is evident in Hamlet’s vacillation and self-reflection. Hamlet constantly questions himself, his motives, and his capacity for action, reflecting the gap between his ideal self (the avenger, the true son of his father) and his fragmented, disoriented identity after the death of King Hamlet and Gertrude’s remarriage.
In his famous soliloquy "To be, or not to be" (Act 3, Scene 1), Hamlet expresses this internal division:
"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them."
Lacan views this soliloquy as Hamlet confronting the existential question of his own being—whether he can exist as the subject of his own desire or whether he will remain alienated and divided. Hamlet’s indecision, according to Lacan, reflects the subject's fragmentation and the perpetual gap between the ego (the self as imagined) and the symbolic order (the law and language in which the subject is enmeshed).
For Lacan, the father plays a crucial role in structuring the symbolic order through the "Name-of-the-Father" (le nom-du-père), which represents both the literal father and the function of paternal authority. In Hamlet, the dead King Hamlet embodies the lost paternal authority, and the ghost represents a return of the repressed—the symbolic demand for justice and the restoration of the law.
However, Hamlet’s relationship with his father’s ghost is problematic because the father’s authority has been undermined by Claudius’s usurpation. Claudius has taken over the role of the father, but in doing so, he disrupts the symbolic order. Hamlet’s task is not just to avenge his father but to restore the paternal law that has been broken. Yet, Hamlet struggles to do this because Claudius’s usurpation creates a profound disjunction in the symbolic order.