Comparing Shakespeare's Hamlet And Laertes Intentions For Ophelia

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While Hamlet and Laertes intentions for Ophelia also reflect one another, the love, absence, and devastation were all too precisely timed and on the same level of affection. Although Hamlet and Laertes had a different level of endearment for Ophelia, they both deeply cared and adored her through the good and bad. Being the older brother, Laertes had a special place in his heart specifically for his sister. Before he departs to Paris, he gives her words of encouragement and warns her to stay away from Hamlet as he won’t be there to protect her. Through long dialogue, he informs “if she unmask her beauty to the moon. Virtue itself scapes not calumnious srtokes” (1.2.37-38). Laertes is demonstrating the care and compassion he has for Ophelia. He warns her that she doesn’t …show more content…

On the other hand, Hamlet cares for Ophelia just as much as Laertes. Hamlet is in love with Ophelia as their relationship is very intimate. Through Ophelia, she reveals how Hamlet has demonstrated love towards her and “with almost all the holy vows of heaven” (1.2.114). With holy and pure vows, Hamlet demonstrates his love and affections towards her are real. At one point, many people believed his love for Ophelia has gotten extreme to a point in which he went mentally unstable because of his love for her. Although Ophelia is commanded to stay away from him, she still loves Hamlet as they continue to write their love through notes and letters. Both of these men adore Ophelia in different manners, but their love for her is unconditional and exact. The intense feeling for Ophelia reflects the sensitive side of Hamlet and Laertes and displays another element in which they’re exact foils. Another factor to support this idea is how they both couldn’t be there for her when she needed them most. Hamlet changed his attitude for the sake of his plot against Claudius, causing him to be vulgar and push Ophelia

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