«That's the point.»
«How do you mean that's the point?»
«He condemns his mother for committing adultery with his fa– «Wait a minute, Bradley, I'm getting mixed.»
«Claudius is just a continuation of his brother on the conscious level.»
«But you can't commit adultery with your husband, it isn't logical.»
«The unconscious mind knows nothing of logic.»
«You mean Hamlet is jealous, you mean he's in love with his mother?»
«That is the general idea. A tediously familiar one, I should have thought.»
«Oh thai.»
«That.»
«I see. But I still don't see why he should think Ophelia is Gertrude, they're not a bit alike.»
«The unconscious mind delights in identifying people with each other. It has only a few characters to play with.»
«So lots of actors have to play the same part?»
«Yes.»
«I don't think I believe in the unconscious mind.»
«Excellent girl.»
«Bradley, you're teasing again.»
«Not at all.»
«Why couldn't Ophelia save Hamlet? That's another of my questions actually.»
«Because, my dear Julian, pure ignorant young girls cannot save complicated neurotic overeducated older men from disaster, however much they kid themselves that they can.»
«I know that I'm ignorant, and I can't deny that I'm young, but I do not identify myself with Ophelia!»
«Of course not. You identify yourself with Hamlet. Everyone does.»
«I suppose one always identifies with the hero.»
«Not in great works of literature. Do you identify with Macbeth or Lear?»
«No, well, not like that-«Or with Achilles or Agamemnon or Aeneas or Raskolnikov or Madame Bovary or Marcel or Fanny Price or-«Wait a moment. I haven't heard of some of these people. And I think I do identify with Achilles.»
«Tell me about him.»
