ipl-logo

Does Hamlet Truly Love Ophelia?

1770 Words8 Pages

To netflix and chill , or to not netflix and chill, is the question.This is a complicated question one might make for oneself in today’s age. Also, in today’s time love might be the cause of complex questions. By the same token, in Shakespeare’s time, love raised even more convoluted questions. These complex questions translated to Shakespeare 's writing, and is seen in his play Hamlet. In Hamlet, Hamlet goes through emotional turmoil that causes him to hurt the people around him, and his actions raise a question of does he love Ophelia. Although some may disagree, in William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, Hamlet truly loves Ophelia, but her betrayal and his growing hatred for women twists and corrupts his love. People of this time …show more content…

In reality, Hamlet truly loved Ophelia, and did not use her. Hamlet admits to Ophelia that, “ I did love you once” (Shakespear 54). He admits his love to Ophelia, and his admittance refutes that he was just using her. Even after Ophelia dies, and Hamlet can’t use her anymore as the opposition claims, he still screams his love. Hamlet proclaims, “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum” (Shakespeare 108). He tells Laertes at Ophelia 's funeral that he loved Ophelia more than forty thousand brothers ever could. Ophelia is dead at this point, and Hamlet wouldn’t have to keep on his charade if he had one. He still asserts that he loved Ophelia, and this admittance further confirms that Hamlet loved Ophelia.
In conclusion, although some may argue differently, Hamlet greatly loved Ophelia. Granted, the love was problematic, but he still loved her. The opposition posed great points, but Hamlet’s behavior, status, courting, and confession proves the point that he loves Ophelia. Hamlet proclamation of love twice seals the case that Hamlet in fact loved Ophelia. In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the reader sees a young prince navigate through the intricate questions of love, and his journey can inspire one to get through their tough questions of life in the

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Hamlet 'And The Handmaid's Tale'

    1844 Words  | 8 Pages

    Hamlet clearly stated that he loves Ophelia, “ I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers/Could not with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?” (5.1.280-82), in contrast his speech and his approach to her does not match with it. He acted mad in front of Ophelia and verbally abuse her with “ If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry.... if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Insanity In Hamlet

    1154 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Does Hamlet Really Love Ophelia Analysis

    460 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, it can be proven that Hamlet truly does love Ophelia. He pretends he isn’t in love with her kind of like in real life. Sometimes people pretend they not care for the people they really care for the most, just like Hamlet did to

    Read More

  • Laertes As A Foil To Hamlet Character Analysis

    925 Words  | 4 Pages

    The type of love felt by Hamlet and Laertes is quite different. Ophelia is the sister of Laertes and therefore he has brotherly love for her. Before leaving Denmark, Laertes advises against relations with Hamlet. He remarks on the love Hamlet has for Ophelia as being “The perfume and suppliance of a minute,/ No more.” (I, iii, 9-10)

    Read More

  • Hamlet A Misogynist Analysis

    937 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet views Ophelia as a naive and ignorant girl who is nothing but Polonius and Claudius's puppet. This was revealed when Hamlet said "God has given you one face and you make yourself another. . You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God's creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance." (III, i, 143-146) In this quote Hamlet knows that Ophelia is spying on him for Polonius and Claudius.

    Read More

  • Hamlet: The Cause Of Ophelia's Suicide

    745 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Ophelia Submissive Women In Hamlet

    277 Words  | 2 Pages

    For the duration of the play, Ophelia was portrayed as a naïve and submissive woman. Her passivity and powerlessness reinforce the voicelessness of women during the Elizabethan era. For example, “I shall obey, my lord” (I.iii.134) shows that Ophelia concedes to her father’s will, even though she believes Hamlet’s love is genuine. She is willing and expected to obey her father despite the fact that she still loves Hamlet, which emphasizes her character’s submissive nature. Furthermore, in Act I Laertes warns Ophelia that it would be shameful of her to love Hamlet, and she responds with “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as a watchman to my heart” (I.iii.45).

    Read More

  • The Deceit In Hamlet

    1576 Words  | 7 Pages

    Claiming that he never truly did love her and proving that her father was right about him, “You should not have believ’d me, for virtue cannot/ so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it/ i lov’d you not.” (3.1.117-19) Hamlet’s motives for doing this could be to keep Ophelia out of everything and to not bring her anymore pain if anything was to happen to him as he went through with his plans. It could also be that he is still acting out as the anger/sadden son and that he needs to keep up with the act of seeming crazy to the onlookers. This action also connects to multiple other hasty and rash doings by hamlet that in a way is cutting of ties to his “old life” before he was visited by his father’s ghost and that thinking to himself, that if he’s going to succeed after everything he’s already done, he’ll need to cut ties to anybody that he could at one point had attachments to. There are hints in the line that Hamlet says to Ophelia after saying they need to make themselves clean of this relationship and cut all ties they had with each other from the past.

    Read More

  • Love Is Toxic In Shakespeare's Hamlet

    937 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • How Is Love Portrayed In Hamlet

    88 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Ophelia's Soliloquy Essay

    905 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Is Hamlet Mad

    1856 Words  | 8 Pages

    It was also very much clear he was not mad that he could not forget his love for "Ophelia"till last. When his be loved"Ophelia",who was the part and parcel and apple of eye for him,she was on death-bed,and when,all of sudden,she died,he felt the severe pain in his heart,his life was jolted. He became the victim of internal injuries,which were unexpressable and un-bearable,but faced that lethel shock boldly and participated in the funeral procession of his beloved. His normality was graphic,when he uttered the dialouges,at the burial ceremony of "Ophelia", Brother of ophelia said, "I love you ophelia" but,Hamlet reaplied splendidly that: "I love her more than 40 thousand brothers". It shows that he is performing the role of mad one .

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Attitudes Towards Women

    1056 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hamlet surely thought that his mother Gertrude dearly loved his father Old King Hamlet, now he may feel like his mother never loved his father. This may result in why he feels like he may not love Ophelia. We are also aware that Hamlet has trouble with his own happiness and this probably reflects on the way we feels towards people mostly women. Hamlet thinks that the reason real love does not exist is because of the female gender. Hamlet blames both his mother Gertrude and Ophelia for portraying men as monsters.

    Read More

  • Hamlet Role Play Analysis

    1313 Words  | 6 Pages

    Over the course of Hamlet, many of the main characters engage in role play as a mechanism to achieve their own interests. Prince Hamlet is one of these characters, and his act proves to be one of the most important aspects of the play. Throughout the play, role-play (especially Hamlet’s) significantly affects the plot, and ultimately strains the relationships between several characters. Hamlet is among one of the most important characters to engage in role play. In act one, scene 5, shortly after being told that Claudius killed his father, Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus that he plans to feign madness, and he says, “As I, perchance, hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition

    Read More

  • Hamlet And Ophelia's Relationship Analysis

    809 Words  | 4 Pages

    Despite all the reasons throughout the play to show that Hamlet did not in fact love Ophelia, I believe he may have loved her in some sense. Hamlet may or may not have been hopelessly in love with Ophelia but he definitely felt some sort of love for her. Evidence of his love for her is shown massively by how he responds to learning of about her unfortunate death. In Act V, it is revealed that Ophelia had drowned herself, later in the act, Hamlet discovers the truth.

    Read More

More about Does Hamlet Truly Love Ophelia?

Open Document