Hamlet's Treatment of Ophelia in the Nunnery Scene
Author(s): Taraknath Sen
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr., 1940), pp. 145-152
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717323 .
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VOLUME XXXV
VOLUME
APRIL, 1940
NUMBER22
NUMBER
HAMLET'S TREATMENT OF OPHELIA IN THE
NUNNERY SCENE
I
HAMLET'S treatment of Ophelia in the Nunnery scene formed the
subject of a thoughtful contribution by Miss Helen L. Gardner in the
issue of the Modern Language Review dated July 1938. The subject is one
that has provoked much discussion. Dr Dover Wilson would motivate
Hamlet's sudden fury against Ophelia by positing an earlier entry for
him in Act II, sc. ii, and thus making him overhear Polonius's scheme
about 'loosing his daughter to him'. According to this interpretation,
Hamlet would be aware of the presence of spies behind the arras in the
Nunnery scene and be deliberately talking at them; his fury against
Ophelia personally would be the result of his knowledge that she was a
decoy.1 Miss Gardner very ably shows how such an interpretation goes
against the usual Shakespearean technique in the matter of overhearing.
She thinks that it is quite in consonance with 'the whole rhythm of the
play' that Hamlet's fury against Ophelia should be unmotivated; for the
whole play turns on the incalculability of Hamlet's behaviour and is
consequently full of violent emotional contrasts, abrupt explosions of
feeling and 'sudden absolute alterations of tension'.
It is the object of this paper to show that Hamlet's treatment of
Ophelia in the Nunnery scene is quite understandable psychologically,
without calling for such mechanical motivation as suggested by Dr
Dover Wilson. Nor is it necessary to assume that Hamlet's treatment of
Ophelia is unmotivated because the rhythm of the play demands it to
be so.
Let us see first in what state of mind Hamlet confronts Ophelia in the
Nunnery scene.
II
To Hamlet's fine, sensitive nature there comes a tremendous shockthe shock of a father's murder by the hands of his own brother and of the
adulterous marriage of a mother with the murderer himself. That shock
bears Hamlet down. As is the way with introspective natures, Hamlet's
personal problem becomes for him also the problem of life. In his very
1
Dover Wilson, What Happens in 'Hamlet' (Cambridge, 1935), pp. 101-14, 125-36.
M. L. R. XXXV
10
146 Hamlet's Treatmentof Ophelia in the Nunnery Scene
first soliloquy, the contemplation of 'the o'erhasty marriage' of his
mother leads on to morbid generalizations: 'Frailty, thy name is woman! '1
and again:
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! 0 fie! 'tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
The contradictions of life prove too much for the young prince. He
knows what a piece of work is a man, but he also gets to know that one
may smile, and smile, and be a damned villain. He is so conscious of the
beauties of creation, but he also gets to experience it as a pestilent congregation of vapours. He is unable to reconcile these incongruities; and
this inability unmakes the man.
And this tragedy of Hamlet is intensified by his loneliness. People in
his situation are in real need of that spiritual sympathy that alleviates
'soul-torment'. In a somewhat analogous situation, Prospero is able to
accept life with all its contradictions, which Hamlet cannot. It is a
possibility worth considering how much of this is due to the fact that
Prospero has a daughter like Miranda. Hamlet, however, is not equally
fortunate. He is alone. Even Horatio does not know 'how ill all's here
about his heart'.2 There is Ophelia, and naturally Hamlet would expect
much from her. But even she (without knowing it: she is too simple to
know) fails him. Hence Hamlet's bitterness against Ophelia.
At a moment when Hamlet's need of understanding companionship is
the greatest, when he has been filled with a spirit of bitterness against
the world, and-worse still-when his disgust at his mother's conduct
has already generalized itself into a doubt of womankind, Ophelia, at the
behest of her father, repels his letters and denies his access to her (II, i,
108-10). Her action seems to provide Hamlet with an unexpected confirmation of his 'Frailty, thy name is woman!' But it is a painful
confirmation, too, coming as it does from his own beloved. The resulting
distraction on the part of Hamlet is easily imaginable. The way he visits
Ophelia in her closet-'his doublet all unbraced' etc. (see Ophelia's
description in II, i, 77-100)-is no mere 'putting on' of 'an antic disposition'. When he takes her by the wrist and falls to perusal of her face,
does he expect to find 'Frailty' writ large there? And then think of the
way he goes out, with a sigh that seems 'to shatter all his bulk', looking
1 All
quotations from Hamlet are from the Arden edition (ed. Dowden, London, 1919).
Other Shakespearean references are to the Globe edition (London, 1924).
2 v, ii, 221.
TARAKNATH SEN
147
at Ophelia over his shoulders to the last! The whole thing bespeaks the
agonized lover-the lover who has had a sudden and profound shock.
He has been disappointed where he had hoped most; he thinks he has
been deceived where he had most trusted. That his own beloved should
belong to the rank, unweeded garden-to the pestilent congregation of
vapours!
It is in this state of mind that Hamlet encounters Ophelia in III, i.
His bitterness against her there would not be a surprise after all this.
And in the scene itself there are aggravating factors.
III
Coming now to the Nunnery scene itself, enter Hamlet meditating.
There are two movements of the soul in his soliloquy. The first is one of a
weariness of life-a thing we have already noticed in him: the world has
become for him 'an unweeded garden', the earth 'a sterile promontory',
man 'a quintessence of dust'. The greater part of his soliloquy is accordingly an expression of a profound disgust with life, even with death.
At this point his eyes fall on Ophelia. According to her father's instructions (III, i, 44-9), she is poring over a book of devotions. The sight
for a moment turns the current of Hamlet's soul. For once we have a
glimpse of the old Hamlet-the sensitive fine-souled young man who knew
love and was so intensely conscious of the beauty of life.1 Here, for
once, before him is a bit of that beauty he loved so well. The fair Ophelia!
His own beautiful beloved at her devotions! The old passion flames up
anew at the sight-the hunger for love is felt once more, the hunger for
spiritual sympathy, for understanding companionship:
Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.2
Cf. that speechof his in II,ii, 312-23: 'this goodly frame,the earth, etc.'
Tosave his theoryDr Dover Wilsonwould readthis speechas sardonic (op. cit., p. 128).
This is, perhaps,the part of his theorythat one findsmost difficultto accept.Thewarmth
and wistfulnessof the speech are unmistakable,thus provingthat Hamlet has no suspicions that Opheliais (as instructedby her father in in, i, 45-6) merely colouringher
lonelinesswith the show of an exercise. Dr Dover Wilson finds 'deliberateaffectation'
in the wordsnymphand orisons. Not that these wordsdo not lend themselvesto affectation. But has not Shakespeareused them seriouslymore than once? See, for nymph,
2
Two Gentlemenof Verona, v, iv, 12, Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i, 245, m, ii, 137, Iv, i,
131; for orisons, Henry V, n, ii, 53, Romeoand Juliet, iv, iii, 3, Cymbeline,I, iii, 32. Dowden's
remark,'Yet there is estrangementin the word "Nymph"' (ed. cit., p. 102), which Dr
DoverWilsonquotes,does not help him; for the context of that remarkis 'For a moment
Hamlethas beentouchedby the sight of Opheliawith her bookof prayers'. After having
acceptedbeautifiedas 'innocent' (op.cit., p. 113),there is no reasonwhy Dr Dover Wilson
shouldboggleat nymphand orisons.
10-2
148 Hamlet's Treatmentof Ophelia in the Nunnery Scene
Here, then, is a situation fraught with possibilities. If only Ophelia
can rise to it! But think of the tragedy-how she spoils the situation
with one unfortunate expression! In her confusion (natural to a simple
girl like her in her situation) she accosts Hamlet thus:
Good my lord,
How does your honour for this many a day?'
Many a day! But she had met' Hamlet only the day before.2 I am not
sure if the tragic significance of this 'many a day' of Ophelia's has been
sufficiently appreciated. It lends almost a touch of fatality to the situation. That an unfortunate expression blurted out at a moment of confusion3 should thus work havoc with a promising situation! The expression hurts Hamlet in two ways. For one thing, it is a lie (to Hamlet,
of course: Ophelia does not know what she says). One more unpleasant
reminder of his earlier generalization, 'Frailty, thy name is woman!', it
makes Hamlet suspect that Ophelia is not genuine, that she is not
honest (the suspicion finds wild expression shortly afterwards: 'Ha, ha!
are you honest? '). For another, the expression gives the feeling of a
great distance between Hamlet and Ophelia; as if her lover did no longer
matter to Ophelia, so much so that she has forgotten his visit in course
of a day. No wonder Hamlet revolts. All the warmth of that 'Soft you
now...' is quenched in a moment, and Hamlet's reply is very cold: 'I
4
humbly thank you; well, well, well.'
But Ophelia does not stop there. Impelled as it were by a malignant
1 Italics mine.
2 In
In, i Ophelia runs in to report to her father Hamlet's strange visit to her in her
closet. It is evident from her speech and manners that she has come in immediately after
Hamlet has left. The scene closes with Polonius's remark: 'Come, go we to the king: This
must be known, etc.' In the next scene (n, ii) Polonius is before the King and the Queen,
announcing that he has discovered 'the very cause of Hamlet's lunacy'. Then (in the same
scene) the players come in and Hamlet arranges with them to have 'the Murder of Gonzago' played 'to-morrow night' (1. 575). The next scene (m, i: the Nunnery scene) takes
place the very next day: referring to the players, Rosencrantz says that 'they have already
order This night to play before him (Hamlet)' (11.20-21).
3 Dr Dover Wilson suggests that Ophelia implies that Hamlet has neglected her (op. cit.,
p. 129). This, however, would be attributing to her an artfulness of which, one should think,
she was incapable.
4 The sudden revulsion may be compared to what happens in n, ii, 230-36. Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern come in. The sight of old friends stirs the heart of Hamlet and he has a
warm welcome for them: 'My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern?Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?' Their replies, however, are too subtle:
R. As the indifferent children of the earth.
G. Happy in that we are not over-happy.
On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
Hamlet at once grows cold: 'Nor the soles of her shoe?'
It no doubt adds to Hamlet's bitterness against mankind that his efforts after companionship, after sympathy, in his moment of agony, should thus meet with repeated rebuffs.
It will be seen in passing that on the view taken here the Nunnery scene acquires a
tragic poignancy that is lost by Dr Dover Wilson's interpretation.
TARAKNATH SEN
149
fate, she proceeds to make the situation worse by offering to return his
presents. Hamlet grows colder:
No, not I;
I never gave you aught.
For once Ophelia is importunate; for once, too, she grows loquacious
and adds unfortunate remarks:
... their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.l
This proves too much for Hamlet: he can no longer contain himself, and
his simmering bitterness bubbles forth into 'wild and whirling words'
(to quote Horatio in I, v, 133): 'Ha, ha! are you honest?' From here
onwards the scene is a crescendo of bitterness. And Hamlet's bitterness
is all the greater for Ophelia's confusion. Her very simplicity and meekness prove her undoing. If only she had been a Portia or a Rosalind!
If only she had protested and thus assured Hamlet that she was not
part of the 'unweeded garden'! Poor girl! she is only bewildered, and
her brief, confused replies make Hamlet feel all the more as if she has
been hiding a lie within. Thus, unknowingly to herself, she entirely fails
her lover in his hour of the greatest need for spiritual sympathy. No
wonder Hamlet's words to her are so wildly bitter. Coleridge attributed
Hamlet's harshness to a perception that Ophelia was playing the decoy,
so that 'his after-speeches are not so much directed to her as to the
listeners and spies'.2 He could, however, have given a better explanation
of it by citing his own lines from Christabel:
...to be wroth with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain.
Hamlet himself says as much: 'Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made me
mad.'
It may be noted in passing that Hamlet's particular bitterness against
Ophelia and his general bitterness against life and the world reinforce
each other in the scene. That Ophelia should be so frail as to succumb
so easily to the 'pestilent congregation of vapours'!
Again, what a
world is this that it should turn a flower like Ophelia so rapidly into
1 The speech is undoubtedly too 'perfumed' for Ophelia. There is no evidence for it,
but one would like to believe that she has been tutored in such phrases by her father. At
any rate, there is reason to suppose that the lines just quoted are not exactly her own.
'Their perfume lost' recalls Laertes's reference to Hamlet's love for Ophelia in I, iii, 9 as
'the perfume and suppliance of a minute'; while the rhyme in the second and third lines
shows them to be an aphorism committed to memory. What is important to note here is
that the 'perfumed' character of the speech has only the unfortunate effect of aggravating
Hamlet's suspicions of Ophelia's insincerity.
2
Coleridge, Essays and Lectureson Shakespeare (Everyman's Library, 1926, p. 151).
150 Hamlet's Treatmentof Ophelia in the Nunnery Scene
a weed! (What a world, we may add after an earlier remark of Hamlet,
that even the sun, kissing carrion, should only breed maggots!) Hence,
it should be noted, Hamlet's bitter words in this scene are directed not
only against Ophelia but also against the world in general: 'We are
arrant knaves, all; believe none of us' or 'I say, we will have no more
marriages.' He does not except even himself: 'I could accuse me of such
things, that it were better my mother had not borne me.' Hence, the
world being such, 'to a nunnery, go'.1 There is some hope for Ophelia
there yet. If she cannot save herself from further contamination there,
at least she can save herself from spreading further contamination:
she would not be 'a breeder of sinners'!
IV
One or two other points may be noted in conclusion. The first is about
Hamlet's description of Polonius as a fishmonger in ii, ii, 173-4. Taking
loose and fishmonger as Elizabethan cant terms relating to bawdry, Dr
Dover Wilson interprets this as a sly allusion to Polonius's talk about
loosing his daughter to Hamlet and thus finds in it a confirmation of his
theory that Hamlet has overheard Polonius's scheme. But, surely, that
was not the only sense in which the words were used by the Elizabethans.
The normal sense of fishmonger yields excellent meaning here.2 Polonius
is.a fishmonger: he is there to fish out Hamlet's secrets and sell them to
the King.
Of Polonius's loose Dr Dover Wilson writes that 'this was the meaning
intended' (op. cit. p. 104). It could not have been, of course, intended by
Polonius himself, speaking before the King and the Queen. Nor need it
have been intended by the dramatist for his audience. In the text the
expression may well bear a straightforward meaning. The metaphor is
that of loosing a hound. Polonius would be hunting up Hamlet, as it
were.
A similar allusion to an overheard plot is discovered by Dr Dover Wilson
in the following remarks of Hamlet:
Hamlet. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion,Have you a daughter?
Polonius. I have, my lord.
Hamlet. Let her not walk i' the sun:.. .friend, look to 't.
1 Another
expression which Dr Dover Wilson would claim as a confirmation of his
theory, since, he says, nunnery was in common Elizabethan use a cant term for a house of
ill-fame (op. cit., p. 134). But would such a doubleententecome easy to a speaker as agitated
as Hamlet is here?
2 The two earliest
examples given by O.E.D. of the normal sense of the word date back
to 1464 and 1594 respectively.
TARAKNATH SEN
151
But it is quite possible to understand these lines without assuming that
Hamlet is aware of Polonius's plot. For one thing, Polonius would
naturally remind Hamlet of Ophelia. For, when Ophelia repels his
letters and denies his access to her, it does not take long for a man of
Hamlet's intelligence to realize who is behind that move. So here is one
for Polonius: 'You are right! Your daughter should keep to her closet.
She must not walk abroad. For the world is an evil place. Even the sun
only breeds maggots in carrion. And she, like others, is only a bit of
corrupt flesh!' Thus Hamlet seems to find a peculiarly ironical justification for Polonius's interdict on their courtship in his present disgust
with life, in his view of the universe as 'a pestilent congregation of
vapours'. Taken this way, the lines acquire a profounder significance and
become more characteristic of Hamlet than they would on Dr Dover
Wilson's interpretation.
Moreover, that query, 'Have you a daughter?' is not really so abrupt
as to call for Dr Dover Wilson's assumption. It is induced by its immediate context: the words 'breed' and 'kissing' naturally lead on to
thoughts of Ophelia.
Similarly, it is quite possible to understand the query, 'Where's your
father?' in the Nunnery scene, without assuming that Hamlet is aware
of his being overheard or even that there is a slight movement in the
arras at this point. It is a counterpart to that question in ii, ii: 'Have
you a daughter?'; as Miss Gardner puts it in her paper, 'Polonius and
Ophelia are linked in Hamlet's mind'. Hamlet has already come to
know Polonius as a foolish busybody who has tried to fish out his secret
and stood between him and Ophelia. Moreover, Ophelia has just insisted on returning his gifts, and in a 'perfumed' speech too; and Hamlet
sees in it once more the hand of Polonius. Hence 'let the doors be shut
upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in 's own house'.
Here, too, the query is not really so abrupt as it seems. It is induced
by its context: 'We are arrant knaves, all: believe none of us. Go thy
ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?' 'Arrant knaves': mark.
And to Hamlet Polonius is one such. Does not Hamlet call him 'a foolish
prating knave' afterwards (III, iv, 215)?
One other remark of Hamlet in the Nunnery scene calls for some
comment: 'I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married
already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are.' Those who
would have it that Hamlet is conscious of his being overheard, would of
course say that the phrase, 'all but one', is meant for the ears of the
King. But is it not rather meant for the speaker himself? If Hamlet
152 Hamlet's Treatmentof Ophelia in the Nunnery Scene
was aware of the King's presence behind the arras, would he have
knowingly put him on his guard by uttering such an ominous phrase?1
And, in each case, the dramatic effectiveness of the remark lies precisely in this, that it hits the mark without being intended to.
TARAKNATH SEN.
CALCUTTA.
1 Dr Dover Wilson, of course, has his explanation of the point: an explanation deduced
from his elaborate though disputable theory about Hamlet 'posing as the discontented
heir thirsting for revenge'. This, however, is outside the purview of this paper.