The Deadly Obsession

Do not walk towards the light!

For all of us it is pretty clear that Hamlet was obsessed with the idea of death. Even his famous "to be or not to be" speech is known to have connections with this idea, as he felt that, whatever path he decided to take, people would die anyway as a result. He also wondered whether taking his revenge would make any difference or not, and if it was worth dying for his father. The whole play in general sees this phenomenon from different points of view. 

This character, Hamlet, makes me remember a protagonist of one of my favorite novels, Juan Pablo Castel. In El Túnel of Ernesto Sábato, Juan Pablo starts the novel by saying: 'It will be enough to say that I am Juan Pablo Castel, the painter who killed María Iribarne'. During the rest of the novel, he describes how he got to that point and why he is now in prison. That description is what makes the connection with Hamlet: Juan Pablo is obsessed with the idea of death.

Throughout the novel, we can see how this character is slowly taking the love he feels and distorting it to the level of psychopathy. By being obsessed with María, he feels there is nothing but death without her, but is his own obsession what makes him kill her. Kind of a "to be or not to be", if you ask me. 

Another link between these characters is something I wrote in my previous post. It is related with another protagonist from a famous play: Oedipus. As stated by Lagos (2004), Castel could be an oedipal character who sees his mother projected in his lover's figure. As his mother represents a problem, he feels relieved by killing somebody that represents the same. Meanwhile, according to Jones (1954), Hamlet is unable to kill his uncle at first, as he sees his own dreams -killing his father and marrying his mother- projected on that person.

Interesting and, frankly... kind of weird. Anyway, have you seen Hamlet's personality or, particularly, his obsession with death reflected on other characters of novels you like? Do you know any other oedipal character? I kindly invite you to comment your opinions here.

References:

Lagos, J. (2004) El "continuum" en El Túnel de Ernesto Sábato. Estudios Filológicos, Nº 39: Universidad de Tarapacá, Chile (retrieved from: http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0071-17132004003900010 )

Sábato, E. (1948) El Túnel. Sur: Buenos Aires.

Jones, E. (1954) Hamlet and Oedipus. Doubleday: New York.