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Shakespeare's relationship of love
Analysis on the play Hamlet
Shakespeare hamlet analysis
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Hamlet, the tragic play written by William Shakespeare, takes place in Denmark during the late medieval period. The protagonist, Hamlet Prince of Denmark, feels responsible to get revenge for the murder of his father King Hamlet who was killed by the current King Claudius who was brother to the late King. Polonius is the Lord Chamberlain to King Claudius and he has a son names Laertes and a daughter named Ophelia. Ophelia and the young Hamlet had a budding relationship until her father would no longer allow her to see Hamlet. Ophelia is the embodiment of obedience and innocence since she grew up always following her father’s orders.
Ophelia is a devoted daughter and sister. No matter how much she cares for another character, “[she] shall obey [her] lord” (19), even if she knows it may harm her relationship with the character in question. After Hamlet came to see Ophelia in Act III Scene I and her father questions her on how he came to see her she tells him, “No, my good lord,
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In Act I Scene IV, Ophelia starts to talk to her father about the growing relationship between herself and Hamlet. Although she believes it is real, her father does not think so since he is a prince and tells her she is not allowed to see him anymore. She is unable to express herself or her feelings for others if it does not follow her father’s standards. In Act III Scene I, after Hamlet started becoming distracted and no one knew what was wrong with him, Ophelia was sent to find out information from him. No matter how much she loves Hamlet she will betray him to follow her father’s orders. In Act III Scene II, there is a play put on for the royal family and guests. Hamlet teases her and asks her if he should lay in her lap and then continues to tell her to go to a nunnery she cannot do anything about it. The only way she can keep her reputation and her father’s honor intact is by ignoring it and acting like it means nothing to
“Pretty Ophelia,” as Claudius calls her, is the most innocent victim of Hamlet’s revenge in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Hamlet has fallen in love with Ophelia after the death of his father. Ophelia “sucked the honey of his music vows” and returned Hamlet’s affection. But when her father had challenged Hamlet’s true intentions, Ophelia could only say: “I do not know, my lord, what I should think.” Ophelia was used to relying on her father’s directions and she was also brought up to be obedient. This allowed her to only accept her father’s views that Hamlet’s attention towards her was only to take advantage of her and to obey her father’s orders not to permit Hamlet to see her again.
In hamlet, Ophelia is in love with Hamlet and she wants to be with him. Her dad poloniuss does not want her to be with him, and he merely tells her that she is not good enough to be with hamlet because he will have to marry an heir to the crown. Poloniuss tells Ophelia to stop talking to hamlet and to let him go. She does obey her father and from this she stays away from Hamlet. Until Hamlet comes storming into her room one night and stares her straight into her eyes and
Hamlet shows much anger and disrespect to the women in his life. Ophelia’s believing her father’s words breaks Hamlets heart, being the reason for his treatment towards not just her but his mother. Ophelia
Ophelia’s obedience towards her untrusting father is indescribable ( I; iii; 101-103. "Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl, unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them"?). Why a grown woman would listen to her father and not help the man of her dreams in his time of need is disheartening. A man’s girlfriend should be there for him when a family member passes away, no matter what. If she had been with him on the plan to kill Claudius and knew about his fathers ghost who told Hamlet that Claudius was the one that murdered him, than neither one of them would have went crazy.
By not speaking anything, Hamlet at once strengthens his image as a madman, as well as shrouding his real intentions towards those around him. Just following this passage comes a place in the text where we can see how the character of Ophelia has been manipulated by Polonius. After his "hint" that he might be doing this out of frustrated love, Ophelia says that that is what she truly does fear. (87) Her feelings of pity and concern are shaped by her father in order to fit his case of madness against Hamlet.
As the play opened, Hamlet and Ophelia appeared as lovers experiencing a time of turbulence. Hamlet had just returned home from his schooling in Saxony to find that his mother had quickly remarried her dead husband's brother, and this gravely upset him. Hamlet was sincerely devoted to the idea of bloodline loyalty and sought revenge upon learning that Claudius had killed his father. Ophelia, though it seems her relationship with Hamlet is in either the developmental stage or the finalizing stage, became the prime choice as a lure for Hamlet. Laertes inadvertently opened Ophelia up to this role when he spoke with Ophelia about Hamlet before leaving for France. He allowed Polonius to find out about Hamlet's courtship of Ophelia, which led to Polonius' misguided attempts at taking care of Ophelia and obeying the king's command to find the root of Hamlet's problems. Ophelia, placed in the middle against her wishes, obeyed her father and brother's commands with little disagreement. The only time she argued was when Laertes advised her against making decisions incompatible with the expectations of Elizabethan women. Ophelia tells him, in her boldest lines of the play:
The story of Hamlet is a morbid tale of tragedy, commitment, and manipulation; this is especially evident within the character of Ophelia. Throughout the play, Ophelia is torn between obeying and following the different commitments that she has to men in her life. She is constantly torn between the choice of obeying the decisions and wishes of her family or that of Hamlet. She is a constant subject of manipulation and brain washing from both her father and brother. Ophelia is not only subject to the torture of others using her for their intentions but she is also susceptible to abuse from Hamlet. Both her father and her brother believe that Hamlet is using her to achieve his own personal goals.
The reader is left guessing on Hamlet’s true feelings for Ophelia through his various insults, sexual innuendos, and admitted desire. Hamlet’s claim, “God hath given you one face, and you / Make yourselves another.” (3.1.155-156) is laced with irony and hypocrisy given Hamlet’s own deception regarding true feelings. This proclamation comes at the end of a lengthy tirade against Ophelia and womankind in general for their conniving deceit leading men astray. The fact that Hamlet cannot see this duplicity in his very own actions shows the double standard he holds for females. Ophelia’s immediate reaction is one of shock and defense due to the aggressive nature of Hamlet’s attack. She calls out “O, woe is me!” (3.1.174) in distress to the ferocity of Hamlet and is unable to form a particularly coherent response akin to the ones seen against Laertes and Polonius. She does show her intelligence and rebellion from this assumption of power by Hamlet in her songs while Hamlet is gone. While many attribute her madness to the death of her father, a large portion of her instability should be attributed to Hamlet and his earlier actions. In her first introduction as insane she sings, “And I a maid at your window, / To be your Valentine. / Then up he rose and donned his clothes / And dropped the chamber door, / Let in the maid, that out a maid / Never departed more.” (4.5.55-60). Due to her references to sexuality and deceit the
Hamlet is well aware that this plan merely uses Ophelia as a tool, and as such, she does not have much option of refusing without angering not only her busybody father but the conniving King as well. Hamlet readily refuses that he cared for her. He tells her and all of his uninvited listeners, "No, not I, I never gave you aught" (lines 94-95). Some critics stress, as does J. Dover Wilson, that Hamlet has a right to direct his anger to Ophelia because even though many critics "in their sympathy with Ophelia they have forgotten that it is not Hamlet who has 'repelled' her, but she him" (Wilson 159). It is possible that Wilson does not see the potential harm to Ophelia should she disobey her authority figures (i.e. her father and her king). Furthermore, Ophelia cannot know "that Hamlet's attitude toward her reflects his disillusionment in his mother . . . to her, Hamlet's inconstancy can only mean deceitfulness or madness" (Lidz 158).
Ophelia trusts the advise given and her obedience is very evident in this matter as she avoids contact with Hamlet until she is told by her father, with the King and Queens approval, to meet up with him by 'accident' in the lobby. Deceit not being in her nature, believing that her father, the king and queen are right and true; that Hamlet is mad; and probably curious to know if Hamlet is "mad in love" with her the young, obedient, powerless Ophelia does her part to search out the truth. But tragically this one forced step outside of her true character begins her downfall. In a precarious predicament, loyalty to her father compelled Ophelia to lie to Hamlet when he asked about her father?s location at that moment saying he was at home instead of behind a tapestry right the...
Two of Ophelia’s difficulties arise from her father and brother. They believe that Hamlet is using her to take her virginity and throw it away because Ophelia will never be his wife. Her heart believes that Hamlet loves her although he promises he never has (“Hamlet” 1). Hamlet: “Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but not the time gives it proof. I did love you once.” Ophelia: “Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.” Hamlet: “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock ...
When Polonius advises Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet in Act scene 4, she does exactly that. She also obeys her father when he tells her to act in his scheme to spy on Hamlet in Act 3 scene 1 by doing exactly what she’s told. Her father’s behavior did not affect Ophelia’s behavior as much as it explains her tolerance to Hamlet’s behavior. In the time period Ophelia lived in, she was expected to be passive and obedient. Since she was not married, she lived under her father’s rules and essentially did not have the right to make any personal decisions regarding her own life and relationships. Hamlet is not the only man in Ophelia’s life to mention some insulting aspects of her sexuality. In Act 1, her brother Laertes gives Ophelia a speech about how she should fear getting intimate with Hamlet and takes an Elizabethan perspective on female sexuality, convincing her that a “deflowered” woman is undesirable and
Hamlet and Ophelia's relationship is very unconventional. Like many other sad romantic movies they are not allowed to show their love for one another due to the cruel forces pushing them apart. In the beginning, Ophelia listens to her brother Laertes and her father Polonius when they tell her Hamlet is only young and just wants to use her for passion. This is shown when Laertes says, “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood, a violet in the youth of nature, forward not permanent, sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute, no more”(1.3.5-9). Instead of following her heart Ophelia listens to the words of her father and brother and cuts Hamlet out from her life.
Despite Ophelia’s weak will, the male characters respond dramatically to her actions, proving that women indeed have a large impact in Hamlet. Her obedience is actually her downfall, because it allows the male characters to control and use her in their schemes. Ophelia’s betrayal ends up putting Hamlet over the edge, motivating him in his quest for revenge. Ophelia is one of the two women in the play. As the daughter of Polonius, she only speaks in the company of several men, or directly to her brother or father. Since we never see her interactions with women, she suppresses her own thoughts in order to please her superiors. Yet however weak and dependent her character is on the surface, Ophelia is a cornerstone to the play’s progression. One way that her manipulation is key to Hamlet’s plot is when Polonius orders her “in plain terms, from this time forth/ Have you so slander any moment leisure/As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet,” (1.3.131-133). She complies with his wishes, agreeing to return any tokens of Hamlet’s love to him, verify t...
They all try to control her sexuality and her choices, which makes her powerless. Both her father and brother try to tell her that Hamlet is just using her for sex and he will never commit to marrying her. This theme of Ophelia having no sense of self is first introduced in Act 1, Scene 3 where she has conversations with Polonius and Laertes about her dating Hamlet and her sexuality. They are both telling her what to do and she does not stick up for herself or fight back. This theme of Ophelia being manipulated and powerless carries throughout the rest of the play.