Sex Flashcards
Laertes insists that Ophelia should fear premarital sex because a “deflowered” woman is seen as damaged goods that no man will want to marry.
“Fear it, Ophelia; fear it […] Out of the shot and danger of desire.”
Laertes metaphor to warn his sister about pre-maritual sex
He compares intercourse to a worm invading and injuring a delicate flower before its buds have had time to open
“The canker galls the infants of the spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed”
Like Hamlet, the ghost focuses on Gertrude’s sexuality
Kill Claudius so Gertrude can’t sleep with him anymore, but leave her out of it.
“Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damnèd incest.”
To Hamlet, pregnancy is less the miracle of life than the miracle of death
Hamlet is equating Ophelia’s body with “carrion” (another word for road kill). This suggests that women’s bodies are putrid and rotten: they give birth to dead things. But in a way, Hamlet’s right: everything born dies.
“For if the sun breed maggots in a dead
dog, being a god kissing carrion—Have you a
daughter?”
NUNNERY SCENE
Hamlet thinks that all women create sin, he hates women
He doesn’t think much of himself either, being one of those “sinners” that’s been “bred” by a woman.
“Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners?”
Hamlet is so ashamed that he says how he wishes his mother hadn’t given birth to him to begin with.
“mother had not borne”
Hamlet gets the power to control Ophelia’s conversation, just like Polonius and Laertes have the power to control her body.
OPHELIA IS A MARIONETTE
Hamlet’s dirty talk puts Ophelia in an impossible situation. When Hamlet makes lewd innuendos, Ophelia can’t respond in a way that suggests she knows what he’s talking about.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.
Hamlet thinks sex is gross.
“the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed”
Hamlet warns Gertrude to stop making it worse for herself in creating more sin then there already is.
“Do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker.” (Hamlet)
Hamlet’s talk of infections and illness seems to allude to venereal disease. It’s as though Hamlet thinks women are contagious.
“It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen.”
Hamlet forgot all about the ghost’s orders for him to leave Gertrude “to heaven”—almost as if he’s more upset by Gertrude’s sexuality than his father’s murder.
The ghost sets him back on task
“Speak to her, Hamlet.”
