Act III
My initial reaction to this act was that Hamlet has true feelings for Ophelia and he is covering them up. I think that Hamlet is hiding his true feeling for Ophelia because he doesn’t want her to get sucked into his plot of revenge and get hurt. I was also taken back by the way Gertrude treated her son. She takes the side of her new husband over her own son. I thought that a mother was suppose to love and care for her child, but Gertrude just pushes Hamlet away.
The character that stood out to me the most in act 3 was Ophelia. She stood out to me because first of all Hamlet is playing games with her because she thinks that he has given her the gift of love but he tells her otherwise. I think that Ophelia is also playing a game with Hamlet because she is returning his gift of love even though she does love him. Ophelia returns Hamlets love because Polonius her father asks her to do it to get a rise out of Hamlet. This shows me that Ophelia is easily persuaded even if it’s not what she wanted.
The literary element that stood out to me the most during this act was the tone portrayed. When Hamlet visits Ophelia and she tries to return his love, the tone that is portrayed is of anger. It is almost a fed up anger. That he is just tired of dealing with the consequences of his father’s death. It gives you the feeling that Hamlet is facing a lot of different emotions at one time and the only way he knows how to express them is in anger. Ophelia’s tone gives us the idea that she does have felling for Hamlet even though she is trying to tell him she doesn’t. The tone that is portrayed gives a good idea of the emotions the characters are felling.
The question that comes to mind after reading this act is, does Ophelia tell Hamlet that she is returning his love because Polonius asks her to or does she have other motives?
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I believe that Ophelia did at one time love Hamlet, but I believe that she is no longer enamored because of his craziness, his madness. I think she is also very faithful and loyal to her father, and so I do believe that she is doing it for the sake of her father.
ReplyDeleteI think Ophelia seems very controlled by her surroundings but at the same time we know she had deep feelings for hamlet, so it could be a bit a both. I know, lots of help huh.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a combination of the two. Partly she still has feelings for Hamlet and partly she is obeying her father. That is the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Nick and say that it's probably a combination of the two. She must have loved Hamlet at some point or else she wouldn't have been so torn over his "madness." But in the end I think she was more controlled by her father and trying to please him. I think towards the end she became scared of Hamlet.
ReplyDeleteI would have to believe that Ophelia was doing these things because her father asked her to. I'm sure her character would also be interested in Hamlet's reaction which by her response she was surprised from. Possibly wanting Hamlet to show her that he was in some way hurt that she was returning those items back to him. Hamlet's character is two steps before O's in the fact that Hamlet knew she wasn't returning these things because she wanted too, but because she was forced too in able to get a reaction out of him....for the spectators (The King and Polonius) as to the cause of his maddness.
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