Monday, 10 December 2012

Why does Hamlet repeatedly say to Ophelia, "Get thee to a nunnery"?

says to ,
"Get thee to a nunnery" so that she will stop enabling people, like her father, , to
spy onand undermine him:

HAMLET:

Get
thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? ... Go thy ways to a nunnery.
Where's your father?... If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as
chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery. Go,
farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters
you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell.


And Hamlet has also had it with women, in general, and his mother, Queen ,
specifically. Nuns have none of the traits he so reviles in other individuals of their
gender:

HAMLET:

I have heard of your
paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You
jig, you amble, and you lisp; and nickname God's creatures and make your wantonness your
ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't! it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages.
Those that are married alreadyall but oneshall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a
nunnery, go.

Hamlet wants honesty and loving kindness
from women, yet gets none of it from the women in his life. Better for them and him that they
make their way to a nunnery.

No comments:

Post a Comment

To what degree were the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, the USSR, and Japan successful in regards to their efforts in economic mobilization during the...

This is an enormous question that can't really be answered fully in this small space. But a few generalizations can be made. Bo...