Humanity In Hamlet's Ophelia

After Hamlet loses hope in Ophelia, he turns on humanity as a whole and exposes how humans are natural sinners born to destroy and be corrupt. He springs on Ophelia, commanding her to “get thee to a nunnery” five separate times (3. 1. 130.). Though at first glance this appears to be another insult on her apparent impurity, in actuality he is begging her to escape the corruptive cycle of marriage and humanity. If she was to become a nun, she would never make a “[monster]” out of a husband and she could never be a “breeder of sinners” (3. 1. 148., 3. 1. 131.). Hamlet truly does believe that humans are inherently evil and that in order for the world to return to how God intended it, the human race must cease to exist. He uses himself as an example, saying that he is “very proud,

1. 153.). Essentially, humans play God and make their own flawed creations out of what God himself had made. Hamlet rejects these foolish habits of humanity, demanding that there will be “no more marriages” to let the human race be cleansed from the Earth (3. 1. 156.). He turns to Ophelia and tells her that “if thou dost marry, [he’ll] give [her] this plague for [her]/ dowey; be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt/ not escape calumny” (3. 1. 144-146.). There’s no escape from the ruin humanity brings, even if she does no wrong. Ultimately, every child will fall to sin, so if Ophelia does choose to marry and have children, she will have to marry a “fool” of a man who doesn’t understand this (3. 1. 143.). Hamlet refuses to be such a fool, since he understands the core nature of humanity without God’s perfection. Hamlet’s turning on humanity as a whole and marking it off as corrupted and wicked shows how he sees nothing but corruption in his and other’s