To Love or Not to Love

         As proven in the text it is evident that there are strong feelings between Hamlet and Ophelia whether it's true love or not is debatable. However in my opinion I believe that there is love there. There are multiple passages in Hamlet to prove that these two truly love each other but the main reason on why I think their love it true is because you don't go crazy and lose your mind over somebody you don't care about, therefore their feeling are true and their feelings are strong. For example Hamlet begins to show signs of desperation when she cuts off all forms of communication with him, Hamlet begins to lose his mind and shows up in her room late at night half dressed, talking crazy and grabbing her wrists.(II,i,77-84). If Hamlet did not love her he would not have gone to these desperate measures just to see her. However then when Hamlet pulls himself together he sits with Ophelia during the mousetrap play and they flirt and make inappropriate jokes the whole time. For example when he says "That's a fair thought to lie between a maids' legs" (III,ii,117). This shows the depth of their relationship and the amount of comfort they have with one another to talk about such personal things while in the middle of a huge group. Therefore there is a great amount of trust and understanding between the two of them which shows how close they actually are. Not only are these two extremely close but Hamlet also puts Ophelia's best interests first. He just wants what's best for her and is always looking out for her regardless of the consequences. For example he puts her first when he decides to kill Claudius he say's to Ophelia that he's going to do something bad and that he want's her to be safe and to go to the nunnery, so she won't be in harms way (III,i,130). This shows he loves her because he is putting her best interests above his own. Another reason I think he loves her is because at the end of Hamlet's "to be  or not to be" monologue he says "Soft you now, The fair Ophelia" (III,i,88-89). Hamlet speaks extremely fondly of Ophelia here and nobody is listening to him. This shows his love is true because he's not trying to prove anything to anybody or trick anyone he's talking to himself therefore this is how he really feels about her and that he likes her a lot. Then to top it all off during act 4 the roles reverse and Ophelia begins to lose her mind because of Hamlet.Ophelia begins singing all these song about love, empty promises, and lust. (IV,v,58-63). Ophelia begins to question everything about all the events that have recently happened and her sanity starts to leave. If she didn't truly love and care about Hamlet none of this would have bothered her because it would mean nothing to her. Therefore Ophelia's love towards Hamlet was true because if it wasn't she wouldn't be losing her mind over him, and he would have no control over her at all.
         All in all Hamlet and Ophelia demonstrate multiple signs of love towards one another throughout the play All of Hamlets actions influence Ophelia's emotions and vice versa. So they would have to be in love, because if they weren't they wouldn't care at all what the other did.

Comment: In response to Renée
        When you said "I think also that Ophelia helped Hamlet forget about what was going on and to make him more relaxed (during the mousetrap play)" I thought that was a really interesting point because I never really thought about it like that. It made me reread the mousetrap scene and look at it in a completely different way!