Hamlet's Internal Conflict Between Hamlet And Ophelia

In the brief but powerful exchange between Hamlet and Ophelia in Act 3 scene 1, Hamlet reveals his internal crisis about Truth and his introspective, if not self-involved, nature.

Hamlet’s internal struggle throughout the play is caused by the murder of his father and the betrayal of his mother. What we see expressed in this exchange between Hamlet and Ophelia is the result of this trauma: Hamlet’s loss of belief in Truth. The crimes committed against his father breaks two fundamental laws in Hamlet’s world. In Hamlet’s mental model of reality the fraternal bond between his father and his uncle is sacred and unbreakable, as is the marriage oath made between his father and mother. So when both of these infallible oaths are broken at the same time, with his uncle killing his brother and then marrying his newly widowed mother, Hamlet’s mental model

Within a few lines Hamlet goes back and forth about his past love for Ophelia: telling her first “I never gave you aught.”, when she tries to return his gifts, Then admitting to her “I did love you once.”, and then denying it immediately after, “I loved you not”. He tells her, “You should not have believed me” but then declares himself “indifferent honest”. Ultimately Hamlet contradicts this again when he claims that it would be better not to have been born since he and “fellows such as [him]...are arrant knaves, all.” and none of them should be believed. The contradictions of language reflect the state of flux that his worldview is in. What is reality is changing and he can’t decide what is true or real and what is false. His struggle to accept and incorporate the contradictions presented in his new reality emerges through his language. Hamlet’s contradictions also show that it is not only his external world that is in question but also his own internal mind is suspect. He can no longer trust his own opinions about