Fear Yourself In Hamlet
Viktoryia Hvozdz
9/2/2015
ENG 321
Fear Hamlet, Fear Yourself
Before departing to France, Laertes gives Ophelia some brotherly advice. Besides being the only example of positive family interaction in this tragic play, it also reveals a lot about Laertes and his worldview. In Hamlet, which is so much about the interplay and conflict between the inner and the outer, Laertes’s advice to Ophelia reveals that he is definitely on the side of the outer. “Think it no more,” Laertes begins his speech referring to Hamlet’s affection for Ophelia (1.3.10), and with this imperative establishes the tone of the entire passage. He speaks to her paternalistically, from a position of superiority. He proceeds to explain to Ophelia that though Hamlet may be young …show more content…
“Keep within the rear of your affection / Out of the shot and danger of desire” (1.3.34-35), and with this metaphor Laertes is trying to further scare his sister by comparing love to a battle, desire to an arrow-shooting enemy. No matter how virtuous a woman thinks she is, she will not escape “calumnious strokes” (1.3.38), he tells her; and there is the theme of his being concerned with the family honor again. He is worried that if Ophelia spends too much time with Hamlet, even if it is all innocent, people will talk and consider her ruined. Laertes is very much concerned with what …show more content…
Again, the best defense against such creatures is fear: “Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear,” and he concludes the couplet by saying “Youth to itself rebels, though none else near” (1.3.43-44). The rhyme “fear”-“near” further emphasizes his warning to Ophelia, but in a paradoxical way, also calls her to be afraid not only of Hamlet and other men, but of herself and her feelings, too. By personifying youth and calling it rebellious, Laertes is in fact warning his sister not to trust her own feelings that may lead her to challenge his and his father’s
9/2/2015
ENG 321
Fear Hamlet, Fear Yourself
Before departing to France, Laertes gives Ophelia some brotherly advice. Besides being the only example of positive family interaction in this tragic play, it also reveals a lot about Laertes and his worldview. In Hamlet, which is so much about the interplay and conflict between the inner and the outer, Laertes’s advice to Ophelia reveals that he is definitely on the side of the outer. “Think it no more,” Laertes begins his speech referring to Hamlet’s affection for Ophelia (1.3.10), and with this imperative establishes the tone of the entire passage. He speaks to her paternalistically, from a position of superiority. He proceeds to explain to Ophelia that though Hamlet may be young …show more content…
“Keep within the rear of your affection / Out of the shot and danger of desire” (1.3.34-35), and with this metaphor Laertes is trying to further scare his sister by comparing love to a battle, desire to an arrow-shooting enemy. No matter how virtuous a woman thinks she is, she will not escape “calumnious strokes” (1.3.38), he tells her; and there is the theme of his being concerned with the family honor again. He is worried that if Ophelia spends too much time with Hamlet, even if it is all innocent, people will talk and consider her ruined. Laertes is very much concerned with what …show more content…
Again, the best defense against such creatures is fear: “Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear,” and he concludes the couplet by saying “Youth to itself rebels, though none else near” (1.3.43-44). The rhyme “fear”-“near” further emphasizes his warning to Ophelia, but in a paradoxical way, also calls her to be afraid not only of Hamlet and other men, but of herself and her feelings, too. By personifying youth and calling it rebellious, Laertes is in fact warning his sister not to trust her own feelings that may lead her to challenge his and his father’s