Hamlet the Love Theme: Figure

Hamlet

The Love Theme: Figure out Ophelia

The figure of Ophelia and the relationship that builds between her and Hamlet are extremely significant elements in the overall meaning of Shakespeare's masterpiece. It has to be noted first of all that madness is one of the most important motives of the play. As it is obvious from Shakespeare's other works, madness is correlated paradoxically with wisdom, rather than nonsense. Thus, King Lear for instance, becomes wise only when he becomes mad. The same applies to Shakespeare's fools and clowns, who, while speaking nonsense, actually reveal the truth. In Hamlet madness plays the same role as is the other pieces: Hamlet finds that the only means of dealing with the moral and philosophical choices he has to make is to feign insanity. Interestingly, the effect of his game on Ophelia is fatal: his forced cruelty towards her and his apparent madness drive Ophelia mad. Also significantly, Polonius and Claudius think that Hamlet is driven to madness by his unrequited love towards Ophelia. Polonius admits to having summoned Ophelia to reject Hamlet's advances, as a maiden was required by the social constraints: "And he, repulsed -- a short tale to make -- /Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, / Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, / Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, / Into the madness wherein now he raves, / and all we mourn for."(2.2. 54-59) as such, Hamlet seems to have been driven mad by his unanswered love for Ophelia. In the end however, it is Ophelia who goes truly mad because of the pain Hamlet's apparent madness causes her to feel. However, in Ophelia, as well as in Hamlet, madness functions as a true redeeming power, that makes her unveil the love she had repressed before.

Throughout the play, Ophelia is shadowed as a figure by the patriarchal discourse. She is disposed of her own will, and she is made to obey her father and her brother, and then to suffer unresisting the cruelty that Hamlet piles upon her. Because Ophelia's presence and dialogue are seldom seen nor heard in Shakespeare's Hamlet, she may appear an enigma, but in actuality just the opposite is true. Using careful observation and literary analysis, the reader catches glimpses of Ophelia's motives and intrinsic nature via her submissive tone in response to dialogue of others in the play. The patriarchal discourse should not deceive however as to Ophelia's actual value as a pure and innocent character, fully capable of unconditional love. Ophelia is genuine and empathetic.

The setting, a royal palace in Denmark, exposes Ophelia as a product of her environment forcing women into subservience. Like a subplot, Ophelia's restricted presence personifies the norms of a culture where men dominate and order women around. She seldom speaks or emerges unless prompted to do so. Her compliance is further illustrated by the patronizing tone of men who dominate Ophelia influencing and commanding her to rely upon their decisions since they view her incapable of good judgment.

For example, Ophelia's declaration that Hamlet's intentions are sincere prompts a sarcastic, incredulous, and harsh response from her father, Polonius, "Affection, pooh! You speak like a green girl un-sifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe in his tenders, as you call them?"(1.3.101-103).

She is further disavowed assertiveness as evidenced in the patronizing tone of her father, "Be something scanter of your maiden presence. Set your intreatments at a higher rate...Do you believe his 'tenders' as you call them?..Do not believe his vows for they are brokers... The better to beguile... I would not in plain terms, from this time forth, have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with Lord Hamlet" (1.3.121-135).

Polonius then commands, "Look to it I charge you" (1.3.132-135) and Ophelia readily acquiesces with an obedient voice that she recurrently articulates throughout the play, "I shall obey, my lord" (1.3.136).

Similarly, Laertes's dialogue is dissuasive, but his tone conveys the element of protectiveness rather than the imperative, "For Hamlet and the trifling of his favor, hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, a violet in the youth of primy nature, forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute, no more" [1.3.5-10]. "Then if he says he loves you, it fits your wisdom to far believe it. As he in his particular act and place, it fits your wisdom so far believe it. As he in his particular act and place may give his saying deed, which is no further than the main voice of Denmark goes withal" [1.3.24-28]. "Be wary then, safety lies in fear, youth to itself rebel, though none else near" (1.3.5-43-44).

Once again she is put in her place, disavowed assertiveness and a mind of her own as noted in her submissive response, "I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as watchman to my heart" (1.3.45-46).

Thus, muted into subservience, Ophelia's eventual descent into madness makes perfect sense because intrinsically she is the only genuine human in the palace. Her madness is thus a result of the sins and crimes performed by the other characters. For Shakespeare, this is the logical effect of a situation that is entirely against nature. As such, her ability to relate to, understand, or see through the corruption in her environment is impossible just as a person who would never harm a child will ever understand how another could. She has no gauge with which to measure the madness in her environment and that madness is evident in many ways.

Hamlet feigns his own insanity and that in and of itself is deviant, devious, and manipulative. Also deviant is the way in which he feigns cruelty toward Ophelia exploiting her as a pawn.

Next, Gertrude is in a perpetual state of denial that Claudius murdered her husband; thus, a deviant (i.e., insane) element of incest reigns over the court as does Gertrude's perpetual state of bewilderment about the ways in which behaviors are unraveling in the court. The answers are in front of her, but she simply chooses not to see evil, hear evil, speak evil, and the reasons for Ophelia's subsequent madness.

Further, Claudius is not only treacherous and paranoid, he is also a sociopath. He exhibits no remorse for killing his own brother and marrying his sister-in-law. Further, Ophelia's father, Polonius, is so narcissistic that to fulfill his own agenda in the palace, he exploits his own child, his own daughter into conspiring with him, Claudius, and Laertus against Hamlet, Ophelia's love.

Indeed, isolated in a castle enshrouded by this madness, Ophelia takes on the mood of the court, she is subservient no more, and like those around her, her behavior ultimately contradicts that which the court is accustomed as noted by the "gentleman," "She is importunate, indeed distract... Her moods will need be pitied... She speaks much of her father, says she hears there's tricks, i' th' world, and hems, and beats her heart, spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt, that carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, yet the unshaped use of it doth move" [4.5.2-10].

Yet another reason for Ophelia's descent into madness is that she loved and lost Hamlet toward whom she felt empathy as evidenced in her startled, distressed, and shocking disclosure to Polonius of Hamlet's madness earlier in the play (i.e., Scene II, Act I). Indeed, Ophelia's startled outcry validates her spectrum of emotions which personify love, empathy, compassion, and a state of shock as evidenced in her lucidly shocking portrayal of Hamlet, "O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!" (2.1.75).."..With his doublet all unbraced...pale as a shirt...and with a look so piteous as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors, he comes before me... He took me by the wrist and held me hard... He raised a sigh so piteous and profound as it did seem to shatter all his bulk... He seemed to find his way without his eyes" (2.1.77-95).

Further, so deeply instilled is Ophelia's compliance that despite her love for Hamlet, she betrays him as commanded by Polonius and Claudius. This compliance is further evidenced in her response to Hamlet's invective before Polonius's death

(Act I, Scene 3). Through Hamlet's invective, Ophelia's rhetoric illustrates a woman in love expressing genuine concern and distress. Indeed, the deeper his insults, the more

Ophelia cries out for divine intervention. The deeper his insults the more concern Ophelia expresses.

"You should not have believed me... I loved you not...We are arrant knaves all;

believe none of us" (3.1.117, 118, 119, 129,130). Her response is not that of an unfeeling creature or femme fatale exploiting a mandated role of conspirator. Instead, she replies, "Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so... I was the more deceived...

Oh help him, you sweet heavens!.. "Heavenly powers restore him!... O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!.. And I, of ladies most deject and wretched... O, woe is me, t' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!" (3.1. 116-164). The connotation is that her heart is breaking. This scene combined with her original startled outcry to Polonius in Act I further illustrates that Ophelia was in love with Hamlet, and that she did not meet him with ill intent despite the ulterior motives of everyone else.

This further builds upon previous evidence of Ophelia's subservience and accommodation to those in authority. She shut up when ordered to do so and followed orders when commanded even at her own expense subjecting herself to Hamlet's caustic degradation, "You should not have believed me...Get thee to a nunnery

I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck... Go they ways to nunnery. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee plague for thy dowry... Or if thou wilt marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.

To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell... God hath given you one face, and you

Make yourselves another...I say we will have no moe marriage...To a nunnery, go"

Despite his malice, Ophelia loves him, but only after she has slipped into insanity will she openly articulate this love, "How should I your true love know from another one? By his cockle hat and staff, and his sandal shoon [a cockleshell on the hat was the sign of a pilgrim who had journeyed to shrines overseas. The association of lovers and pilgrims was a common one]" (4.5.23). Further, "Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day, all in the morning betime, and I a maid at your window, to be your valentine. Then up he rose and donned his clothes, and dupped the chamber door, let in the maid that out a maid never departed more" (4.5.46-55). "Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled, you promised me to wed.' He answers, 'So would I 'a' done, by yonder sun, and though hadst not come to my bed"(4.5.64-66).

Moreover, earlier in the play Polonius read to Gertrude and Claudius a love letter from Hamlet to Ophelia, a letter personifying the straightforward discourse of lovers offering more proof that Ophelia and Hamlet were intimate. "To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautiful Ophelia. In her excellent white bosom, these, & c. Good madam, stay awhile, I will be faithful, doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love... I have not art to reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET" (2.2.109-124).

In light of the aforementioned, it is likely that when Ophelia spoke of Hamlet to Polonius and Laertes, she hoped for their approval rather than admonishment. Yet despite her love for him, she followed the commands of Polonius, once again substantiating her subservience.