In the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare the prince Hamlet revels the truth behind the late King’s death. Hamlet’s father was the King who was killed by Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. Gertrude soon married her brother in law Claudius after her late husband’s death. Hamlet had gone mad after the death of his father, Claudius, and Gertrude blame his madness on his love for Ophelia. Hamlet loved Ophelia, but he has issues of his own going on. Laertes, and Polonius would interfere with their relationship, and Ophelia would reject his love. During the play Hamlet deals with many issues to make him question who in the kingdom he can trust. Hamlet having trust issues effects his relationship with Ophelia tremendously. Feeling betrayed by his family after finding out the truth behind his father’s death, he had gone mad. Hamlet expresses how he feels about his life, …show more content…
Before Laertes leaves on the ship he gives his sister some advice about Hamlet, he feels because he is royal it will affect their relationship. “Fear it, Ophelia. Fear it, my dear sister, and keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire” (1.3.33-35). Laertes is telling Ophelia to be careful, and do not let herself become a target for Hamlet’s lust. Ophelia’s father Polonius is sure that Hamlet does not love her, and tells her to not accept his love. Polonius demands that Ophelia reports everything about Hamlet back to him. Ophelia’s father explains to her the difference in lust and true love, “Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows. The blazes, daughter, giving more light than heat, extinct in both Even in their promise as it is a-making, you must not take for fire” (1.3.115-120). Therefor Polonius does not want his daughter falling for Hamlet’s flirting, and mistaking it for true
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
Ophelia is portrayed as a sensitive, fragile woman. Easily overpowered and controlled by her brother and father, Ophelia is destined to be weak. Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, warns and pushes Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet and is further supported by their father Polonius. “Polonius enters and adds his warning to those of Laertes. He orders Ophelia not to spend time with Hamlet or even talk to him. Ophelia promises to obey” (“Hamlet” 95). Ophelia’s obedience to her father’s directions prove the side she
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.
Even if the world is going to end, Hamlet claims that he will continue to love Ophelia. Hamlet tells his girlfriend that even though everything around her may be false, she should that that his love is neverending. The poems and notes were only meant to be read by her, so he had absolutely no reason to lie about this emotions. Once Ophelia revealed the letters for Polonius to read, the prince decided it would be best to conceal the majority of his feelings towards her in order to protect her. Hamlet doesn’t want her go get hurt between her father’s stupidity and his own
Hamlet and Laertes share a different but deep love and concern for Ophelia. Laertes advises her to retain from seeing and being involved with Hamlet because of his social status. He didn’t want her to get her heart broken by Hamlet, since he believed that his marriage would be arranged to someone of his social status, and that he would only use and hurt Ophelia. Hamlet on the other hand, was madly in love with Ophelia but it languishes after she rejects him. Ophelia’s death caused distress in both Hamlet and Laertes and it also made Laertes more hostile towards Hamlet.
Hamlet cannot decide between a life of action and revenge, or contemplation and fate and he is genuinely concerned with the deeper truths upon which his life is ordered- fate and freewill.
Hamlet’s apparent antics with Ophelia prove that their relationship begins to fall apart and become unhealthy. Hamlet mistreats Ophelia when she attempts to return the gifts he has given her, and he responds in a harsh manner, asking about her chastity and beauty, saying “that if [she] be honest and fair, [her] honesty/should admit no discourse to [her] beauty” (3.1.117-118). Hamlet continues to belittle her, calling her two-faced and admitting that he “did love [her] once” (3.1.125), his feelings for her now absent. Hamlet’s facade becomes personal through this. The entire exchange shows how Hamlet prioritizes his revenge, over his love because he eventually figures out that Polonius and Claudius spy on him. Hamlet soon speculates Ophelia’s association in their plan and decides to put on a facade for her too. Claudius’s facade also affects his relationship with Gertrude and Hamlet. After his speech to the court, Claudius approaches Hamlet in a way that appears as if he cares about him, even addressing him as “my cousin Hamlet and my son” (1.2.66), despite being aware of Hamlet’s sensitive and depressive state because of his father’s death. Moreover, Claudius expresses his deceitful love when he admits to Laertes that he won’t put Hamlet on trial because he mentions how much he loves Gertrude, and that she “is so conjunctive to my life and soul/that, as the
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 ...
In 1600, William Shakespeare composed what is considered the greatest tragedy of all time, Hamlet, the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark. His masterpiece forever redefined what tragedy should be. Critics have analyzed it word for word for nearly four hundred years, with each generation appreciating Hamlet in its own way. While Hamlet conforms, without a doubt, to Aristotle's definition of a tragedy, one question still lingers. Did Shakespeare intend for the reader or viewer of Hamlet to feel greater sympathy for Hamlet, or for Ophelia, Hamlet's lover? Both characters tug at the heartstrings throughout the play, but it is clear that 'the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark' is a misrepresentation of Shakespeare's true intention.
One of the main relationships in which there is great deal of control and manipulation is between Hamlet and Ophelia. Ophelia is the only lady in her family. Her family includes her father Polonius and brother Laertes. Ophelia is an obedient lady who views the men in her life as her only reference in life’s dilemmas. However, there is irony from the advice that her family gives her to prevent her from being with Hamlet. Laertes mentions to Ophelia, “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./ Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain”(I.iii.41). Laertes tries to protect Ophelia by telling her to be wise enough on believing Hamlet’s words. Laertes does not only approve of Ophelia’s love for Hamlet because he does not want his sister to be hurt. Ophelia as the obedient lady she is, tells Laertes that she will take his words of wisdom close to her mind. The main example of Hamlet showing the act of being callous and over controlling is when...
"Laertes is a mirror to Hamlet. Shakespeare has made them similar in many aspects to provide a greater base for comparison when avenging their respective fathers' deaths" (Nardo, 90). Both Hamlet and Laertes love Ophelia in different ways. Hamlet wishes Ophelia to become his wife, Laertes loves Ophelia as a sister. Hamlet is a scholar at Wittenberg; Laertes is also a scholar at France. Both were brought up under this royal family of Denmark. And both are admired for their swordsmenship. But most important of all, both of them loved and respected their fathers greatly, and showed great devotion when plotting to avenge their fathers' deaths.
Along with protecting his sister from the unlawful Hamlet, Laertes tries to protect the family’s reputation. He believes that Hamlet is to out manipulate his daughter and if he doesn’t put an end to it, entire family will be ruined. Other royals will begin to look down the family if the secrets and between Hamlet and Ophelia are ever
At the beginning of the play, Ophelia herself believes that Hamlet loves her. First of all, Laertes and Polonius had both heard about Hamlet professing his love for Ophelia. Being the typical protective brother and father, they cautioned Ophelia and told her to be very wary of