Fear Yourself In Hamlet
Viktoryia Hvozdz
9/2/2015
ENG 321
Fear Hamlet, Fear Yourself
Before departing to France, Laertes gives Ophelia some brotherly advice. Besides being the only example of positive family interaction in this tragic play, it also reveals a lot about Laertes and his worldview. In Hamlet, which is so much about the interplay and conflict between the inner and the outer, Laertes’s advice to Ophelia reveals that he is definitely on the side of the outer. “Think it no more,” Laertes begins his speech referring to Hamlet’s affection for Ophelia (1.3.10), and with this imperative establishes the tone of the entire passage. He speaks to her paternalistically, from a position of superiority. He proceeds to explain to Ophelia that though Hamlet may be young …show more content…
now, his responsibilities will grow with time. Considering his social position, he will not be able to choose whom to marry. Laertes acknowledges that Hamlet’s feelings for his sister may be real (“Perhaps he loves you now” (1.3.14)), but in Laertes’s view, Hamlet’s status as the successor to the throne will overcome his personal considerations. In fact, Laertes is sure of it. Only when the outer persona – the King in Hamlet’s case – agrees with the inner feelings, is the person trustworthy.
“Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,” Laertes continues (1.3.29) as he is trying to persuade Ophelia to abandon her hopes about Hamlet in yet another way. Now, he wants her to imagine the shame and embarrassment she will suffer if she succumbs to Hamlet’s affections. One could argue Laertes is not so much concerned about Ophelia’s possible loss of honor as about his own, since in Shakespearean times, if a girl failed to protect her virginity, it would reflect negatively on her entire family. Again, we see the theme of the outer – in this case, Ophelia’s “chaste treasure” (1.3.31) – being more important than her subjective experience.
“Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,” pleads Laertes (1.3.33), and the repetition of the word “fear” reflects the feeling he is trying to impart on Ophelia.
“Keep within the rear of your affection / Out of the shot and danger of desire” (1.3.34-35), and with this metaphor Laertes is trying to further scare his sister by comparing love to a battle, desire to an arrow-shooting enemy. No matter how virtuous a woman thinks she is, she will not escape “calumnious strokes” (1.3.38), he tells her; and there is the theme of his being concerned with the family honor again. He is worried that if Ophelia spends too much time with Hamlet, even if it is all innocent, people will talk and consider her ruined. Laertes is very much concerned with what …show more content…
“seems”.
By the end of his speech, Laertes generalizes his warning to Ophelia from staying away from Hamlet to staying away from men in general whom he compares to cankerworms that injure “the infants of the spring / Too oft before their buttons be disclosed” and spread “contagious blastments” among young women (1.3.39-40, 42).
Again, the best defense against such creatures is fear: “Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear,” and he concludes the couplet by saying “Youth to itself rebels, though none else near” (1.3.43-44). The rhyme “fear”-“near” further emphasizes his warning to Ophelia, but in a paradoxical way, also calls her to be afraid not only of Hamlet and other men, but of herself and her feelings, too. By personifying youth and calling it rebellious, Laertes is in fact warning his sister not to trust her own feelings that may lead her to challenge his and his father’s
beliefs.
For Laertes, honor is more important than feelings, what one does is more important than what one thinks, the outer is exceedingly more valuable than the inner. We will see him demonstrate these qualities in the way he handles the revenge of Polonius later on in the play, but we can already see the precursors to it in the advice he gives Ophelia in the first act. Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare: Essential Plays, the Sonnets. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009. Print.
9/2/2015
ENG 321
Fear Hamlet, Fear Yourself
Before departing to France, Laertes gives Ophelia some brotherly advice. Besides being the only example of positive family interaction in this tragic play, it also reveals a lot about Laertes and his worldview. In Hamlet, which is so much about the interplay and conflict between the inner and the outer, Laertes’s advice to Ophelia reveals that he is definitely on the side of the outer. “Think it no more,” Laertes begins his speech referring to Hamlet’s affection for Ophelia (1.3.10), and with this imperative establishes the tone of the entire passage. He speaks to her paternalistically, from a position of superiority. He proceeds to explain to Ophelia that though Hamlet may be young …show more content…
now, his responsibilities will grow with time. Considering his social position, he will not be able to choose whom to marry. Laertes acknowledges that Hamlet’s feelings for his sister may be real (“Perhaps he loves you now” (1.3.14)), but in Laertes’s view, Hamlet’s status as the successor to the throne will overcome his personal considerations. In fact, Laertes is sure of it. Only when the outer persona – the King in Hamlet’s case – agrees with the inner feelings, is the person trustworthy.
“Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,” Laertes continues (1.3.29) as he is trying to persuade Ophelia to abandon her hopes about Hamlet in yet another way. Now, he wants her to imagine the shame and embarrassment she will suffer if she succumbs to Hamlet’s affections. One could argue Laertes is not so much concerned about Ophelia’s possible loss of honor as about his own, since in Shakespearean times, if a girl failed to protect her virginity, it would reflect negatively on her entire family. Again, we see the theme of the outer – in this case, Ophelia’s “chaste treasure” (1.3.31) – being more important than her subjective experience.
“Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,” pleads Laertes (1.3.33), and the repetition of the word “fear” reflects the feeling he is trying to impart on Ophelia.
“Keep within the rear of your affection / Out of the shot and danger of desire” (1.3.34-35), and with this metaphor Laertes is trying to further scare his sister by comparing love to a battle, desire to an arrow-shooting enemy. No matter how virtuous a woman thinks she is, she will not escape “calumnious strokes” (1.3.38), he tells her; and there is the theme of his being concerned with the family honor again. He is worried that if Ophelia spends too much time with Hamlet, even if it is all innocent, people will talk and consider her ruined. Laertes is very much concerned with what …show more content…
“seems”.
By the end of his speech, Laertes generalizes his warning to Ophelia from staying away from Hamlet to staying away from men in general whom he compares to cankerworms that injure “the infants of the spring / Too oft before their buttons be disclosed” and spread “contagious blastments” among young women (1.3.39-40, 42).
Again, the best defense against such creatures is fear: “Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear,” and he concludes the couplet by saying “Youth to itself rebels, though none else near” (1.3.43-44). The rhyme “fear”-“near” further emphasizes his warning to Ophelia, but in a paradoxical way, also calls her to be afraid not only of Hamlet and other men, but of herself and her feelings, too. By personifying youth and calling it rebellious, Laertes is in fact warning his sister not to trust her own feelings that may lead her to challenge his and his father’s
beliefs.
For Laertes, honor is more important than feelings, what one does is more important than what one thinks, the outer is exceedingly more valuable than the inner. We will see him demonstrate these qualities in the way he handles the revenge of Polonius later on in the play, but we can already see the precursors to it in the advice he gives Ophelia in the first act. Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare: Essential Plays, the Sonnets. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009. Print.