...English 1302 Professor Wolfard 11 Jan 2015 Hamlet’s Hidden Love In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there is quite a bit of controversy as to whether Hamlet truly loved Ophelia or not. Although there is much evidence arguing that Hamlet never loved her and that he was just using her, there is even more evidence refuting that argument. By the way he acts when he is alone with Ophelia, he shows that his feelings for her are genuinely true. Hamlet shows throughout the play that he is really in love with Ophelia. The first piece of evidence that shows Hamlet really did love Ophelia is when he tells her, “I did love you.” Hamlet confesses that he loved her, but then goes on to say that he never loved her. This could be due to the fact that Hamlet knows his conversation with Ophelia is being overheard. There is evidence to prove this when Hamlet immediately asks Ophelia where her father is after they are done talking. When Ophelia tells him that Polonius is at home, Hamlet replies with, “Let the doors be shut upon him that he may play the fool nowhere but in his own house.” This implies that Hamlet knows Polonius is watching him. Another point in the story that validates Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is when Hamlet tells Ophelia to go to a nunnery. At first, it seems as though Hamlet is mocking her, but it is possible that Ophelia is pregnant with Hamlet’s child because immediately after he tells her, “Get thee to a nunnery”, Hamlet starts talking about breeding and how it would be bad to...
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...“But never doubt I love” (2.2.119). Hamlet proclaims his feelings for Ophelia, assuring her that he will always love her. Hamlet gives Ophelia the mindstate that she should trust the love she receives. Love heavily impacts and drives Ophelia’s actions throughout the play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. Ophelia’s desires push her to be intimate with Hamlet and eventually drive her to madness resulting in her death. Ophelia’s loving and trusting nature compels her to obey her father. She trusts her father’s judgement, but also wants to trust Hamlet’s love for her. Ophelia has very strong feelings and has put a lot of trust in Hamlet so when her father asks “Do you believe his tenders” (1.3.45-112). Ophelia...
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...Poor Ophelia! Shakespeare’s Ophelia was a benevolent and innocent young girl, who dutifully obeyed her father, Polonius. Ophelia did as she is told, even if in her heart she felt strongly against what she was being asked to do. It was obvious that she was behaving like well mannered, aristocratic, young ladies of the time were expected to behave. Obedience and compliance were desirable traits, and Ophelia assumed that and here love and devotion to Hamlet would secure a happily ever after. But, unfortunately, her exceptional obedience would be her downfall. Ophelia is found betraying her one true love, Hamlet, by merely obeying her father, Polonius, and king Claudius, who believe that Hamlet has gone mad. Polonius seemed to bear a grudge against Hamlet, which should have been a signal to Ophelia that something was amiss. But being the good daughter, she did as she was told when Polonius instructed Ophelia not to ever speak to Hamlet again. When Hamlet comes running into her room looking like he has just seen a ghost, which in fact he has, and she does not say a word to him. She just looks at him like he is crazy and watches him go out the door without saying a word. Hamlet feels betrayed by his love for her and lack of response to his distress. She obeyed her father and did not speak to him, even when he looked like he had gone through something very terrible. Ophelia agreed to Polonius’s schemes to spy on Hamlet, even when it went against her feelings for Hamlet. The...
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...In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet experiences his mother’s remarriage to his uncle and Ophelia’s rejection which makes him feels very upset and angry about women. “Frailty, thy name is woman.”(1.2.146) This suggests that Hamlet thinks that all women in the world are weak and act in the same way. At the beginning of the play, Ophelia describes Hamlet’s love for her that Hamlet has a great affection on her and he has made the holiest vows to her. However, Polonius still asks Ophelia to leave Hamlet. Later in the play, Ophelia follows her father’s advice and rejects Hamlet’s love. Hamlet starts to treat Ophelia terribly. It brings to a question that whether Hamlet loves Ophelia or not. Hamlet is angry for Gertrude’s remarriage to Claudius because he loves and cares about his mother. It is the same for Ophelia. His mad and angry acts towards Ophelia show readers that he loves and cares about Ophelia because no one will be mad if he is betrayed by someone who is insignificant to him. The ways Hamlet talks and treat Gertrude are almost the same with the ways treats Ophelia. This shows Ophelia is as important as his mother. Hamlet is upset for his mother’s hasty remarriage and his thought of his mother worsen when the ghost tells him that Gertrude marries to a person who is the murderer of his father. He loves his mother so much that draws him to madness. He starts to treat his mother badly. “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!” (3.4.22-23) He is being...
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...The Themes of Hamlet: Love in Denmark Through the interactions between young Prince Hamlet, his lover Ophelia, and his mother Queen Gertrude, Shakespeare explores the themes of romantic and familial love. The two main female characters are torn between their love for their families and love for their romantic lovers. Ophelia is torn between her love for Hamlet and loyalty to her father, and Gertrude must choose between her love for Claudius and love for Hamlet. Ultimately, Ophelia and Gertrude’s choices and interactions with the men in their lives suggest that familial love is stronger than romantic love. Hamlet’s treatment towards Ophelia reflects the fickleness of romantic love, and Ophelia’s obedience to her father demonstrates the strength of familial love. Likewise, Gertrude’s quick marriage with Claudius reflects the fickleness of romantic love, and Gertrude’s unwavering love for Hamlet demonstrates the strength of familial love....
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...Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he explores many inner conflicts and demons, which have lead to numerous obsessions. Throughout the play Hamlet is consumed with his obsessive behaviour. This can be seen through his love for Ophelia, getting revenge on the King and those who have hurt him, and his suicide. To commence, Hamlet and Ophelia have a relationship where on one side Ophelia’s love is a true feeling and on the other Hamlet’s love is more of a physical obsession. As Hamlet’s obsession with Ophelia grows he becomes more physical with their relationship in public: “Hamlet: (Laying down at Ophelia’s feet) Lady, shall I lie in your lap? Ophelia: No, my lord. Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lab”(III. ii. 108-110), and continues on with “That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs” (III. ii. 114). As Hamlet wants a more physical relationship with Ophelia, he starts to make more public scenes. This evolves his obsession because she does not stop his physical actions in public. Also, Hamlet becomes more protective over Ophelia and her actions and reputation around the castle: “We are/arrant knaves all, believe none of us. Go thy ways to a/nunnery” (III. i. 128-130). Hamlet wants Ophelia sent to a nunnery to protect her chastity. He does not want her reputation to be ruined around the castle because of his actions and therefore, his best interests are thought of for his love Ophelia. Finally, Hamlet demonstrates his love for Ophelia when he announces how much he loves her at her...
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...2012 Deceit in Hamlet Deceit is generally applied in politics and peoples everyday life to achieve power and success. The theme of deceit is generally repeated in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlets delay in killing Claudius, and Hamlets possible death is a straight-forward result of deceit in the court. Hamlet attempts to deceive everyone into believing that he is gone insane. He believes that he can kill Claudius without getting into any kind of trouble, and take revenge for his father's death. Claudius and Polonius decide to find the reason behind Hamlet's madness. They both make a plan to spy on Hamlet to see why he is acting the way he is. Through spying on Hamlet, Claudius figures out that he is dangerous, and a threat to him. Hamlets deceiving also directs to the death of Polonius and his daughter Ophelia. As well as generating Laertes to take revenge on Hamlet for producing the death of his family. After multiple attempts to murder Hamlet fail, Claudius and Laertes decide to team up. They both try to murder Hamlet and get rid of him once and for all. Each of these plans directly or indirectly leads to Hamlet's deceit and his death. Hamlets desire for revenge causes his insanity. Hamlet speaks to the ghost of his father, he figures out that Claudius murdered him to achieve that throne of Denmark. At this point, Hamlet is very frustrated and disappointed. Hamlet then makes a plan to get revenge by finishing Claudius. To complete this act, Hamlet must act inane...
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...William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Shakespeare reveals the tragedy of the young prince of Denmark, Hamlet. After the ghost of his father, King Hamlet, appears Hamlet and tells him that his very own uncle Claudius, killed his father, Hamlet swears vengeance. Claudius took over Denmark and married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, making Hamlet hate Claudius. Gertrude, Hamlet’s friends and his love Ophelia all die during his mission to kill Claudius. Hamlet does eventually avenge his father by stabbing Claudius with a poisoned blade, but also dies from a scratch on the back from the same sword used in a duel. Feminist theory focuses on analyzing the inequality between genders. Feminist literary theory illuminates how power relations in the play are dominated by only men which shown in the characters of the play with Hamlet and Ophelia, Polonius and his daughter Ophelia, and Gertrude and Claudius, and Hamlet and Gertrude. Firstly, Polonius' ascendancy over Ophelia, Polonius' death and Polonius' relationship with Laertes in comparison to Ophelia's all illuminate the dominance Polonius has on his daughter. Ophelia is really devoted when it comes to the relationship with her father Polonius. Polonius does control her choices when Ophelia says she likes Lord Hamlet; he says "I would not, in plain terms, from this forth, have you so slander any moment's leisure, As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet" (1.4.130-134). Polonius tells her not to associate with Hamlet because he doesn’t trust...
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...Hamlet: Ophelia vs. Gertrude In the play, “Hamlet”, written by William Shakespeare, there are only two women in the entire play, Gertrude and Ophelia. Gertrude is Hamlets wicked mother. Ophelia is a girl who loves Hamlet. Throughout the entire play, they are shown to be two totally different characters. In a sense though, they are both alike, they are both women who are held back by love. In “Hamlet,” Ophelia plays the role of Hamlet’s love-interest. She is a strong-willed character that faces many hardships throughout the play, but remains true to her, and to the ones she loves. Not caring just for what she sees as good, but for those who care about her as well, and also do her good. She cares for Hamlet a great deal, and wants him to notice that not all women are like his mother, Gertrude; all sexual, and cold-hearted, that they too can love, and care just as Hamlet does for Ophelia. Gertrude plays the role of Hamlet’s mother, and also a conniving queen, who uses her body and sexuality to get what she wants. Gertrude is the main reason that Hamlet doesn’t like women, because he sees how she really is, and not mentioning the fact that he knows that she had his father (the Ghost in the story) killed to let her lover Claudius take the throne. Hamlet is mad at her for such a thing being that Claudius is his uncle. Also, Gertrude is a woman of fine things. We really don’t expect much less from her, but we don’t really read too...
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...times. The Tragedy of Hamlet is written as substantial, yet subtle in this dramatic play. Shakespeare creates this drama with twists and turns in each scene, which spikes some readers to sit on the edge of one’s seat. Shakespeare uses soliloquies, dramatic dialogues, and revenge tragedy to unfold a tremendous amount of details of Hamlet, thus causing a dramatic irony approach. Between the Franco Zeffirelli’s version and the Laurence Oliver’s version of this tragedy, characters are distinctively played. While Hamlet’s life is crumbling in front of him, those surrounded, specifically Ophelia, are also being affected. In this play, Ophelia...
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...Ophelia: A Daughter or a Yes Man? Ophelia is a beautiful and simple-minded girl who was Hamlet’s significant other. Ophelia the epitome of a flat character allows throughout her life the commands of Polonius and Laertes to shape her actions. Ophelia was incapable to neither live nor think for herself because of all the pressure from the men of her life to be something she was not. The weakness of her brain and will, which allowed her submission to the men in her life, consequently pulverized her expectation for Hamlet's affection and at last brought about her madness and demise. Ophelia’s father Polonius plays the most influential role on Ophelia’s actions, throughout the play we see Ophelia do whatever is asked of her. This is first seen in Act I when Laertes shares his words of wisdom to his sister Ophelia and Polonius shows up. The last thing she told Laertes when he said “Farewell Ophelia, and remember well What I have said you” was “Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it.” Yet as soon as Polonius asks what he told her Ophelia instantly responds “Something about Hamlet.” Some things should not be shared, if siblings are speaking keep it between siblings but, when it comes to confidentiality if Polonius asks Ophelia is telling it all on demand. It’s apparently clear Ophelia loves Polonius and holds respect for him but it’s also clear Polonius has full control her brain; referring to Act I when Polonius questions Hamlet’s true love for Ophelia...
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...Throughout history of English literature, William Shakespeare’s characters have been some of the most complex and famous characters in literature. They are played over and over again in community theaters, and their archetypes are used repeatedly in modern film and books. In Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet is arguably displayed as one of the most dramatic character ever created. From the moment we meet the prince we are captivated by his elegant, yet intense personality. The play opens up with frightened guards forced to stand watch in the cold, dark night. They are frightened because they believe they have seen an apparition, or ghost of some sort. Prince Hamlet has just arrived home from school because his father has pasted away. To make matters worse for Prince Hamlet, his mother, Queen Gertrude, has married his uncle, Claudius, the newly appointed king, very soon after his father’s death. When Hamlet joins the guards and his good friend Horatio, they too see the ghost. They’ll all soon realize the spirit is the image of the late King Hamlet, dressed in his armor, ready to fight. From our very first encounter with Hamlet, he is consumed by grief and obsessed by death. Although he is dressed in black to signify his mourning, his emotions run deeper than his appearance. In Act 1, Scene 2, he says to his mother: ‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good-mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black ... Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief That can denote...
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...Hamlet Thesis Paper Shakespeare’s play Hamlet features a variety of complex characters including the intricate protagonist Hamlet and his self-proclaimed love Ophelia. At the beginning of Shakespeare’s play Ophelia is at the peak of her happiness in life seeing as that she has found her true love, Hamlet, and feels love and respect for her father and brother. She progressively becomes a victim of oppression from the men surrounding and controlling her life leading to her insanity and ultimately suicidal death. The origin of Ophelia’s madness is found through examination of her relationships with these men. Her father Polonius appears to be the sole parental figure in the play since there was no mention of a mother and there appears to be a close relationship between her and her brother and father. Ophelia relies heavily on her father and goes to him for advice and does whatever he asks of her. It was common for women to do as a man told her even if they did not agree to what they were being ordered to do, it is also understood that no one took into account the affects this type of society had on women. In this extreme case the affect is shown in Ophelia’s death. Ophelia’s fairytale ended before it even started when the suspicion that Polonius had previously requested Ophelia to fornicate with the King of Denmark in order to earn his new astute stature of being his advisor was brought to attention by a literature professor at the University of Michigan. In an argument, Hamlet...
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...In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet, leads an antic disposition that causes his downfall and leads him to insanity. The cause of his insanity was quickly developed at the beginning when the sudden death of his father, King Hamlet, was announced to him. The tragic Hamlet plotted to murder his father’s murderer, thus the act of madness was introduced. His antic disposition affects his judgment, destroys relationships and creates a belief that he is truly mad. Throughout the play, Hamlet is consumed with anger of his father’s death which causes him to act through emotion and without reason, thus affecting his judgement. Hamlet’s main goal is to avenge the death of his father. His actions to do so are hindered because of the irrational decisions he has made through the antic disposition he has put on that has finally led to his misguided judgement. Hamlet’s irrational decisions began after the death of his father. As any normal human being would be allowed to grieve, Hamlet was not, he was expected to accept the death of his father and move on. “Do not for ever with thy vailed lids, Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know'st 'tis common. All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.” (Act 1, Scene 2. 69-74) These lines spoken by the Queen, Hamlet’s mother, are proof that Hamlet is obliged to accept his father’s death. With little time to grieve and a mother that seems to care less about her deceased husband, Hamlet’s mind was given the...
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...Kaplan English 12 P.4 28 March 2012 The Difference of Insanity: Hamlet against Ophelia In the Renaissance, madness was the theme of William Shakespeare's writings. He attended grammar school, but nothing further. So for his writings to be written with intelligence, it was greatly admired by many. Shakespeare’s career was in the time of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603 and James I, 1566-1625. His writings were not his own original work. It has been said that he took the story, Hamlet, from Saxo Grammaticus and changed the way Hamlet was portrayed from his story into a more “mad” version of Hamlet that waits to get revenge and is not truly mad from the start. It is also said that Shakespeare stole a majority of his stories from other writers during his time, making them more well-known and changing the moral of the story. In the Renaissance, people looked at insanity as if it were a crime. It was looked down upon. People did not understand that it was something that occurred within the mind, so they thought if they sprayed people with water it would shock them out of their insanity. The Renaissance culture also gave an intellectual rendition to three specific kinds of madness: folly, demonic possession and melancholia. In that time, thoughts of madness were confused by religious beliefs and sometimes even mistaken for nonsense. The dictionary defines madness as “extreme anger, excitement, or foolishness” and in Hamlet, Hamlet is characterized as insane because he fits the definition the...
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