In Freud's wake, Jones explains Hamlet's mysterious procrastination as a consequence of the Oedipus Complex:[3] the son continually postpones the act of revenge because of the impossibly complicated psychodynamic situation in which he finds himself.

In addition, marriage to Hamlet's mother gives the uncle the unconscious status of the father—destructive impulses towards whom provoke great anxiety and meet with repression.

Jones' investigation was first published as "The Œdipus-complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive" (in The American Journal of Psychology, January 1910); it was later expanded in a 1923 publication;[4] before finally appearing as a book-length study (Hamlet and Oedipus) in 1949.

[5] Freud had originally linked the writing of Hamlet (with its oedipal subtext) to the death of Shakespeare's father in 1601, but had to abandon this view when he gave his support to the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship–something Jones always rejected in his study.

[6] In 1986, the historian Peter Gay described Hamlet and Oedipus as "still controversial", noting that the work has been criticized as "literal-minded and unliterary".