love + sexuality Flashcards
‘we pray you throw to earth
this unprevailing woe, and think of us
as of a father’
trying to seem loveable in front of queen, and father- like knowing Hamlet is still grieving and wouldn’t want this
‘why, she should hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown/by what it fed on’
meaning as if her desire for him had increased by being satisfied
let me not think on’t- frailty, thy name is a woman’
mysogynistic comment of women personifying weakness
‘with such dexterity to incestous sheets/ but break,my heart, for i must hold my toungue’
repressed oedipal urges
‘perhaps he loves you now’
‘his will is not his own’
‘weigh what loss your honour may sustain’
.. if ‘your chaste treasure open/ to his unmastered importunity’
‘fear it ophelia, fear it, my dear sister’
advice from her brother about keeping her sexuality
ophelia is represented as a naive and inexperienced girl who is controlled by brother and father as a woman.
she willingly abides by it ‘tis in my memory locked and you yourself shall keep the key’
and to her father ‘i shall obey my lord’
ophelia reports that ‘ he made many tenders/of his affection to me’
her father tells her ‘be something scanter of your maiden presence’
‘do not believe his vows, for they are brokers’
‘if thou didst ever thy dear father love’
aparition uses his love for his father to motivate him to carry out revenge
‘taint not thy mind nor let thy soul contrive/ Against thy mother aught;leave her to heaven’
clearly telling hamlet not to do anything to his mother , shows their love goes beyond death he even makes excuses for her ‘ so to seduce - won to his shameful lust / the will of my most seeming - virtuous queen’
‘this is the very ecstasy of love’ - thrilled to see hamlet ‘mad for thy love’
he also uses her for his plan in Act 2 - ‘i’ll loose my daughter to him’ farming terminology treating his daughter like livestock.
Polonius uses his kids for advancement in society - instead of asking how she is feeling after hamlet scared her in the chamber he says ‘ come, go with me : i will go see the king’ because ‘more grief to hide than hate to utter love’ - (trying to say that it might cause more pain to hide this love than distress to reveal it)
hamlets letter to ophelia ‘ the most beautified ophelia’ - - instead of the most beautiful, ophelia perhaps reference to cosmetics
- Hamlet says ‘ i love thee best, o most/ best, believe it’ in the letter but he is cruel to her and his love can be misinterpreted by using beautified and telling her ‘get thee to the nunnery’
Polonius uses her for his plan in Act 2 - ‘i’ll loose my daughter to him’ farming terminology treating his daughter like livestock.
Hamlet attacks him back using his madness - perhaps demonstrates his love for opehlia using his madness as a tactic to get away with calling him a ‘fishmonger’ which is a pimp
could also be a person of lowly status who does things for everyone else and meddles in family affairs meaning hamlet is bitter about his reporting every detail to the king.e is about as welcome as someone who smells of fish.
‘if you love me, hold not off’
only when he says if you love me tell me the truth do R+G say ‘ my lord, we were sent for’
‘my uncle - father and aunt - mother are deceived’
incestuous still plagues his mind - seemingly to R+G they may think he is affected by his mothers marriage
‘sweet Gertrude, leave us two’
‘it doth much content me/ to hear him so inclined’ ( faking love for hamlet and wanting to see hapiness but adds ‘give him further edge’ still suspicious but pretends not to be
seems she doesn’t involve in the intrigues that the king does perhaps evidence of her not involved in fathers murder.
telling her to leave when they are about to loose ophelia to hamlet
‘i did love you once’ ‘i loved you not’
‘get thee to a nunnery’ (says it several time)
nunnery means a convent but it is a term that was occasionally used to refer to a brothel. The contrast of the nunnery and the whorehouse presents the idea that Ophelia’s pure nature has been made impure and as Hamlet says “why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?” referencing the wrongful path Ophelia has taken. To further prove how Ophelia has changed Hamlet says “I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.” In this quote Hamlet curses Ophelia forever, saying while she may be pure in reality she will not escape the slanderous rumours of her supposed premarital sex, and if she doth marry in the future she will bring that burden with her to the relationship
While being beautiful they can also be dangerous, snow can suffocate an individual and ice can cause them to fall: similarly Ophelia is falling into an overwhelming drift of doom and despair While both are forms of frozen water nsnow is much softer than ice, conveying that Ophelia has become less gentle and good with time.representation of corruption it also may symbolize the mentality that if Hamlet cannot have Ophelia no one can. Were she to go to a nunnery and devote herself to god she would never be married and therefore no one would love her as Hamlet did. He cares not for her best interest or her feelings but only what he feels. Hamlet’s (old) love with Ophelia portrays the selfish side of him.
