Hamlet in love

Considering love as one of the strongest emotions a human being can feel, it is not hard to discover that most of the actions that men and women perform are set in motion by love. We can see this clearly stated in Shakespeare’s plays, which are full of passion, confusion, and happy or unhappy endings related, most of the time, to this feeling (for example, Romeo and Juliet dying because of love, or Viola and Cesario finally getting married and happy because of love).

Of course, every Shakespearean character has its own personality, and also its own view regarding love. The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark is not the exception and, even though it is a revenge play, love has a great influence in the development of the plot. Every character has its own view of love, which is expressed along with the story. So, what about Hamlet?

Hamlet’s view of love is as complex as his personality. He can be described as an impulsive, sarcastic and melancholic man. Moreover, he is extremely disillusioned about love, and therefore, pessimistic about everything related to it, which affects all of his relationships and becomes an important part of who he is as a character.

The main reason why Hamlet acts towards love as he does has to do with his mother, Gertrude. First, because she got married just a couple of months after King Hamlet’s dead. Second, because this new husband is Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. And third, because the ghost told Hamlet that Claudius was who killed King Hamlet. Therefore, his mother not only betrayed his father by marrying his uncle and possible murderer, but she also betrayed the purity of love and marriage by not mourning and instead rejoicing in her new marriage.

In the play, Ophelia is Hamlet’s lover.  However, Gertrude’s actions cause Hamlet a deep sense of anger and pain, and his view on love to change. He says:

“So excellent a king,76 that was to this77

Hyperion to a satyr,78 so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem79 the winds of heaven

Visit80 her face too roughly.Heaven and earth!

Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him

As if increase of appetite81 had grown

By what it fed on – and yet, within a month –

Let me not think on’t: frailty, thy name is woman!”

(Hamlet, Act 1, Scene II, 139-146)

describing love as true and stable, like the one he used to know from his parent’s relationship: King Hamlet was so loving to Gertrude and she would hang on him. But his mother’s ability to re-marry so soon after the King’s dead made Hamlet think that the love of a woman is unpredictable. He states at the end of the quote: “frailty, thy name is woman!” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene II, 146) referring to his mother, but also to all women, whose love, according to him, is weak and unstable because it can change quickly even after having loved so deeply. 

So, Hamlet’s disturbed view of love makes him question Ophelia’s love. He decides to distance himself from Ophelia and he even tells her that he never loved her in Scene 3, act II, 119-120. However, he does not really believe that Ophelia’s love for him was untruthful, but that her love can be as weak as his mother’s in the future.

Consequently, there are some times in which, without any doubt, I can say that Hamlet was madly in love with Ophelia. For instance, when she tells her father about her romance with Hamlet, she describes it like this:

“Ophelia: My lord, he hath importuned me with love

In honorable fashion.70

Polonius: Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.71

Ophelia: And hath given countenance72 to his speech, my lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.”

(Hamlet, Act 1, Scene III, 110)

Also, at Ophelia’s grave he declared:

“Hamlet: I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers

Could not, with all their quantity of love,

Make up my sum.”

(Hamlet, Act 5, Scene I, 254)

(and he probably makes use of the past tense, ‘loved’ just because Ophelia was already dead and not because he loved her once and then he did not).

As a conclusion, I can say that Hamlet’s love for Ophelia was always strong. But he was afraid to show it because of how dishonest his mother was, so his pessimistic view of love was justified by this. On the revelation made by the ghost, he found a way of putting aside everyone by pretending to be mad, even Ophelia.  And, as for the revenge plan to be successful Hamlet needed to convince all people of his insanity, he thought that destroying Ophelia’s hopes regarding their relationship was the best way of doing it, as well as a way of protecting himself from suffering because of the weakness of women’s love.

What do you think? Did you think about love in Hamlet in the same way? Do you have a new theory regarding this topic? 

REFERENCES

"Hamlet's View on Love and Sex and Women." Heidelbergdramaturg. 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy; Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth,. 2d ed. London: Macmillan, 1905. Print.

Shakespeare, William, and Burton Raffel. Hamlet. New Haven: Yale UP, 2003. Print.

Smith, Nicole. "Full Character Analysis of Hamlet." Article Myriad. 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.