In the beginning of the play, Ophelia states to Polonius that Hamlet “Hath my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me” (I: iii: 108-109). These tenders of affection refer to Hamlet’s love for Ophelia and shows that he is trying to portray his love for her. Shortly after Polonius learns about Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s relationship, Polonius decides that Hamlet is not good for Ophelia. Ophelia blindly follows Polonius’ orders when she states “ No my good lord, but as you did command I did repel his letters and denied his access to me” (II: ii: 120-122). The way that Ophelia follows her father’s orders without issue exemplifies that she does not love …show more content…
Hamlet states “If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery” (III: i: 146-149). Here he is expressing his resentment with Ophelia and wishes her a horrible future. Hamlet’s “resentment against women is still further inflamed by the hypocritical prudishness with which Ophelia follows her father and brother in seeing evil in his natural affection, an attitude which poisons his love” (Berman 143). Hamlet is indeed, not in love with Ophelia, and wants her to go to a convent. Hamlet’s “outburst against Ophelia, who is devastated at having to bear a reaction so wholly out of proportion to her own offence” (Berman 144), causes her feelings of worthlessness. These feelings arise because she does not believe she did anything wrong to him. Hamlet’s strong negative emotions towards Ophelia in the nunnery scene support the fact that he does not truly love Ophelia, and wishes to no longer be seeing