The Destruction of Love Between Hamlet and Ophelia

The Destruction of Love Between Hamlet and Ophelia

Ophelia describes Hamlet as 'the courtier's soldier, scholar's eye, tongue and sword, Th'expectancy and rose of fair state, the glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th'observed of all observers (Act 3 Scene 1) He is the ideal man. But, after his madness and the death of her father she sees him as 'a noble mind o'er thrown!' (Act 3 Scene 1). Ophelia suffers from Hamlet's disillusionment; his attitude to her in Act 3 Scene 1 is hard to explain. His faith in women was shattered by his mother's marriage and it is also possible that Hamlet knows that Ophelia has been ordered to seek him out- yet how strong could their love have been as there is little excuse for the cruelty and the coarseness of his remarks: 'Get thee to a nunnery- why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?

'If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. (Act 3 Scene 1). The main question of the play is does the barrier built by Ophelia to keep away Hamlet have any part to play in his 'madness', for, if it does, it is also the greatest tragedy of the play. How can something so small in the grandeur of the play be the heart of the tragedy one might ask? All other incidents in the play are reduced to a lower level because any character involved in the incident has brought, in some way, about their own downfall. For example Polonius's death is a tragic accident brought about by his conniving and slippery ways -and he is almost deserving of his death- whereas Ophelia and Hamlet's love is merely innocence entangled in the betrayal, deceit and incest in the castle itself.

On the...

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...ve, for, when I went to see a production of Hamlet their relationship was more of siblings rather than lovers, and yet Laertes and Ophelia had a more passionate and intense relationship!

Even so, I still believe that the destruction of their love, however poorly it is shown upon the stage, is still the real tragedy of the play, purely because of Ophelia's innocence and their madness after losing each other- whether there be other reasons also, in Hamlet's case, for his madness plays little opposition to the fact that their love died young.

Works Cited

Wofford, Susanne L., ed. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, William Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1994.

Shakespeare, William. The Tradegy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992