Shakespeare uses Ophelia and Hamlet's erratic love dynamic to highlight the destructive nature of a love motivated by outside pressures and societal expectations, ultimately resulting in Ophelia's spiral into madness and eventually, her death. Ophelia’s respect for her father, Polonius, and love for Hamlet forces her to sacrifice her autonomy and succumb to her fathers wishes and Hamlet’s expectations. Shakespeare describes Ophelia and Hamlet's love dynamic as hectic and unstable. The relationship between the characters is motivated by ambiguity and uncertainty throughout the play. Ophelia opens the play in a haze of affection. "My lord, he hath importuned me with love in honorable fashion" (1.3). She stands up for him to her father and brother, expressing true love: the veiled reason for her and Hamlet’s continuing deranged relationship throughout the play. Ophelia then expresses fear and concern about Hamlet's behavior when he meets her in …show more content…
Hamlet asks Ophelia: "Are you honest?... Are you fair?... For the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to be a bawd...I did love you once." (3.1). Instead of relying on his love for Ophelia, Hamlet turns to societal expectations to rule if he belongs with her or not. Ophelia is meant to be seen as fragile and pure, partly because that is the old societal standard for women, and partly because her mind is controlled by all the men in her life. Hamlet is very insulting to Opehlia just because she is a young and pretty woman. Ophelia is used by all the men in her life, Polonius, Hamlet and Laertes because they all have some sense of authority over women to fufill. Eventually, it is Hamlet’s disregard for Ophelias own thoughts that lead her to madness.The tragic outcome of their relationship serves as a lesson in the value of human agency and autonomy. It warns against letting society's standards control one's personal
When Ophelia returns all his letters and gifts he tells her that he has never loved her and that she should “get thyself to a nunnery.” This is one example how his mood changes throughout the play. Then after all this her father, Polinous, is murdered by Hamlet. The Hamlet is sent away to England All of these actions result in her feeling such stress that she becomes insane in the end.
Hamlet's views on love could be ruined because of his mother's relationship with his father and how she got over him so quickly and married his uncle Claudius. Hamlet is also protecting Ophelia from getting hurt with his plans of revenge or protecting her from his uncle knowing he would use her as a way of hurting him. Hamlet shows his love for Ophelia in many different ways throughout the play. the first way Hamlet shows his love towards Ophelia is with
Hamlet once again fails to understand that Ophelia much like himself is only trying to stay loyal to her father, much like what he is doing himself. In addition, Hamlet blames woman for giving birth to such evil and deceiving men like Claudius and himself. When he was talking to Ophelia he told her "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better
Ophelia goes mad throughout the story. She is overwhelmed by the loss of her father and the rejection of Hamlet. Her character is seen spiraling down a dark path that also ends in death. Ophelia is depicted as not having control over her actions; speaking and acting erratically. While Hamlet is speaking erratically and behaving oddly, he still maintains control over his actions and movement throughout the story.
Ophelia is grieving the loss of her father after Hamlet kills him. Ophelia doesn't know that Hamlet killed her father. But Ophelia has gone mad from learning about her father's death. Also, after Hamlet telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, Ophelia is a little bit discouraged. She is discouraged because Hamlet had told her before that if Ophelia would sleep with him that they would get married.
Ophelia is forced to deal with the conflicting emotions of loving Hamlet, who is the cause of her father’s death, and
When polonius finds out about the little love fling they have going on it absolutely infuriates him causing him to band Ophelia from seeing prince Hamlet. As the obeying and loyal daughter ophelia is she obeys her father's wishes. “ Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs, Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmastered importunity. 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.
Ophelia’s behavior towards her family shows that she is submissive to her father’s will. After telling her father, Polonius, about Hamlet’s loving behavior, Polonius commands her to stay away because he believes Hamlet is no good for her. Despite her affections for Hamlet, she agrees with her father and says “I shall obey, my Lord” (Hamlet 1.3.136). She relies on Polonius and her brother, Laertes, to help her with every decision that she makes. Her submissiveness towards her father allows the story to progress further as Polonius uses Ophelia as a pawn in many of his schemes toward Hamlet.
Hamlet has not only become distraught from his conniving and lying stepfather but also his mother, Queen Gertrude as well. The unfaithfulness that Gertrude shows to Hamlet’s father and Hamlet has a toll on him and plays a part in his insanity. The facade that Hamlet displays slowly leads to his insanity, causing him to show mistreated love towards Ophelia. In the beginning of the play, Ophelia displays a very honest
Love is a very strong feeling and it 's portrayed in many ways. In Hamlet, Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, has fallen for The young Prince Hamlet. In the play, Hamlet confuses us in the beginning because we think he’s just using her for pleasure, and not that he actually has feelings for her. But at the end of the story, we see a whole other side to the story. We see how much he actually loves her and not that he was using her for his own needs.
In Act III, scene i of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, readers will come upon Ophelia’s soliloquy. After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have failed to find a reason as to why Hamlet is acting in a peculiar and mad way, Claudius is persuaded by Polonius that the reason for Hamlet’s madness is the broken romance between Hamlet and Ophelia. To prove this, Claudius and Polonius plan to spy on Ophelia’s meeting with Hamlet. During their conversation, Hamlet denies ever having loved her and curses her. Ophelia is left fretting over his sanity.
Saying this, Hamlet’s behavior towards Ophelia is crude, rough, and full of anger. Despite Hamlet’s harsh treatment towards Ophelia, he really did love her, but because she was not his main focus, the
Hamlet does not value Ophelia 's feelings he belittles her. In Hamlets defense this is the way he was brought up to treat women, during that time this was a common way to treat a women. Even though in today 's society it is not at all ok to treat women with such disrespect. He also likes for everything to go as planned and this may result in why he can not have a stable relationship with a woman. This also causes him to have many stumbling blocks in his life that causes some emotional pain
Hamlet brings to go on and talk about how much her and how beautiful she was. He then tells her he doesn’t love her, but it can be assumed that he said so because Hamlet knew they were being watched by Pulonious, asking Ophelia where her father was. Hamlet has shown many instances where he would fake an act just to confuse others. Another instance is when he quotes “never doubt I love” (II.ii.127). He tells her despite all the false things happening around them, his love for her was a genuine.
Ophelia’s young mind is shaped by her father, Polonius, to view Hamlet's approach as “love” whereas it is actually more of a chaotic blunder. Society’s imposing forces are a way to try and control her, so when not controlled she is left to the hands oh herself. Ophelia’s own wellbeing faulters at