Love And Loss In Hamlet And Ophelia

At one point in time, Ophelia was one who Hamlet truly loved and trusted. Ophelia comes and speaks to hamlet to return his gifts from her but Hamlet immediately realizes that something is wrong and finds out that Ophelia is being used by Claudius and Polonius to spy on him to find out the real reason of Hamlet’s facade of madness. After realizing this, Hamlet is incensed and acts as if he is truly insane. Hamlet is clearly hurt because of the fact that Ophelia has been as a pawn in Claudius’ game. The effects of the matter cause him to verbally abuse Ophelia and rejects her love by saying that they will never get married and also degrades women. At this point Hamlet is raged and does not understand how harsh his words can be to a woman, especially a human being in general. In conclusion, the death of Hamlet’s father had looked like as if it has not even affected his mother which he so dearly loved and the one true love he thought he had, seems to him as deceiving and just a pawn for his enemies. These factors continue to diminish the subordinate attitude that Hamlet has towards

In another scene, Polonius orders Ophelia to return the gifts that Hamlet gave her, and to make her rejection of him unmistakable and absolute. Polonius believes that if she is the cause of Hamlet’s madness, this would be the proof. “That Hamlet loses his mental stability is arguable from his behavior toward Ophelia…” (Foster, par.16) In Branagh’s version, we see how terribly this tears Ophelia’s heart. When Hamlet sees her, he walks up to her, telling her how much he loves her. After Hamlet kisses her, she returns the love letters that he wrote back to him. She sees how crushed he is, which makes her feel even worse; but she also believes she has to do this because her father ordered her to. Hamlet tells her “Get thee to a nunnery” (William

Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia suddenly becomes complicated, after Hamlet’s encounter with the Ghost. It all starts when Hamlet first appears in Ophelia’s chamber pale and dishevelled, after receiving news from the Ghost that King Claudius had poured poison into his ear, and it was Hamlet’s duty to avenge the death of his father. Hamlet’s condition frightens Ophelia, as she runs off to tell Polonius about the encounter;” My lord, as I was sewing in my closet/ Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced/… speak of horrors—he comes before me” (2.1 87-94). Hamlet may express that he does not love Ophelia anymore, but his ill treatment towards her comes at the price of testing her loyalties towards him or her father Polonius, who is the eyes and ears of Claudius. As Ophelia runs off to Polonius, it is clear to Hamlet that he cannot trust Ophelia with such a deadly task at his hands. Behind all this phony madness, it breaks Hamlet’s heart to jeopardize his relationship with Ophelia for his own motivations, but it is an intricate decision he has to make. This is again evident in Act 3, scene 1, when Hamlet instructs Ophelia; “To a nunnery, go, and/ Quickly too. Farewell” (3.1 151-152). The only reason Hamlet would utter such bitter words to Ophelia, is because he trusts Ophelia will be kept safer there than anywhere near the kingdom. In doing so, Hamlet proves that he still cares for Ophelia and what they had, but he cannot manage their relationship at the same time getting revenge, because he’s too caught up in pursuing his own motives. Eventually, as Ophelia goes mad and dies,

Throughout the entire play, Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is questioned. What Hamlet is really doing is trying to throw off the other characters and make it seem like he does not love Ophelia, even though he really does. Hamlet did not want Ophelia to become involved in case Claudius decided to get revenge on Hamlet. Hamlet shows his love for Ophelia when he confesses to her that he loves her, when he tells her to go to a nunnery to protect her, when he sends her the letter, and when he finds out that she has died. Although many could argue that Hamlet never loved Ophelia, he was just trying to throw everyone else off. There is a great deal of evidence proving that his love was

As the story grows deeper, Hamlet shows us that he really did love Ophelia when Hamlet tells Ophelia that “I did love you once” (3.1.131). Hamlet only confesses that he did indeed loved Ophelia, but only when it goes on to says that Hamlet never loved her (Habib, 23). On the

Ophelia tries to obscure the truth because she is afraid of disobeying her father. It is obvious that Hamlet is already well aware that Polonius is watching after he states “Let the doors be shut upon him, the he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house.”(3.1.132-133) Ophelia could have easily told Hamlet the truth, but due to her undying love for her father chooses to deceive Hamlet. Ophelia’s deceit leads Hamlet to start questioning her honest nature. Hamlet begins tearing apart by Ophelia because he is so irritated with her for being insincere to him. He states to Ophelia that “you should not have believed me: for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.” (3.1.117-119) Hamlet states that he does not love Ophelia because he believes that through this scheme, Ophelia will reveal the truth that Polonius is in fact behind their “unplanned” meeting. Ophelia had betrayed Hamlet by lying to him, thus Hamlet felt the need to betray her. If Ophelia had just been honest with Hamlet he would have not become so discourteous towards her, but she was not which resulted in him denying his love for her. Just as Hamlet was deceived, Ophelia was also because it was her lies that led to the ending of their love. Ophelia’s dishonesty resulted in her becoming a mockery of Hamlets antic disposition. Hamlet uses Ophelia to uncover

She says she loves Prince Hamlet yet she tells Polonius everything that goes on between them. Polonius forbids Ophelia to leave the castle, making Prince Hamlet write his love for her through a letter, in which Ophelia gives to Polonius to read, “Doubt thou the stars are fire,/ Doubt that the sun doth move,/ Doubt truth to be a liar,/ But never doubt I love.” (2.2.124-127). Ophelia feels the love but decides not to tell her father in fear of getting disowned and losing his love for her. The fear of losing her father's love makes Ophelia lie saying “No, my good lord, but as you did command/ I did repel his letters and denied/ His access to me” (2.2.120-122). Ophelia keeps to herself her wish to desperately be with Prince Hamlet from Polonius. When he finds out that Ophelia has been telling Polonius everything about their “relationship” and that she messed around with him just to get information, he gets very infuriated and “loses” the love he had for Ophelia. “I loved you not” (3.1.129).His feelings have changed to hate and regret, Prince Hamlet’s love for Ophelia seemed to be strong but in a flash it’s gone. When Ophelia tries to apologize to Prince Hamlet his feelings stay neutral and he can never love Ophelia again. Ophelia knows that what she did can’t be forgiven, after what Prince Hamlet told

Hamlet seems to be kind towards Ophelia when Polonius reads Hamlet’s love letter. Hamlet professes to Ophelia, “Doubt thou the stars are fire, / Doubt that the sun doth move, / Doubt truth to be a liar, / But never doubt I love” (2.2. 124-127). Unfortunately, these words towards Ophelia mean nothing. In response to Ophelia returning his love letters, Hamlet responds with, “I never gave you aught” (3.1.105). Any hint that Hamlet truly loved Ophelia is undermined when he outright denies writing those letters to her. Hamlet further insults Ophelia when he says to her, “Or if thou wilt needs marry, / marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what / monsters you make of them” (3.1.149-151). Absolving himself from any accountability for his moody temperament, Hamlet instead puts the blame on Ophelia.

Throughout the play, Hamlet and Ophelia have a very strong love connection. They loved each other and wanted to eventually get married. Hamlet and Ophelia hit some bumps in the road in their relationship but they always secretly wanted to be together. In Act 1, Scene 3, It was hard for Ophelia to comprehend when Polonius told her that he thought Hamlet's love for her wasn’t real, but she didn’t know what to believe. When Hamlet could no longer see Ophelia he began to get mad a frustrated, to add on also that he was going crazy over his own father's death.

Ophelia is in love with Hamlet. She shares herself with him and is beginning a relationship, she wants to be with hamlet and believes he loves her "My lord, he hath importuned me with his love in honorable fashion"(pg 17 line 110). Polonius instructs Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet. Polonius states that Hamlet doesn’t really love her and is only with her for one thing, and as soon as he gets enough he will want no more.

Hamlet confirmed that he did love Ophelia when he told her to go to a nunnery. Although it is a harsh statement, he tried to throw everyone else off so he had to make it seem like he never loved her. Throughout his letter he mentioned that everything else around her may not be true but his love is real. Hamlet explained that Ophelia was too naive and if Polonius read the letters, he had to act mad to protect her. Near the end of the session, Hamlet described the scene in the graveyard and how he still proved his love for Ophelia. His behaviour changed from extremely upset to more relaxed and reasoned.

Hamlet is without any reservations, one of Shakespeare's most mystifying plays. Although the play has a concise story, it is filled with many uncertainties relating to different issues behind the plot. The reader is left with many uncertainties about the true feelings of prince Hamlet. One question in particular is, did Hamlet really love Ophelia? This dispute can be reinforced either way, however I believe Hamlet was truly in love with Ophelia. Support for my decision comes from Hamlet's treatment towards Ophelia is shown throughout the play, but especially in Act 3, Scene 2, and at Ophelia's grave in Scene 1 of Act 5.

     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

Hamlet discovers elements of false love in Ophelia as he relates her flaws with Gertrudes'. Ophelia is part of a plan to set up Hamlet which will determine whether he is truly mad in her love or otherwise. Her love is being used to play with Hamlet's emotions. "I will leave him and/ Suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him/ And my daughter" (2.2: 209-211). Polonius decides he will use Ophelia to manipulate Hamlet by getting her to resurface his feelings and repressed love for her. By setting up this meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, Polonius has objectified her love in effort to anger Hamlet. This act goes to show that Ophelia allows her love to be used as a method to better understand Hamlet's madness. Ophelia clearly chooses to obey her father over her love for Hamlet. After learning that he was subject to Ophelia's false love, Hamlet becomes very rude in attitude towards her as he feels he has been chested. "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder/ Of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but

After a long meditation on the nature of being and death, Hamlet catches sight of Ophelia. As she attempts to return some of the remembrances that Hamlet gave when courting her, Hamlet caustically questions Ophelia’s honesty. He denies ever having given Ophelia anything and continues to erratically claim that he loved her once before declaring that he never loved her at all. The problem here is that no one knows the exact intent of Hamlet as he claims to love Ophelia amidst a number of happenings that questions how genuine his love towards Ophelia. Not only does he doubt her honesty because he knew about her plan with Polonius and Claudius to eavesdrop on him, he is unsure of her purity and her love for him and he tells her, “get thee to a nunnery” rather than give birth to sinners ( ). Increasingly agitated, Hamlet condemns marriage itself, saying that no more marriages should be allowed, before exiting the room and leaving Ophelia in shambles. Looking deeper into the behavior that Hamlet demonstrates in this scene, there is completely no love that he shares with Ophelia. In a way, Hamlet seems convinced that Ophelia is the love of her life, but yet he has the behavior of insulting her and not giving her the priority that she needs. His character portrays a man who cannot be connected to his self and this leads him to a number of problems as regards the way he treats Ophelia. It is not just the feelings that Hamlet has towards Ophelia that describes his love for her but his actions say a lot on the feeling that is in the inside. Reaching to an extent that he can