April 15th 2015

Think about Hamlets relationship with Ophelia. Does he love her? Does he stop loving
her? Did he ever love her? What evidence can you find in the play to support your
opinion?

Hamlet and Ophelia is the second most memorable romantic couplet that Shakespeare
invented. This is believed to be a complex couplet that sometimes arise a lot of questions to
the reader. It is their relation that sometimes makes us stay at a crossroad and never find a green
light in the semaphore. And how the communication between them tries to escape from the
deadlock that one side knows and the other never tries to unlock it. It is like a certain modern
way of transmitting emotions as the receiver (Juliet) wants the server (Hamlet) to transmit that
power. And we as a reader come to the point: Was there a love between the both of them? Is it
seen that there is a love between them?

First of all, Hamlets love for Ophelia is a protective love. He loves her a lot but his plan is
really tough and not emotional one. He decides to hide his love for Ophelia because he wants to
protect her from Claudiuss bad intentions of using her as a device. It is about the lines that
follow that he shows his undercover love for her and somehow his mission.
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
In these lines of the letter that Hamlet sent to Ophelia he is really clear at his point of loving
Ophelia but he is a liar by saying that he does not feel a thing for his woman of life. So we can
say that, even in a indirect way she was left protected by this kind of hidden love.

Secondly, the love between Hamlet and Ophelia is been attacked. If there were no such
conditions their love would be so clear and so romantic. But it is Claudius and other bad persons
that try to use that love to their certain intentions. As is the case of Claudius and Queen Gertrude
who use Ophelia as a device to understand Hamlet s plan. And here the love is being so badly
used and destructed.
I shall obey you.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlets wildness: so shall I hope your
Virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.
By these verses we do understand that the affection that Ophelia has for Hamlet is used as a
method to go through Hamlets plan. By this we do understand how difficult is for a love to
survive at those times.

Moreover, It is seen by other participants says of the tragedy as there is a love. King
Claudius with a reference to what he knew about the couplet was really convinced that Romeo
loved Ophelia.
Love! his affection do not that way tend;
Nor what he spake, thought it lackd form a little,
Was not like madness,There us something in his soul.
In these lines we do understand that in another point of view the love is clearly seen as it is in
fact. So in a summarizing it is other speakers that do show also what the affection between
them was.

Finally, his love is seen in his attitudes toward Ophelia in certain moments of the play. He
said her to go to nunnery.
Get thee to the nunnery: why wouldst thou be
A breeder of sinners?
In these lines we think that it is quite a unusual action and these verses following the next ones:
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
Were better my mother had not born me: I am
By these lines we do understand that probably Ophelia might be pregnant with Hamlet. And a
child is like the coronation of a sincere love.
Another point going for behaviors toward Ophelia is the final moment when she is dead. Laerts
says Romeo that he never loved his sister but Romeo instead says that he did loved her.
I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could
not with all their quantity of love make up my sum.
Here he shows for the last time that he does love his lover and that never had stopped giving it to
the other person. Were those behaviors that told the reader that never was a game or a fraud but a
secret love.

To conclude, the love that Hamlet showed was a protective one, which was always attacked
and he however never stopped showing that to his lover. We can say that the love between the
duos will always be questioned as long as there is space to discus. But by showing some
evidence it is proved that probably this love was and did exists however the circumstances or the
channels it was transmitted between the two persons were.

References
1. Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love. Shakespeare, William.Hamlet, Act II, Scene II.

2. I shall obey you.

And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlets wildness: so shall I hope your
Virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Act III, Scene I.

3. Love! his affection do not that way tend;

Nor what he spake, thought it lackd form a little,
Was not like madness,There us something in his soul. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet,
Act III, Scene I.

4. Get thee to the nunnery: why wouldst thou be

A breeder of sinners? Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Act III, Scene I.

5. but yet I could accuse me of such things that it

Were better my mother had not born me: I am Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Act III,
Scene I.

6. I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could

not with all their quantity of love make up my sum. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet,
Act V, Scene I.