Comparing Hamlet 'And The Handmaid's Tale'

“To be or not to be” true to yourself In Hamlet, Polonius gives advice to Laertes before he leaves for France. One piece of advice is “To thine own self be true¨, which is a reminder to Laertes that he should be true to himself (1.3.82). In both Hamlet and The Handmaid's Tale, Hamlet and Offred are not true to themselves since their actions contradict their thoughts. Their actions are unparalleled with their desires, love and morals.
Desire is the strong feeling of wishing something to happen. Everyone has infinite desire, it can be the drive for us to accomplish different thing. Hamlet desire to kill Claudius for the revenge for his father.His desire to get revenge for his father is shown in he respond to his Father’s ghost, he response"Haste

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. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.(3.1.146-51), telling her he will give her curse at her wedding and she should marry a fool because the wise knows that she will cheat on them. He also insulted while they the watch the play in Act 3 scene ii. He made sexually joke about her, asking her if his head can lie between her lap. He also contributes to Ophelia’s suicide by killing Polonius out of rage, mistaking him as Claudius. Ophelia break down after all three of the men she rely on, Laertes, Hamlet and Polonius all leave her. She has no support from anyone and she can’t bear the alone so she commit suicide by drowning herself. Hamlet said he loves Ophelia so much yet all he did in the play was hurting, using and insulting her, this is not the way to treat somebody that he loves. In Handmaid’s tale, Offred deny and pretend that she does not love Nick because Gilead forbidden love and it’s dangerous to love. They never say the word love because “it would be tempting fate; it would be romance,bad luck.”(Attwood 337). Nick said “No Romance...ok?”(40.) before he had sex with Offred. Offred knows the risk she takes by having this relationship with Nick. However, the truth is that she actually fell in love with Nick. Not only did she secretly meet up with Nick after Serena Joy’s arrangements, she also get distracted when Ofglen discuss with her about rebellious army issue which once she is excited about. While Ofglen asked her