Representation Of Love In Hamlet

The term love can be exemplified in many variations. As complex as it is, it may be described as an experience rather than a tangible entity. Love’s paradoxical capacity consists of devotion and passion, which can be both liberating and binding in a relationship. A recurrent theme in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the portrayal of one character’s love for another, and how this obliges them to act in various circumstances. This is prominent throughout the play, as seen in Hamlet's adoration for his father, Horatio's self-less love for Hamlet, and Gertrude's unparalleled love for her son. However, the love illustrated in these relationships cannot be used to define Hamlet and Ophelia’s association. In its place, Hamlet’s lust for Ophelia is simply a

demonstration of Eros love, or sexual desire. This type of love suppresses Hamlet's aspiration and potential to evolve his infatuation into a love with deeper meaning and capability. Both Hamlet and Ophelia are predisposed to the impact of their external environment. In turn, this draws them together, regardless of their personal feelings for one another. Hamlet grows up learning to put his needs above others. This translates into his subsequent behaviour, evident in his neglect of Ophelia and her emotions. An examination of Hamlet’s interactions with Ophelia, and other character’s throughout the play, reveal the sincerity of Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship, the societal pressures that influence their predestined courtship, and Hamlet’s lack of understanding and his ability to display love.
Contrary to Hamlet whose age of 30 is revealed within the play, Ophelia's tender age is alluded to through her family's attempt to chastise her. Her brother and father feel the need to advise her on her relationships with men, Hamlet in particular, and the expectations they hold for her as an young lady: "His greatness weighed, his will is not his own... / Then if he says he loves you, / It fits your wisdom so far to believe it / As he in his particular act and place / May give his saying deed; which is no further / Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal" (1.3.20, 27-31). Laertes attempts to warn Ophelia that Hamlet's intentions are not wholly pure. As the heir to Denmark's throne, Hamlet carries the nation on his back. This pressure is likely to drive most of his decisions and occupy his thoughts. At this point in the play, Hamlet may sincerely mean the endearing words he shares with Ophelia, such as identifying her as the "fair" and/or "beautified" Ophelia (2.2.117; 3.1.97). Yet, it is merely infatuation of the moment rather than love, as his relationship with Ophelia holds no depth or commitment. Hamlet is required to marry a woman suitable for the throne, and the King's advisor's daughter would not fit this criteria. It is the restoration of Denmark's throne that remains as Hamlet's foremost aspiration. At times, the superficial nature of their relationship leaves room for confusion of intention somewhere within the two ends of this "love" spectrum. Ophelia's father, Polonius, cautions that she should not mistake Hamlet's lust as an equivalent for her devotion: "He hath very oft of late given private time to you… / These blazes… / You must not take for fire…/ For Lord Hamlet, / Believe so much in him, that he is young / And with a larger tether may he walk / Than may be given to you" (1.3.96-97, 122, 125, 128-131). Even though he constantly wants to be in Ophelia's company, and calls for her persistently, to Polonius this is part of Hamlet's scheme to take advantage of Ophelia's naïve nature. Hamlet claims to love Ophelia, but as a man his urge to be in the company of a woman compels him to ruthlessly beckon and dismiss Ophelia, without the consideration of her personal attachment to him. Ophelia instinctively runs to Hamlet whenever he calls, fueling his unscrupulous desires. Hamlet's mercurial yearning for Ophelia disguises itself as love.
There are many factors that would initially cause Hamlet and Ophelia to initiate a courtship.

In the Shakespearean era, certain pressures can cause one to become enclosed in expectation, making conformation the only viable alternative. “Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, / If with too credent ear you list his songs, / Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open / To his unmastered importunity” (1.3.32-35). Laertes reminds Ophelia that as a woman she must be careful around men, certainly Hamlet, and sustain her chastity in order to appear favourable to the public. As a woman of her time, Ophelia is expected to be obedient, submissive, and spiritless. In order to be approved by society, she is required to remain untarnished until her father finds an appropriate suitor to give her away to. She is literally viewed as an article in her father's possession. Ophelia later challenges her brother's notion by saying, “Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, / Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven” (1.3.50-51). In her view, she holds the same set of expectations for her brother rather than accepting that she must blindly follow his (or anyone else's) guidelines simply because she is a woman. Even though Ophelia verbally expresses her disdain towards these formalities, it is inevitable that the pressure placed on her by society will prove too much to bear. Subconsciously, Ophelia has the desire (instilled in her throughout her upbringing) to find a husband and start a family while she is still at an ideal age. Despite all of the warnings she receives, Ophelia falls prey to Hamlet's words, giving up the entirety of herself to him: "I a maid at your window, / To be your Valentine. / Then up he rose, and donned his clothes, / And dupped the chamber-door, / Let in the maid, that out a maid / Never departed more" (4.5.50-55). Ophelia suggests that she innocently allows herself to be intimate with Hamlet. Prior to this, Ophelia believes that Hamlet is that one

man she can confide in, and will not exploit her like her family believes, thus she lets her guard down. She enters his room a wholesome "maid", but leaves this part of herself behind as she exits (4.5.54). She desperately wants to prove her family wrong, and no longer wants to be perceived as just Hamlet's momentary interest. The desire to unleash herself from these conventionalities causes her to succumb to Hamlet's wishes. Hamlet uses her, and when he finishes with her he disposes of her. Unable to maintain an equilibrium when dealing with Hamlet's abandonment and her father's death, Ophelia is consumed by insanity (4.5.5-14, 63-66). Hamlet lures Ophelia in and then discards her when his focus shifts.
Hamlet obsesses over his plans for revenge, causing him to take advantage of Ophelia's affection and emotions. Amidst portraying an air of madness, Hamlet's advanced mental state begins to deteriorate. Hamlet questions life and death, and his own existence on earth (3.1.63-95). He loses his sense of reality, questioning the validity of his own eyes: “ If his occulted guilt / Do not itself unkennel in one speech, / It is a damned ghost that we have seen, / And my imaginations are as foul / As Vulcan’s stithy” (3.2.81-85). Hamlet can no longer trust his own judgement or the testimonies of those closest to him. He feels compelled to search for confirmation via unconventional channels, as displayed through the play that reveals Claudius's guilt. Hamlet is so obsessed with finding out the truth and avenging his father that he finds himself in limbo, unable to distinguish reality from the surreal. In his determined path of justice (ultimately self-destruction), Hamlet leaves behind a trail people who shared genuine feelings for him, including Ophelia. Hamlet exhibits his skewed intentions when writing Ophelia's love letter. The "William Shakespeare, New Edition", edited by literary critic Harold Bloom, suggests that the excessive detail found into Hamlet's love letter exposes the exaggeration and superficiality of his feelings towards Ophelia: "Even the uninitiated in psychology might well suspect the sincerity of an epistle so overloaded with adjectives and superlatives...It is the precise mark of Hamlet that he despised doing things as they were done in his day...with what he called "the tune of the time"" (Bloom). Hamlet's effort to channel other's perception of his madness by using Ophelia as his scapegoat contradicts his claims of love for Ophelia. In his attempt to emulate lunacy derived from love for Ophelia, Hamlet abuses her mentally and emotionally by misusing Ophelia's admiration for his individual benefit.
As revenge consumes Hamlet's being, he cannot overlook the troubling fact that his father's murderer has captured his mother's affection. He becomes fixated on her intimate relationship with Claudius: “But go not to my uncle’s bed… / Refrain to-night, / And that shall lend a kind of easiness / To the next abstinence… / By no means, that I bid you do: / Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed” (3.4.177, 183-185, 200-201). Hamlet's obsession with his mother's lack of sexual temperance becomes a compulsive thought, constantly in the back of his mind.
While it is murder that frames the play, Hamlet's personal obsession...[is also] the fact that his mother has gone 'with such dexterity to incestuous sheets' (1.2.156). Psychoanalytic readings have argued that Hamlet's forbidden and unconscious Oedipal love for his mother and his wish to get rid of his father inform the whole play and account for his renowned prevarication. (Mitchell)
As psychoanalyst, Julie Mitchell, proposes, Hamlet feels a sense of betrayal. After the passing of his father, it is expected that Hamlet would assume his father’s role. Nevertheless, his mother chooses to unconventionally remarry to his uncle. Together, they ignore Hamlet's rights as the only son. Consequently, Hamlet develops a lack of trust in his mother, and women as a whole. His misogynistic tendencies begin to form as he ceases to view women as individuals. Alternatively, they become ploys in his game of revenge against his offender, Claudius. At this time, Hamlet leaves himself emotionally and sexually unavailable, disregarding Ophelia. His display of the Oedipus complex through his melancholy, and excessive mourning throughout his mother's wedding, exemplifies Hamlet's unwillingness to let go of his idea of how his life should have panned out. To him everything must be in his control and go to plan. When this does not happen, Hamlet surrenders himself to his own mind. He is unable to liberate himself from his own confinement. Hamlet becomes too involved with his mother's sex life, and his illicit love for her, to truly develop significant feelings for Ophelia.