Friday, November 21, 2008

Did Hamlet Sleep With Ophelia?

YES!

Act 3 Scene 1

HAMLET (88-90)
Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy prisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Hamlet basically just called Ophelia something like "babe."

OPHELIA (93-95)
My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.

Ophelia is basically saying she has received some sort of “remembrance”/gift from him. (maybe love letters)

HAMLET (111-115)
Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd (prostitute) than the
force of honesty can translate beauty into his
likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the
time gives it proof. I did love you once.

OPHELIA (116)
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

Now Hamlet is using the word “honest” to mean “chaste” and he means that beauty can be a pimp, while also adding that he “did love” her once.