Hamlet Ponderings

Whoa there, Hamlet. Ease up on the sexual innuendo, please.
Just kidding; it only gives us more to analyze.

I was a bit taken aback by Hamlet's sudden outbursts both during the "nunnery" and the "play within a play" scenes, but I assume that Shakespeare was trying to remind the audience of the previously mentioned prostitution imagery. What made me really think about Shakespeare's use of prostitution imagery and Hamlet's lashing out at Ophelia in Act III was how prostitution is connected to the whole play.

I keep seeing prostitution in the light of betrayal, a direct contrast to the duty that is described so often throughout the play. A prostitute would be "faithful" to many different people; this confused sense of duty seems to correspond to a lot of the characters in the play, most markedly Ophelia. If we interpret her and Hamlet's relationship as a once loving and intimate relationship--I, for one, do believe that their relationship was very passionate and intense at one point in time--then Hamlet's feelings of betrayal are understandable. However, I feel at times that he is a bit too much of, pardon my language, a drama queen about Ophelia and her actions. If Hamlet and Ophelia had such an intimate and caring relationship, I would feel that it would only be just for her to be called a "prostitute" if she had cheated on him with another man. His outright feelings of betrayal at her actions don't seem to correspond to their relationship. After all, I believe she should have a higher sense of duty to her father than to her lover. As Laertes insinuated, Hamlet would most probably not be able to marry Ophelia anyways because she is not of royal lineage. Therefore, it would stand that Hamlet and Ophelia were most likely going to be girlfriend/boyfriend and stay girlfriend/boyfriend. If they were not engaged or going to be engaged, I certainly hope that she felt a higher sense of duty to her father--although I do understand if she did not initially feel as loyal to her father because of his mistreatment of her, but that is beside the point--rather than to her lover, Hamlet. I guess what I am trying to say is that Hamlet really doesn't have that much of a right to continue to talk to Ophelia in such vulgar terms and feel so betrayed by her part in the plot to spy on him as he does. Just a thought...or maybe it's my inner feminist coming out trying to defend Ophelia.
Perhaps Shakespeare has made Hamlet into this hurt, sneering animal for another reason, and knowing old William, he probably has. I would like to think that in Act IV, the prostitution and betrayal themes would be more developed as Hamlet starts to understand and take in the situation more clearly. Perhaps, in the end, Hamlet will be a "prostitute" in his own sense to his father's ghost and memory.

With Shakespeare, anything is possible, and everything has another interpretation.