Triangle Essay

My triangle is a scalene triangle involving Hamlet, Ophelia and Polonius. The bottom side is the longest and represents Hamlet’s craziness. The second side represents Ophelia’s involvement with Hamlet and creates a small angle with the bottom side. The last side is the shortest side, and this side represents Polonius’ worry for Ophelia. I decided to use a scalene triangle because all these factors in the play affect each other differently and with different force rather than them all affecting each other equally.

Hamlet’s craziness as well as Ophelia's involvement with Hamlet both fuel Polonius’s worry for Ophelia. It is clear from the beginning of the play that Hamlet is slightly mad. Even his close friends have noticed and Horatio has said already said that “he waxes with desperate imagination” (1.5.97). Even closer to the beginning of the plot Hamlet can’t even remember how long ago his own father died. However, Hamlet’s original plan was only to fake madness not to actually go crazy. All he wanted was to get information on his father’s death. That is why the angle created by Hamlet’s madness and Ophelia's involvement is the smallest. He never meant to make such a big deal out of it. The madness that Hamlet is slipping into makes Polonius fear that his relationship with Ophelia will end badly. Polonius knows that although Hamlet might seem interested in Ophelia now, “his greatness weighed, his will is not his own” (1.3.20) and he would not be allowed to marry such an “unvalued [person]” (1.3.22) as Ophelia No matter how much Hamlet may love Ophelia now he doesn’t have the choice to marry her. Nonetheless, because Hamlet is going crazy he doesn’t consider the consequences and wants to continue their relationship. In fear that O...

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...how Hamlet will treat Ophelia. Throughout Hamlet and Ophelia’s interaction it is already evident that Hamlet is not himself as he goes back and forth between whether or not he loved Ophelia saying, “I did love you once” (3.1.125), and then later saying, “I loved you not” (3.1.129). When Ophelia lies to Hamlet and tells him that her father is “at home” (3.1.142), not only does Hamlet reject Ophelia completely, but he also goes crazy. He starts talking about things that make no sense and referring to marriage he says, “It hath made me mad. I say we will have / no more marriage” (3.1.159-160). Not only is he accidentally admitting that he is going mad, but what he is saying is also unreasonable and shows how crazy he is going. There’s now way he can end all marriages. Polonius' worry pushed his interaction with Ophelia, and the outcome is Hamlet going even more crazy.