One of the most striking statements that we can find in Hamlet happens
in the moment he realizes he no longer loves Ophelia and decides to tell
it to her. Hamlet´s statement is as follows: “Get thee to a nunnery:
why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?” (Act 3, scene I. A room in
the castle).
It is easy to understand why he tells her to go to a convent. Indeed, according to medieval customs and conventions, especially in the court of a Christian kingdom, when a woman had been a man´s fiancée and the relationship was over, she was not supposed to find another man but to become a nun. This is exactly what happens in this scene: Hamlet has just broken his relationship with her and invites her to go to a convent. What may not be all that easy to understand, is the fact that he puns on the word nunnery, and he does indeed puns on it, as can be deduced from the context of these words, namely, the scene in which Hamlet utters them. Nunnery, in Elizabethan or Early modern English meant convent; but at that time, the word also had substandard sense: brothel. Obviously, Hamlet plays on this second sense of the word; and this makes the whole thing complicated. It is easy to understand why he tells her to become a nun, but it is not easy at all to understand why he tells her to go to a brothel. Is he suggesting that Ophelia is a prostitute? It would not be the only time, because in this play there are other ambiguities referred to Ophelia which connote this same idea. Hamlet thinks that in the struggle he is waging against his mother and his uncle, Ophelia is rather on Polonius´ (her father) side than on his. Polonius, who was so happy before because his daughter was engaged to Hamlet (the Prince Heir), is now changing his mind because he thinks that Hamlet will never become the king of Denmark. Therefore, Hamlet concludes that if Ophelia was with him before but now hesitates, it is because love did never exist: she was with him, he thinks, because of his position, not because she was in love with him. And this is prostitution according to Hamlet´s new view of the world. Now he is fighting against the “rottenness” of Denmark, he is fighting for an honest world, and he feels she is not following him.
This is the reason why Hamlet ends up by rejecting and hating Ophelia. He does not find her sufficiently honest for him. In other words, she is also corrupt, like the rest of the courtiers in Denmark. Some readers think that Hamlet is a misogynist because he rejects Ophelia and also his mother. But he also has good reasons for hating his mother. His mother, who was responsible for his father´s murder because she was having an affair with her brother in law, Claudius, was likewise “stew´d in corruption”, as Hamlet said and thought. And Hamlet was right, because Shakespeare himself puts a few ambiguous words in Claudius´ mouth whose second senses denigrate her. Thus, when Claudius is announcing that he has married her, he begins his speech with the following words: “Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, the imperial jointress to this warlike state …” (Act 1. Scene II. A room of state in the castle) the three words with which Claudius refers to Hamlet´s mother –“sister”, ”queen”, and “jointress”—also had a bawdy meaning in Elizabethan English: the three of them also meant in substandard English, prostitute.
It is easy to understand why he tells her to go to a convent. Indeed, according to medieval customs and conventions, especially in the court of a Christian kingdom, when a woman had been a man´s fiancée and the relationship was over, she was not supposed to find another man but to become a nun. This is exactly what happens in this scene: Hamlet has just broken his relationship with her and invites her to go to a convent. What may not be all that easy to understand, is the fact that he puns on the word nunnery, and he does indeed puns on it, as can be deduced from the context of these words, namely, the scene in which Hamlet utters them. Nunnery, in Elizabethan or Early modern English meant convent; but at that time, the word also had substandard sense: brothel. Obviously, Hamlet plays on this second sense of the word; and this makes the whole thing complicated. It is easy to understand why he tells her to become a nun, but it is not easy at all to understand why he tells her to go to a brothel. Is he suggesting that Ophelia is a prostitute? It would not be the only time, because in this play there are other ambiguities referred to Ophelia which connote this same idea. Hamlet thinks that in the struggle he is waging against his mother and his uncle, Ophelia is rather on Polonius´ (her father) side than on his. Polonius, who was so happy before because his daughter was engaged to Hamlet (the Prince Heir), is now changing his mind because he thinks that Hamlet will never become the king of Denmark. Therefore, Hamlet concludes that if Ophelia was with him before but now hesitates, it is because love did never exist: she was with him, he thinks, because of his position, not because she was in love with him. And this is prostitution according to Hamlet´s new view of the world. Now he is fighting against the “rottenness” of Denmark, he is fighting for an honest world, and he feels she is not following him.
This is the reason why Hamlet ends up by rejecting and hating Ophelia. He does not find her sufficiently honest for him. In other words, she is also corrupt, like the rest of the courtiers in Denmark. Some readers think that Hamlet is a misogynist because he rejects Ophelia and also his mother. But he also has good reasons for hating his mother. His mother, who was responsible for his father´s murder because she was having an affair with her brother in law, Claudius, was likewise “stew´d in corruption”, as Hamlet said and thought. And Hamlet was right, because Shakespeare himself puts a few ambiguous words in Claudius´ mouth whose second senses denigrate her. Thus, when Claudius is announcing that he has married her, he begins his speech with the following words: “Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, the imperial jointress to this warlike state …” (Act 1. Scene II. A room of state in the castle) the three words with which Claudius refers to Hamlet´s mother –“sister”, ”queen”, and “jointress”—also had a bawdy meaning in Elizabethan English: the three of them also meant in substandard English, prostitute.
