Theme Of Loneliness In Hamlet

Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, we see the true tragedy of loneliness Ophelia encounters in the play. Ophelia, who remains lonely with silence in the play, was not able to express her feelings and had no freedom of choice to make her own decisions. She lived her life with grief under the control of men. The only escape, she saw from her sorrow was madness and death, which was not a willful choice for her to do. However, Hamlet didn’t feel as lonely as Ophelia, as he was allowed to speak to everyone in the palace and he had the power to make his own choices as well. Silence is the true state of loneliness. Thus, Worsley expresses that loneliness is more appropriate to describe Ophelia than Hamlet, as Ophelia remains silent in the background,

Ophelia 's loneliness signify her innocence and how she needed love and support in her life. Hamlet’s loneliness show how he needed support to take revenge on Claudius, who have killed his father. However, Worsley states that “Loneliness describes the prevalence of a new form of interiority that arises in parallel with new religious conventions of devotion, new stage conventions, and new ways of being amongst other people” (Worsley 527). Thus, silence is the reason why Ophelia is lonely. However, Worsley is trying to express that the loneliness in the play is what brings changes in the characters and a new way of life, where the characters end their grief and reveal their true identity and obstacle to other characters, through their action and behavior. However, according to Worsley many people say that the reason of Ophelia 's silence is because of the religious books Polonius made her read which could have affected her, “We will bestow ourselves. (to Ophelia) Read on this book/ That show of such an exercise may color/ Your loneliness.—We are oft to blame in this,/’Tis too much proved, that with devotion’s visage ” (3.1.46-49). Polinous states that the religious books Ophelia have read may have caused her to change her behavior and be the reason of Ophelia’s loneliness in the play, as she was devoted to read these books. However, Hamlet becomes lonely when he makes plans to take revenge on Claudius. He needed someone to share his plan and thought so he speaks to the audience, and he tells his mother Gertrude, who eventually finds out and hides his plan from other characters. Hamlet wanted to complete his father’s wish to kill Claudius, who took over his father’s property and married his mother. Thus Hamlet was successful in his plan, but in the end Hamlet became lonely when he completed his