Hamlet teaches us many lessons among these are love and insanity. These traits are evident throughout the play and all of the characters exhibit them in different ways. The character who displays these traits the most is young Ophelia. She loves her father very much, but also suffers greatly when he is murdered. Ophelia loves her father very much and respects him, even went as far as to call him Lord. However, after the death of Polonius, Ophelia can no longer hold onto her sanity. In his tragic play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses Ophelia to display to us the devoted love of a parent, and how the loss of a parent can lead to a sickness of the mind.
For the duration of the play, Ophelia was portrayed as a naïve and submissive woman. Her passivity and powerlessness reinforce the voicelessness of women during the Elizabethan era. For example, “I shall obey, my lord” (I.iii.134) shows that Ophelia concedes to her father’s will, even though she believes Hamlet’s love is genuine. She is willing and expected to obey her father despite the fact that she still loves Hamlet, which emphasizes her character’s submissive nature. Furthermore, in Act I Laertes warns Ophelia that it would be shameful of her to love Hamlet, and she responds with “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as a watchman to my heart” (I.iii.45). She is assuring Laertes that she will remain obedient and follow his advice.
When an individual thinks about the concept of love, positive thoughts come to mind such as affection, romance, and passion. Love is usually not associated with the negative possible outcomes. Love is often an important part of a story; it builds up excitement and gets the plot going. In William Shakespeare 's Hamlet and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the emotion of love is portrayed to drive a character insane.
Ophelia seems to be the most genuinely hurt Hamlet’s theatrical “madness.” When Polonius uses her as a pawn to spy on Hamlet, she remarks “Oh woe is me, ‘T; have seen what I have seen, see what I see.”(3.3.162). Even though Ophelia is but a pawn she is still off put by Hamlet’s rejection and pitties herself for having witnessed him change. This is also self serving as she thinking of how Hamlet’’s madness will affect her rather than him, revealingly once more that Ophelia’s own emotional well being is dependent on people. This is detrimental, however, for Ophelia's as her one sided feelings for Hamlet allow her to be used as a pawn by both Claudius and Polonius as well as Hamlet. It is not clear whether Ophelia understand if she is pawn or not, however, this does not stop her from fulfilling the wishes of both
In conclusion, it can be proven that Hamlet truly does love Ophelia. He pretends he isn’t in love with her kind of like in real life. Sometimes people pretend they not care for the people they really care for the most, just like Hamlet did to
King Hamlet loved Gertrude with all his heart that he “might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her face too roughly” this represents true unforgettable love. Hamlet is exasperated about his mother’s hasty marriage that he claims a “beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer”. Gertrude’s hasty marriage with Claudius seems to Hamlet as done with “wicked speed to post with such dexterity to incestous sheets” showing Hamlet is disgusted with this relationship and aggressively disapproves to this action. Further into the play Act 3 Scene 2, Hamlet is having a conservation with Ophelia when he mentions “look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within two hours” showing anger towards the happiness of his mother. Throughout the play Hamlet uncovers horrible deeds his uncle has committed, which were “Remorseless, Treacherous, lecherous”. Hamlet wished to punish Gertrude but was prevented by his father’s ghost. In Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 3 scene 2, Hamlet will “speak daggers to her but use none” representing his future interactions with Gertrude. Shakespeare uses this metaphor to show Hamlet’s hatred towards his mother and to create tension. In Act 3 Scene 4, Hamlet reveals Claudius’ involvement in his father’s death to his mother, but she thinks Hamlet has turned into a madman. At this
To begin with, Shakespeare uses rhetoric to illustrate how Hamlet is a misogynist. Throughout the play Hamlet refers to his mother as an incestuous, cold hearted, whore, whose actions are only defined by her sexual desires. This was displayed during his soliloquy when he
“But never doubt that I love” (2.2.119). Throughout the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, Hamlet professes much love to his girlfriend Ophelia. However he begins to mistreat her through his antic dispositions caused by revenge on his uncle, King Claudius, who killed his father. Hamlet has not only become distraught from his conniving and lying stepfather but also his mother, Queen Gertrude as well. The unfaithfulness that Gertrude shows to Hamlet’s father and Hamlet has a toll on him and plays a part in his insanity. The facade that Hamlet displays slowly leads to his insanity, causing him to show mistreated love towards Ophelia.
Ophelia, was a dependant women from her father and her brother Laertes and she obeyed every demand she received from both. She was loyal to her family specially to his father. In act one scene three Laertes is giving Ophelia advice about Hamlet, Laertes states, “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more” (1.3.6).
This is encapsulated in Hamlet exclaims, “frailty, thy name is woman!” about his mother’s hasty marriage to her deceased husband’s brother (Shakespeare 1.2.150). In this quote, Hamlet is dismissing all women as weak-willed like he believes Gertrude to be, which affects his interactions with Ophelia also. Hamlet is cruel to her because of this anger he has towards women in general, so when pretending to be mad, he goes “full force in the misogynist rage” when telling her he used to love her, but now she should go to a nunnery (Traub 192). Ophelia can be seen as weak in this scene because she protests little against Hamlet and only hopes that his insanity will end. These crude comments Hamlet says to Ophelia continue throughout the play until Ophelia is being buried when Hamlet asserts that he loved Ophelia. The male character’s treatment of Ophelia and Gertrude make them appear to be ineffectual
Women have suffered an extreme misdeed by men throughout the history. Women in Shakespearean times were bounded with their husbands and their fathers, the women weren’t expected to do much rather that just looking pretty and not talking. In the play Hamlet women are mistreated and are shown in Shakespeare novel. There are women that have experienced exploitation in the novel. Hamlet poor mistreatment and misjudgment of Ophelia, her behavior started to change throughout the novel and eventually she ended up killing herself. Gertrude whose husband passed away recently in the beginning of the novel, she quickly married her brother-in-law. Hamlet in deep sorrow over his father death but even more heard broken over his mother re-marriage which drove
Hamlet’s dislike of women is shown through his behavior and language toward his mother, Ophelia, and women in general. In the play it is very obvious that he is heartless towards the opposite sex by the actions that he takes and the words that he speaks. During the time that this play was written women were viewed as insignificant human beings. Hamlet found himself having feelings for a woman and he does not know how to portray these feelings because he holds his mother responsible for his inability to love Ophelia.
By attempting to leave Hamlet, Ophelia betrays him. This betrayal initially stirs confusion and later sparks anger when she tries to return the letters that Hamlet wrote to her. This anger was then projected into the hurtful insults that Hamlet used to harm Ophelia. This anger shows that Hamlet did, and still loves Ophelia. While Ophelia too has the same tender loving feeling for Hamlet, she is insanely submissive to her father (and other characters for that matter). This submissiveness leads to her being stuck in an uncomfortable situation with the man that she loves. She is extremely disheartened and surprised when she sees Hamlet’s violent reaction to the thought of separation. When Hamlet angrily storms off, her grief starts to overflow and she helplessly cries out and mourns Hamlet’s lunacy. “O, what a noble mind is here o 'erthrown!” (Shakespeare Act III Scene I). Ophelia
Hamlet shows his love for Ophelia in many different ways throughout the play. the first way Hamlet shows his love towards Ophelia is with
In the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, interactions with two women throughout the interplay. Hamlet is rejected and dismissed by both women. His first negative experience is with Gertrude, his heartless whore of a mother. He then attempts to form a relationship with Ophelia, whose weak naive nature demolished any prospect of love. The women in his life influence him into a state of misogyny. He did not innately hate all women, but slowly as he reserved rejection after rejection he snapped. Hamlet’s relationships differed between Gertrude and Ophelia, but both had the same goal of Hamlet having someone to love and care about him. With the goal of compassion being accomplished, he spiralled in a growing hatred of the female population. Hamlet’s misogyny is not the result sexual repression , but rather his environment and the interactions with women.