A Nunnery or a Brothel?

 

Ophelia in "Hamlet"

Source for image: John William Waterhouse

“Get thee to a nunnery” (Act 3, scene 1, line 121) tells Hamlet to Ophelia.

a) Nunnery: a convent (to protect her chastity)

b) Brothel (slang)

This dichotomy belongs to a context of opposites in Western tradition in which women have come to be judged by double standards: either as the idealized Petarchan object of the artist musings, the Virgin Mary of religious imagery, the Victorian Angel of the Hearth as depicted in Coventry Patmore’s, “The Angel in the House” (1854), or John Ruskin’s lecture “Lilies. Of Queens’ Gardens” (1886); or quite the contrary, the Magdalene of the bible or the unchaste Fallen Woman of many writings.

Yet, Ophelia as many other Shakespeare’s heroines, challenges the status quo either through subtle protest or destabilizing order through derangement, that is, from the disjointed discourse of madness. When Laertes offers advice to her on his departure, she makes it sure to let him know that he would better obey what he preaches, and, therefore, not yielding easily through patriarchal authority:

“But good my brother,

Do not as some ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,

Whiles like a puff’d and reckless libertine

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,

And recks not his own rede.” (Act 1, scene 3, lines 46 and following)

Hamlet frequently teases and provokes Ophelia, twisting words, using double entendre...

Hamlet: ”Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?” /

Ophelia: “’Tis brief, my lord” /

Hamlet: As woman’s love (Act 3, scene 2, line 144 and following)

Grief stricken by the loss of her father, and, unlike Hamlet, whose madness seems to be a posture, or as he defines, “craft,” Ophelia’s grieving is heart-tearing to the point of self-alienation. Her broken speech and her deep sorrow can only be expressed in the language of flowers, symbols of her despair. Her recurrence to disjointed speech highlights the meaningless words, words, words (Act 2, scene 2, line 191) that Hamlet makes reference to when interrupted by Polonius as he starts concocting an act of performance to avenge his father’s murder. Treacherous deceit has shaken the outlayers of meaning.

Ophelia: “...we know what we are, but know not / what we may be” (Act I, scene 5, lines 43 and following)

“ There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance—pray you, / love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts …”

Laertes: “A document in madness: thoughts and remembrance fitted” (Act 4, scene 5, lines 172 and following)

Laertes’ use of the word “document” validates the argument of how this symbolic language that surges from Ophelia’s inarticulate feelings constitutes a standing bastion that is elevated to the category of “a document in madness”.

    Another character that is worth analysing and brooding about is Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. Think how in spite of King’s Hamlet’s requests to urge his son to preserve wrath against his mother, Prince Hamlet obviates his advice and hassles his mother to exceeding limits by stirring her sense of guilt. Is this also an example of that double standard which women are to be fitted into? Why is not Claudius bearing the grudge of Hamlet’s thirst in such an articulate way?