What plague does Hamlet give Ophelia?
What “plague” does Hamlet “give Ophelia for [her] dowry? He will give her a bad reputation. I say, we will have no more marriages. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live.
Why is a dowry given in Hamlet?
If you do get married, I’ll give you a plague for your dowry. A dowry is an amount of money given to the groom’s family for his marrying the wife: instead of a positive dowry, Hamlet wants Ophelia to have a plague (a disease). His plague seems to be a curse: Or, if you have to marry, marry an idiot.
Why does Hamlet say to Ophelia Get thee to a nunnery?
When he states “get thee to a nunnery” to Ophelia, he is expressing pent-up anger towards his mother, who he feels has been unfaithful and incestuous when she married his uncle. At the beginning of the play itself, we see a brooding Hamlet who seems almost more upset by his mother’s marriage than by his father’s death.
How does Hamlet’s madness affect Ophelia?
Mad with grief over the death of her father, Ophelia drowned herself in a river. This madness, in the end, led Ophelia to commit suicide as she had nothing to live for without the men in her life who bestowed her sense of identity upon her.
When did Ophelia kill herself?
In Act 4 Scene 7, Queen Gertrude reports that Ophelia had climbed into a willow tree (There is a willow grows aslant the brook), and that the branch had broken and dropped Ophelia into the brook, where she drowned.
Does Hamlet feel responsible for Ophelia’s death?
Polonius’s lack of trust and constant betrayal of Ophelia to Claudius, also led to Ophelia’s death. Therefore we can see he did have reason to be blamed for her death. However, Claudius was the one initially guiding and instructing Polonious; therefore he is to blame for this as well.
Did Gertrude lie about Ophelia’s death?
Gertrude reports the events of Ophelia’s death as if she had seen (and heard!) them herself. Ophelia dies during act IV, somewhere between scene V and scene VII.
Why can’t Claudius put hamlet in jail?
As Claudius explains to Laertes, there are two main reasons he can’t really punish Hamlet. The first is that Hamlet’s mother dotes on her son so much that it would kill her if something happened to him. The second reason is that the people love Hamlet and might revolt against Claudius if Hamlet was imprisoned.
Is Gertrude guilty or innocent?
Queen Gertrude is a woman observably guilty of poor judgment and weak character. As the mother of a grieving son, Gertrude should have been more sensitive to Hamlet’s feelings. Her hasty marriage to Claudius, her former brother-in-law, left Hamlet humiliated and disgusted at what he perceived as an incestuous act.
Did Gertrude know the cup was poisoned?
Instead, Gertrude’s love for Claudius creates a thrilling twist to the closet scene in which he is revealed as a murderer. The final Act, in which she is clearly aware that the wine is poisoned, sees her sacrifice herself to save Hamlet.
Did Gertrude mean to drink the poison on purpose?
In Laurence Olivier’s film adaptation of Hamlet, Gertrude drinks knowingly, presumably to save her son from certain death. If she drinks on purpose, then she’s the self-sacrificing mother Hamlet has always wanted her to be.
Why does Gertrude drink from the poisoned cup?
She knowingly drinks from the poisoned cup and then offers it to Hamlet so that Claudius’s plan could not come to fruition—he, who has killed her husband, would not also be responsible for the death of her son.