I think he does. He loves her enough to let her go knowing that he wouldn't be a good match for her. During the play when he tell her to get to a Nunnery he doesn't mean she is a flirt. He just doesn't want her to marry. He tells her how terrible and cruel men can be, and he wants Ophelia to be protected from all that. So he forsakes his love for her, to save her.
After Ophelia dies and is being buried, Hamlet jumps in her grave and yells that he loved her more than any number of brothers. I think he is speaking the truth. I don't think he is trying to be mean when Ophelia tries to return his “remembrances,” I just think he thinks she is in on the spying. But he did love her, and he is sorry that she drowns, he truly grieves.
But I do think that Hamlet should have gone to Ophelia and comforted her after he kills her father. She deserves that much from him after all the confusion he has given her. Maybe if he had talked to her, and perhaps sent for her brother, or sent her to her brother, she wouldn't have gone mad and drowned. On the other hand, how was Hamlet to know Ophelia would go mad? He had troubles of his own, going to England and avoiding his own death. He must have thought that Ophelia would just mourn for a couple months and be done with it, not that she would turn crazy.
Hamlet really loved Ophelia, more so than any other man could have, because he was willing to put aside his own desires and think about her first. Thats more than I can say for most men.
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What? Hamlet the self-centered, melodramatic, spoiled brat love anyone more than himself? I think not. If he really loved Ophelia he would want the best for her and he truly would have released her to become a full woman and find a lasting and true love she could grow with rather than selfishly wanting her to be in a nunnery where she would be isolated from the human love and companionship, both male and female, that she so desperately needed.
ReplyDeleteHamlet knew the Ophelia was to good for the world. He didn't want her to be hurt by a man. True she could have found a wonderful one, but it is more likely that she would fall in with one that would take advantage of her naive, sweet nature. He loved her enough to be so unselfish as to not take her for himself, even though she would have had him willingly.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your journal entry Deseret. Hamlet definately loved Ophelia. If he didn't, then why did he jump into her grave and say that he loved her?
ReplyDeleteI feel that Hamlet did love Ophelia. Even through his insanity, he was trying to save her by sending her away from the wretched sould he was becoming. It must have hurt him to give her up the way he did, but still, he did what he had to. It must have been true love.
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