Hamlet and Incest

809 Words4 Pages
The Sexual Incest Of Hamlet The Worlds greatest English playwright is William Shakespeare. One of his most famous teadijies is the play Hamlet. Throughout Hamlet there is a great amount of sexual Imagery being displayed by the characters in the play. These characters include but are not limited to; Hamlet, Ophelia, Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius. A great amount of this sexual imagery comes as a result of Claudius’s and Gertrude’s union. Pretty much the remainder of Hamlet’s tension comes as a direct result of Ophelia. The idea of this incest between Hamlets mom and Hamlets uncle and the unstable relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia drives Hamlet insane, almost even to suicide. “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?—To die,—to sleep,— No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to…” (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 58-90) The sexual Imagery between the characters Hamlet and Ophelia are omnipresent throughout the play. Throughout the play many references to sex are made when Hamlet speaks to or refers to Ophelia. Hamlet has a hard time with Ophelia because she is so easily controlled and manipulated by the men in her life. Both her father and brother try to use her to set up Hamlet so that the king can get him. Hamlet truly has been in love with Ophelia, but once he is visited by the ghost of his father, he seems to become less interested in his relationship with Ophelia. The sexual imagery begins to diminish as the play goes on, Hamlet becomes more obsessed with avenging his father’s death and pretty much looses interest in everything else. The relationship Ophelia tries to pursue with Hamlet drives her eventually insane, and arguable Hamlet.
Open Document