Activity

@emily-waldorf

Emily,

This is just my speculation, but, I think the weight of all of the injustices done to Hamlet, and the outward pretenses that he must keep up among the court while his uncle has both cuckolded and murdered his noble father make Hamlet so incensed, that he sees betrayal in every face.  Especially in those which he once had genuine affection.  He suspects that Ophelia is just covering for her father Polonius’s part in the betrayal and murder of his father.  Despite what he says, I do believe he did love Ophelia and her sincerity in being troubled by his frustration is misunderstood to be her still deceiving him and mocking him.  He does not know who he can trust anymore for everyone he trusted before seems to be part of the plot.  He even talks about her make-up being used as a deception to seem pleasing to the eye, but covering some flaw or skin imperfection, so that a man may be lured to believe what is pleasing to his eyes, yet hiding the truth of what may not be.  Since his own mother married his murdering uncle, he now, unfairly, regards Ophelia with the suspicion of being duplicitous as well.  Just prior to the “get thee to a nunnery” scene, Polonius and Claudius are in fact conspiring and discussing Hamlet, before Hamlet enters the scene and approaches Ophelia.  This lends to the sense of betrayal that Hamlet expresses.  Everything he once believed to be good is now cast into the light of suspicion, and he is angered by it.  Unfortunately, he takes it out on Ophelia.  It is why he is often portrayed to have been irrational and out of his mind.  The pain it elicits in Ophelia is what leads her to go out of her mind as well, and that is the tragedy of it.  It is why Laertes becomes so angry with Hamlet that he wants to kill him to avenge the injustice done to Ophelia, which sets up the tragedy at the end with the duel and the poisoned sword and cup.

Remember both Polonius and King Claudius are hidden and witnessing the scene with Ophelia.  Hamlet may even suspect that they are being spied upon, when he enters, which breaks his heart even further at the seeming prospect that Ophelia could be in on it as well.  Notice that she does not seem natural in the scene when he enters, but kind of staged.  She tried to return his “remembrances” to him, and he feels insulted by that gesture.  In the Mel Gibson version he even sees the shadow of either Polonius or Claudius on the wall, before he responds, further heightening his suspicion that Ophelia is toying with him and his once sincere affections for her.