Ophelia Hamlet Rhetorical Analysis

In Hamlet by William Shakespeare Hamlet becomes overcome with rage when Ophelia betrays him with her dishonesty about her father, Polonius. Before Hamlet’s anger intensifies, he greets Ophelia with a subtle kindness and compassion, answering her gentle questions heartedly. The tables turn when Ophelia brings to him the letters composed of sweet words that he gave to her as a gift of his love. This is not only a betrayal of the love Hamlet gave to her, but she stands against Hamlet and with her father since she allows him to control her actions. The dialogue between the two lovers brings to question whether Hamlet truly cares for Ophelia or not, and her responses to his disassociation of her provide evidence of her spiraling down into madness.

The interactions between Hamlet and Ophelia are key to discovering the true intentions of what they were trying to portray, a hidden message in their words to one another. For example, at their greeting, Hamlet responds to Ophelia’s polite question with “I humbly thank you, well, well, well” (91). His reply to Ophelia is formal and aloof, slightly unusual since they know each other quite well when they’re alone. Perhaps this is a hint that Hamlet is keenly watching for any sight of possible spies since it has been previously teased that Hamlet is aware the King is keeping a particularly close eye on him. As their conversation continues, the focus shifts to the topic of the love letters, a disclosed secret between them now brought out into the open. Hamlet is slightly taken aback by Ophelia having come to him to return those precious gifts and this causes him to react to her in an antagonizing manner. “No, not I, / I never gave you aught” The blatant act of denial of the handwritten letters might be Hamlet acting out of spite, or a possible deeper conclusion that he means his current mad self never gave her those love letters (94-95). The repetition of the word “I” emphasizes another indication that it is mad Hamlet standing before Ophelia, not the compassionate prince she knew before. Since mad things are repeated over and over with no recognition of it being madness (94-95).
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The tone shifts from a calming one to that of a heartbreaking one which Ophelia expresses through the emotional pain that was inflicted upon her by Hamlet’s cruel accusations.

She uses contrasting diction while describing the love letters to Hamlet, “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind” (100). Ophelia creates imagery of how her relationship with Hamlet was before her father Polonius ordered her to end it and before Hamlet began his mad act upon Denmark. There is an undertone of sadness in her words toward Hamlet, calling him out for being deceitful about his promised love to her. Every kind word and every gift he has given to her has now faded away and lost its sweetness because Hamlet has proved himself to be unkind by denying their love in the first place. Hamlet refers to the emotional feeling of love or the act of lovemaking in “I did love you once” which if this is his way of expressing to Ophelia that he loves her then the following line “I lov’d you not” appears to be a bad reaction to her words. (114-118). On the contrary, if this is Hamlet claiming he made love to her, then that following line of denying the emotional love seems excessively harsh toward Ophelia’s fragileness that is starting to crack open. Ophelia’s retort to Hamlet’s unkind words “I was the more deceiv’d” makes the reader think that she really did believe the prince when he said he loved her (119). However, she remains silent as to whether or not she loved him back because she knows her father and the king are listening in. Hamlet’s mad acting toward her misleads her and Ophelia’s betrayal of him regarding her participation in helping set him up, are major contributions to the theme of deceit in

Hamlet.
The pacing of the dialogue between the reactive prince and the distraught noblewoman begins to intensify when Hamlet catches on that Ophelia is participating in a set up by Claudius and Polonius. Hamlet seems to lose control of his emotional state, saying words to Ophelia that he most possibly would not have said if he had been of a rational mind. For example, he angrily tells her “Get thee to a nunn’ry: why wouldst thou be a / breeder of sinners” and he continues to repeatedly tell her to get herself to a nunnery, breaking his train of thought to tell Ophelia what to do (120-121). This pun could suggest Hamlet’s source of anger by how he accuses the world of being a sinful place. This hatefulness was brought forth by Gertrude's actions, since he had

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seen her as a good person before she married Claudius, he is now angry and acts disgusted toward her. The continuing dialogue shows that Hamlet is switching his focus of anger from Ophelia to the world. His mind is full of scattered thoughts and realizations. He says with an mad tone “with more offences at my beck / than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to / give them shape, or time to act them in. What should / such fellows as I do crawling between earth and / heaven” and this implies that he is feeling a sort of self-loathing toward himself now (124-128). First he was angry at Ophelia for her betrayal, then he becomes mad at the world for sinning, and now he is directing his anger at himself. He appears to be upset that he has contemplated possibles sins he will commit in the future, an example of how he is starting to lose his scholarly wits.
Repetition is important, especially on Hamlet’s side of the scene. Repetition for Hamlet can be conclusive evidence of the mad act he is performing. He says “Go thy ways to a nunn’ry” and uses the word “nunn’ry” five times throughout his conversation with Ophelia (129). The previous repetitions of the word appears to be apart of mad Hamlet’s character, but with this specific line he seems to be genuinely furious at Ophelia. Building up his rage through cursing Ophelia and the world, Hamlet has lost a bit of control of his emotions and is taking his anger out on Ophelia because she stands directly before him, an easy target. Another example of repetition is Ophelia shouting “O, help him, you sweet heavens” and “Heavenly powers, restore him”, which are the two times she calls upon the heavens to help- not herself- but Hamlet (133-140). This is not the only time, however, that references of heaven and God are brought into their conversation. Hamlet also repeats the power of the heavens in “God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves / another” but he does this in almost an accusatory tone toward Ophelia (142-143). The dramatic irony is that Ophelia calls upon the heavens to help Hamlet, while on the other side Hamlet uses God’s name in a degrading way to curse and accuse Ophelia. Whether or not Hamlet truly cared for Ophelia, it is evident in their conversation that he is too overcome with rage for everything that he allows his own self to emotionally damage the poor Ophelia.
In conclusion, Hamlet’s mad acting becomes genuine when he feels the stings of Ophelia’s unintentional betrayal. Though he harshly lashes out at Ophelia, there are hints in his speeches that he cares deeply for her.