«About Gertrude and-Yes, but I'm not convinced.»
«You're going to waste my time with these questions and then not believe my answers?»
«Well, it can be a starting point for a discussion.»
«Oh, we're to have a discussion too, are we?»
«If you have time. I know I'm lucky to get any of your time, you're so busy.»
«I'm not busy at all. I have absolutely nothing to do.»
«I thought you were writing a book.»
«Lies.»
«I know you're teasing again.»
«Well, come on, I haven't got all day.»
«Why did Hamlet delay killing Claudius?»
«Because he was a dreamy conscientious young intellectual who wasn't likely to commit a murder out of hand because he had the impression that he had seen a ghost. Next question.»
«But, Bradley, you yourself said the ghost was real.»
«I know the ghost is real, but Hamlet didn't.»
«Oh. But there must have been another deeper reason why he delayed, isn't that the point of the play?»
«I didn't say there wasn't another reason.»
«What is it?»
«He identifies Claudius with his father.»
«Oh really? So that makes him hesitate because he loves his father and so can't touch Claudius?»
«No. He hates his father.»
«Well, wouldn't that make him murder Claudius at once?»
«No. After all he didn't murder his father.»
«Well, I don't see how identifying Claudius with his father makes him not kill Claudius.»
«He doesn't enjoy hating his father. It makes him feel guilty.»
«So he's paralysed with guilt? But he never says so. He's fearfully priggish and censorious. Think how nasty he is to Ophelia.»
«That's part of the same thing.»
«How do you mean?»
«He identifies Ophelia with his mother.»
«But I thought he loved his mother.»
«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.»