"Shakespeare's women are merely objects of beauty; their sole function to be possessed"- Katie Stockholm - Discuss this in the light of the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet and explore the extent to which he "loved" her.

Anna Booth 12Y Hamlet Essay 3.12.02

“Shakespeare’s women are merely objects of beauty; their sole function to be possessed”- Katie Stockholm

Discuss this in the light of the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet and explore the extent to which he “loved” her.

I agree with Stockholm to a certain extent as throughout the play Ophelia has been manipulated by other characters for their needs, an example of this manipulation would be when Hamlet uses Ophelia as a medium to let Polonius know that he is mad.

In the play, Ophelia is portrayed as a very stereotypical woman of Shakespeare’s time- she obeys orders and in my view she does not express her own opinion. This is typical of women in the 16th century as they were almost viewed as second class citizens by men and were expected to do as they were told.

The audience is first introduced to Ophelia in Act One Scene One when she is saying goodbye to Laertes. Laertes warns her that even if Hamlet says that he loves her, he may not be able to decide for himself as he is next in line for the throne- “He may not, as unvalued persons do, carve for himself, for on his choice depends the safety and health of this whole state.” Some interpretations would suggest that Laertes is being caring and looking out for his sister as he would not want to see her be hurt but I think that this is an example of how other characters in Hamlet take away Ophelia’s ability to make her own decisions. Laertes is sceptical that Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is genuine as he says, “Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, if with too credent ear you list his songs, or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open to his unmastered importunity”, which means that she should not give into his demands and let him sleep with you. I think Laertes may be cautious as he realises that Ophelia is young and Hamlet is much older so he may use her inexperience to his advantage. If this were the case and Hamlet just wants to sleep with her then this would support Stockholm’s claim that Shakespeare’s women are objects to be possessed. Later in this scene when Ophelia is talking to her father Polonius, he asks her what is going on between her and Hamlet and Ophelia replies, “He hath my lord of late made many tenders of his affection to me”. There may be different interpretations of this line as some people may think that these tenders or offers may be offers of sex but I think that Hamlet was just offering her his love, maybe by sending her letters or gifts. At this point in the play I do not think that Ophelia would have slept with Hamlet as in Shakespeare’s time it was considered wrong to have sex outside of marriage and as Ophelia comes from a respected family, I do not think that she would risk her reputation. Some people may not be sure if Ophelia truly has feelings for Hamlet at this stage as she may just be flattered by all the attention that Hamlet has been showing her as she says, “I do not know what I should think” when Polonius asks her if she believes Hamlets advances are out of genuine love. However I think that Ophelia just says this to her father, as she knows he does not approve, he calls her a “green girl” which means that she is inexperienced. Although I don’t think that Hamlet and Ophelia have had sex at this point in the play, a modern video version of Hamlet by Branagh showed Hamlet and Ophelia having sex in the opening scene. If Hamlet and Ophelia were having sex as in the Branagh’s version, then I think Hamlet did truly love Ophelia as otherwise he would have got what he wanted and would not still be sending her “tenders of his affection”. Ophelia ends Act One Scene One by saying, “I shall obey, my Lord” and I think that that line is particularly important as in my opinion it sums up Ophelia’s character quite well as she is being told what to do and has no choice but to obey her father. However there could be different interpretations of that line as some people may believe she is being sincere when she says she will obey but others may believe that she is just saying that as she knows that that is what her father wants to hear.

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Ophelia’s next appearance is in Act Two Scene One when she is telling Polonius what has just happened with her and Hamlet and she is very afraid, “ but truly I do fear it”. Ophelia describes how Hamlet came before her “with his doublet all unbraced, no hat upon his head” and then he held her hard by the wrist. From Ophelia’s description of his physical appearance the audience can get the impression that he was very untidy which is not how a Prince should look like so already the audience would know that something is wrong with Hamlet. I think this section shows that Hamlet did love Ophelia as when he is staring at her I think he did this to try and tell her that he is not really mad and also by holding her arm he could have been trying to let her know that he is only pretending to be mad.

In Act Three Scene One Ophelia offers the return to Hamlet the gifts that he gave her, but he denies sending her any, “ I never gave you aught”. Hamlet admits to loving her once, “ I did love you once” but then he denies it saying, “I loved you not”. I think that Hamlet did love her at one time but now he is more concerned about his father’s death and so does not have time for Ophelia. Also Hamlet may not want to be with Ophelia as he has seen how his mother treated his father and does not want Ophelia to be the same. I think that because Hamlet’s father believed that Gertrude was “seeming vitreous” but then she married his brother and maybe Hamlet does not want to be treated is this way. At this point Hamlet may still have feelings for Ophelia as when he says, “Get thee to a nunnery” I think he says this to protect Ophelia as in a nunnery Ophelia could remain chaste and not continue the procreation of wicked sinful creatures as even the most ordinary men are full of sin and then Hamlet goes on to enumerate his. However this could be interpreted to mean that Hamlet is genuinely angry and maybe behaving in this way towards Ophelia because he is so irate about what his mother did to his father that he is taking it out on Ophelia as she may turn out to be the same.

In Act Five Scene One when Hamlet finds out that Ophelia has drowned, I think there is evidence to show that Hamlet did love her at one point as he says, “ I love Ophelia, forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum”. However Hamlet does not continually talk about Ophelia and if he still loved her then I think he would have been more upset and talked about her more but instead he is occupied with trying to avenge his father’s murder.

In conclusion I believe that Hamlet did love Ophelia at the start of the play but when Hamlet found out that his father was murdered by Claudius who then married Gertrude almost immediately, Hamlet realised that women could be deceitful and so his opinion of Ophelia decreased.

"Shakespeare's women are merely objects of beauty; their sole function to be possessed"- Katie Stockholm - Discuss this in the light of the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet and explore the extent to which he "loved" her.

This is a preview of the whole essay

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