Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Do you think Hamlet was in love with Ophelia?

Yes. In fact, most of the keys to this very complex relationship comes in the "To be or not to be" scene, Act 3, Scene 1.


Ophelia, remember, has been told by Polonius that she can't see Hamlet - though she admits that he has been making advances towards her. In that scene, though, she makes out that it's all been one-sided, when, in fact, it clearly hasn't. There has been a realtionship, as she reveals when she gives him back his love tokens, his "remembrances", which he claims he never gave her.



My honour'd lord, you know right well you did,
And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd
As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.



How has he proved unkind? Is it because, since seeing the ghost, he hasn't seen her or spent any time with her - or called it off? Is it because she hasn't been anywhere near him? We're not sure. But, just as Hamlet becomes hugely, hysterically emotional at the graveyard scene, Ophelia seems to provoke or elicit a massive angry, emotional response from Hamlet even in this scene:



God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lisp; and nickname God's creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance.



There's a lot of baggage in this scene, and the language is charged and emotional. What specifically happened in the relationship is unclear and difficult to tease out of the text - there are lots of possibilities for interpretation. But one thing is clear:



HAMLET
I did love you once.


OPHELIA
Indeed my lord, you made me believe so.


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