These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends

In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare demonstrates some interesting and complex relationships, the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia being the hardest to unravel. It is apparent that Hamlet did love Ophelia at one point, in his letters he says, 

        Doubt thou the stars are fire,

        Doubt that the sun doth move,

        Doubt truth to be a liar,

        But never doubt I love (II.ii.115-18)

The way that Hamlet speaks, of the stars, universe and sun, in such a conceptual manner is a stereotype of people in love. People in love speak of moving planets, and loving someone as much as the distance to the moon. Although it is possible that Hamlet is aware of this and writes this way on purpose, the structure of the letter is abnormal for Shakespeare. These four lines of Hamlet’s letter rhyme, which Shakespeare does not do very often, however rhyming is usually passed between lovers, as seen many times in Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet rhyme often when in the company of one another, including the balcony scene in which they say, “Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow/That I shall say good night till it be morrow (II.ii.1888-189).” It is common knowledge that Romeo and Juliet are in love, and they rhyme more often than any other characters in Shakespeare’s plays, therefore we can attribute rhyming to being in love. Shakespeare has Hamlet rhyme in his letter to Ophelia, thus proving that he loves her in act II. Furthermore Hamlet says in his letter, “Doubt truth to be a liar (II.ii117)”.  This is foreshadowing that Hamlet is going to assure Ophelia that he is telling her the truth when in fact, he is actually lying to her. Many times in act III, scene I of Hamlet, Hamlet tells Ophelia not to believe him, which is a subtle hint that he hopes Polonius and Claudius will not pick up on. Also in scene ii, of act III, Hamlet and Ophelia share many dirty jokes implying that they have had sex. In this era, one only has pre-marital sex if they are a super-douche or plan to marry their partner. Although Hamlet is a self-absorbed, procrastinating brat, I would not go as far as to call Hamlet a super-douche. I believe that Hamlet does truly love Ophelia, but that he loves his father too, and during the play his priority is revenge for his father not his love for Ophelia. This would explain why he is so much more loving towards Ophelia in the letters which were supposedly written before Hamlet sr.’s murder, than during the actual play.

I agree with Toni’s point of view, when she says, “I think that Hamlet did love Ophelia at one point, but because of his quest to find out the truth about his fathers' death, he become so absorbed in himself that he lost touch with the people that really mattered to him.” Hamlet is not able to compartmentalize, so when he is focused on one thing, that is all he is focused on; meaning that when his father needs to be avenged, his love for anyone else is forgotten. This is also proven in III,iii, when Hamlet has to convince himself to not kill his mother. It seems from their exchange that Hamlet and Gertrude have a very close relationship, but Hamlet was almost willing to sacrifice his mother on the path to avenge his father.