Hamlet's Relationship Between Hamlet And Ophelia

In "No Fear Shakespeare Hamlet" Ophelia is just a innocent victim that acts on what people tell her to do and don’t respond to what she want. Hamlet and Ophelia's love was real and not a lust but she let people manipulate her. When you love somebody they will do whatever it takes to protect and support there loved one and Ophelia played victim of loving Hamlet.

In the world of Williams Shakespeare, there have been plenty of stories and plays of love tragedies. Among these love tragedies is the story of Hamlet. Hamlet revolves around love and madness. In the play, madness did overpower love, especially between Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship. In the play, there have been many questions about whether Hamlet did love Ophelia. There’s evidence arguing Hamlet never loved Ophelia by the way he acts towards her throughout the play, but by the way he acts around Ophelia when he was alone with her, he really did love her. When Hamlet finds out that Polonius and Claudius are using Ophelia to spy on him, Hamlet uses bitter and harsh language towards Ophelia, but he goes overboard. For Hamlet, Ophelia’s

“Hamlet’s relation to the maternal has often turned on a psychology complete with Freudian repressed infantile fantasies and adult son’s fears and revulsion of complex female relationships and interactions” (Kumamoto 4). This insight into Hamlet’s behavior, and how deeply seated (yet, possibly unconscious) his revulsion of Ophelia’s desires may have been makes it easier for the reader to understand how his almost intuitive reaction to Ophelia is what, in turn, provokes her madness and thereby, her death. Hamlet could not, from a psychological standpoint, have loved Ophelia genuinely or pursued a life with her if he was fixated on his mother and at the same time, repelled by her blossoming sexuality and what he feels is her (his mother’s) impiety and harlotry.

“Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,...If she unmasks her beauty to the moon.” (Act 1 Scene 3 line 33-37) Laertes is telling Ophelia that she mustn’t trust Hamlet. That she should keep her beauty and affections a secret and all to herself, for the reason that being cautious and modest is better than being revealing and forward. Furthermore, Polonius goes on to say, “Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby... Running it thus-you’ll tender me a fool.” (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 105-109) In this quotation, Polonius is saying that Ophelia is still a child, that she is very naive and doesn’t understand enough about the world or men. He tells Ophelia she should guard her heart more fastidiously, that Hamlet is no good for her and that she has been a naive girl for trusting his affections. Ophelia has become accustomed to having her life ruled and directed by men. Now she finds herself without any of them, Polonius is dead, Laertes is abroad for school, and Hamlet is gone to England. With the dependency she has placed on the men in her life, she finds herself suddenly having lost all of them, this leaves her racked with grief she cannot control, specifically Polonius has left her mad with grief as well as fury. Ophelia has had no choice but live her life according to what men like Laertes and Polonius have told her to do. As a

Hamlet aids, if not casts, Ophelia into insanity. She becomes torn between two men, her father and Hamlet. Her father believes that Hamlet would use her. He believes Hamlet would taint her and not marry her. Ophelia, with a dashing prince batting his eyes at her is convinced that Hamlet loves her, though he swears he never did. To Hamlet she is a sexual entity, a whim for him to indulge momentarily in (Chapman). Hamlet vowed to Ophelia that he never loved her, but he did so with the intentions of Polonius and Claudius getting wind of it. Ophelia not knowing this began going mad. No man would love her and she was torn between the men she loved. To top it all off the man she intimately loves kills her father. Such a heinous act, thought unintentional, crosses a line far too dreadful to even approach. Now she must choose between Hamlet, her father’s murderer and her father, the man disapproving of her love life.

In Act II, scene 1, Ophelia tells her father how Hamlet appeared to Ophelia in a distressed way. She reveals how he studied her face then just walked away without looking back. She even said that she fears that Hamlet has gone ‘mad’ for her love. She is saying that she knows, herself, that Hamlet cannot live without her love. If Hamlet had not truly loved Ophelia, then why did her brother and father want her to stay away from him? Easily enough, they knew of the budding romance between the two but refused to believe it. The two men believed that Hamlet was using Ophelia and that keeping her away from him would stop the love that continued to grow. It was a terrible thing to do because that helped further Hamlet belief that Ophelia was working against him as was every other character in the play. Also, take the love letters for example. In a line of one of the love letters, “never doubt I love...” (II.ii.127), Hamlet basically says that no matter what is going on outside of their relationship, no matter what everyone is telling her, the love he has for Ophelia is real. The love letters are very significant because they show Hamlet’s honest and true feelings towards Ophelia before all of the chaos started. The love notes can be considered examples of the pure and unadulterated love that Hamlet showcased to Ophelia before anyone had a chance to try and sway their feelings in any other way than the way it is supposed to be. Another act of Hamlet’s true love towards Ophelia is showed when the scene Hamlet caused at Ophelia’s gravesite is taken into account. Ophelia committed suicide, “The unresolvable conflict of loyalties—to Polonius and to Hamlet—will ultimately drive her mad” (Shapiro.). At first, Hamlet was talking to a gravedigger, not knowing that the grave that the gravedigger was digging belonged to Ophelia. Hamlet has yet to find out that Ophelia was not alive. When Hamlet realized that the grave was,

When Hamlet’s father, king Hamlet, dies, Hamlet’s temperament changes and does not treat Ophelia in the same loving manner again. Hamlet transfers the resentment he feels towards his mother to Ophelia. Hamlets behavior towards Ophelia leads her to become distraught, knowing she that she will never hear again hamlet’s “sweet, seductive words” (Shakespeare 147) that he convincingly told her as he told other woman. Hamlet, The sole object of her complete attention and affection denies her, causing her to feel adrift and over emotional. Adding to Ophelia’s over attached emotions is the way she feels by being used as bait by her father to “determine whether its love that’s”

Her uttermost loyalty to her family is what allures her to come in contact with several debacles throughout the play. Putting her family’s judgement above all else, even her own, her deep love and genuine belief in Hamlet’s tenderness is put aside. Laertes, her brother, advises that what “sincere” affection Ophelia believes Hamlet delivers to her is motivated not in the interest of love but rather lust. When Polonius commands Ophelia to quit her relationship with Hamlet and stop seeing him, she agrees, “I shall obey my Lord” (1.4.10). It seems that she grows into an inferior women reliant solely on men.

In the tragic play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, one of the most common themes found throughout the story’s plot is the theme of love. Shakespeare interlaces many layers of thematic love through the complex relationships of Hamlet; primarily between Hamlet and Ophelia. From Act one until the final scene of the play, Hamlet struggles with the decision to kill Claudius while he concurrently tries to comprehend the chaos surrounding him. As the story unfolds and the tensions build between Hamlet and his loved ones, Hamlet’s relationship to Ophelia is profoundly impacted. One common argument that rises from studying the tragic story of Hamlet is the questioning of

Her heart is pure, and when she does do something dishonest, such as tell Hamlet that her father has gone home when he is really behind the curtain, it is out of honest fear. Ophelia attaches to the memory of Hamlet treating her with tons of respect and affection, and she defends him and loves him to the very end in spite of his cruelty. She is unable to defend herself, but through her nervous responses we see clearly her intense suffering: To her father and brother, Ophelia is the eternal virgin, the vessel of morality whose purpose is to be an obedient wife and a dedicated mother. To Hamlet, she is a sexual object, a corrupt and deceitful lover. With no mother to guide her, she has no way of deciphering the contradictory expectations.

Love is often a difficult feeling to decipher, especially so when it concerns Shakespearean characters with tragic endings. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the reader is left to interpret Hamlet’s true feelings for Ophelia. Ophelia being the stereotypical clueless female character, while Hamlet’s the self-absorbed know-it-all, yet despite this clear distinction between the two, Ophelia manages to affect Hamlet. Ophelia was a fundamental part of Hamlet’s life, and Hamlet was in love with her. The influence Ophelia has on him is a clear indicator that Hamlet’s in love with her.

Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is clearly shown throughout Hamlet in consistent forms of insanity, protection, and destruction. Hamlet experienced all of these things because he truly did love Ophelia throughout the whole play. Hamlet is one of the many Shakespearean tragedies. It is about a young prince who seeks to revenge his father’s murder. Hamlet is secretly seeing a woman named Ophelia who he is not supposed to be with. There is no doubt Hamlet truly did love Ophelia, By his acts of caring and kindness around Ophelia when the two are alone, he shows that his feelings for her are true and have always been so.

That man is aware that he is like gold whereupon Ophelia is bronze, incapable of courting him. Didst Ophelia taketh heed on what I hath said ere I hath left to Paris? Even so, Hamlet could has't manipulated her into being with him for the sake of temporary lust while he grieved ov'r his dead father. Hamlet must be the source of that lady madness. But what if 't be true she didst taketh heed? Alas, what difference would t has't made? It fits her wisdom so far to believe it. Oh but my words betray my true love for my dearest Ophelia. I could not bring myself to watch. At which hour did her madness conquer? Such cowardice I bore. Oh rest well my sweet Ophelia. May she be the sweetest flower of all fields amongst the daisies and long purples, gentle and untouched. Sunshine where she smiles. Whither rain doest pour no more but only to

Kanye loves Kim regardless of how mad he looks all the time. SpongeBob loves making Krabby patties even though he works without getting paid, and there is no confusion in my mind that Hamlet loved Ophelia even with everything passing through his disturbed life. The play Hamlet was about a young man battling with his inner self. He was handling his father’s recent death, his mom remarrying, girl troubles and on top of everything trying to seek vengeance on his uncle. With everything going on you can understand how hamlet's love life might not be a primary priority and even with stating that Hamlet's love for Ophelia was strong but complicated.

In the play Hamlet William Shakespeare illustrates a complex relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet on how conflict can alter one’s perception. Throughout the play Shakespeare uses imagery and selective diction to convey the complicated relationship for example when Hamlet displays hints of compassion to Ophelia and then follows with “we will have no more marriage:”(3.1.138).