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PAGE 109
EXPLANATION OF HAMLET'S MYSTERY
for other legends in which it is more prominent (e.g., those
of Cyrus, Karna, etc.).
The third factor to be considered is the process technically
known to mythologists as "doubling" of the principal charac-
ters. The chief motive for its occurrence seems to be the
desire to exalt the importance of these, and especially to glorify
the hero, by decoratively filling in the stage with lay figures
of colourless copies whose neutral movements contrast with the
vivid activities of the principals. This factor is sometimes
hard to distinguish from the first one, for a given multiplication
of figures may subserve at the same time the function of de-
composition and that of doubling. In general it may be said
that the former function is more often fulfilled by the creation
of a new person who is a relative of the principal characters,
the latter by the creation of a person who is not a relative;
this rule however has many exceptions. In the present
legend Claudius seems to subserve both functions, and it is
interesting to note that in many legends it is not the father's
figure who is doubled by the creation of a brother, but the
grandfather's. This is so in some versions of the Perseus
legend, and, as was mentioned above, in those of Romulus and
Amphion; in all three of these the creation of the king's
brother, as in the Hamlet legend, subserves the functions of
both decomposition and doubling. Good instances of the
simple doubling processes are seen in the case of the maid of
Pharaoh's daughter in the Moses legend, or of many of the fig-
ures in the Cyrus one.1 Perhaps the purest examples of
doubling in the present play are the colourless copies of Hamlet
presented by the figures of Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo.
Laertes and the younger Fortinbras, on the other hand, are
examples of both doubling and decomposition of the main
figure. The figure of Laertes is more complex than that of
Fortinbras in that it is composed of three components instead
of two; he evinces, namely, the influence of Brother-sister
complex in a way that contrasts with the "repressed" form in
which this is manifested in the central figures of the play.
Hamlet's jealousy of Laertes' interference in connection with
Ophelia is further to be compared with his resentment of the
meddling of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. These are there-
fore only copies of the Brother of mythology, and, like him,
are killed by the hero; in them is further to be detected a play
on the "Twin" motive so often found in mythology, but which
need not be further developed here. Both Laertes and Fortin-
bras represent one "decomposed" aspect of the hero, namely
that concerned with revenge for a murdered or injured father.
1This is very clearly pointed out by Rank, Op.cit., S. 84, 85.
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