anima and animus in hamlet

“He who understands the masculine and keeps to the feminine shall become the whole world’s channel. Eternal virtue shall not depart from him and he shall return to the state of an infant.” - Laozi

Hamlet is so alienated from the feminine beauty of his inner life … It is characteristic of complex man, caught between functioning by instinct and acting by enlightenment, that he often destroys everything feminine within his grasp. We watch Hamlet destroy Ophelia (borne down by the artless indecision and tension, she drowns herself in a stream) and the queen, his mother, with equal devastation — all feminine elements wither in the face of three-dimensional consciousness.