Part 14: Ophelia's figuratively incestuous family
Like a lover or spouse, Laertes leaving for France tells Ophelia, “do not sleep, But let me hear from you” [2].
Biblical sayings urge welcome for strangers, which involves risk; but they also discourage fear [3]. Laertes, in contrast, repeatedly urges Ophelia to fear Hamlet [4].
After warning her to be chaste, Laertes tells Ophelia to remember his advice. Ophelia replies, "'Tis in my memory lock'd, / And you yourself shall keep the key of it."[5]
Chastity can be a virtue, keeping something of great value secret, disclosed only in an intimate, faithful relationship. Ophelia’s promise to Laertes is analogous: she has the feminine lock and he the masculine key, suggesting a figuratively incestuous relationship.
Polonius mistrusts his children’s secret, so he figuratively rapes Ophelia's memory by demanding she disclose it. [6] Ten lines earlier, Polonius had counseled Laertes to be true to himself [7], but requires Ophelia to be false to her promise to her brother about his secret advice.
When it is clear that Polonius may have misjudged Hamlet [8], he becomes obsessed with proving that Hamlet suffers love-madness. Instead of marriage being a matter of a couple’s vows [9], he wants to act as the broker, middleman, fish-monger [10] (or flesh-monger/pimp), making his daughter’s marriage prospects more an aristocratic transaction that will benefit the father, than about love.
At her grave, Laertes takes her corpse in his arms like a lover and asks to be buried with her [11]. Some critics sense an incest theme, present in other Early Modern plays.[12]
Why don’t Polonius and Laertes celebrate the prospect that Ophelia could become the next queen of Denmark? As queen, Ophelia would have greater authority than Polonius and Laertes. They may envy her good fortune as a threat to their own. Laertes may expect to inherit his father’s job as key advisor to the throne, as Robert Cecil did his father William’s job. [13]
Franco Moretti notes, “Incest is that form of desire which makes impossible the matrimonial exchange [...] a society in which power is still connected with physical persons, reinforces and perpetuates the network of wealth.” [14] Polonius and Laertes are like the “envious sliver” of willow (or family tree) that breaks and sends her to her death [15]. They defend the familial economic status quo instead of being open to transcendence (and to Hamlet, the character most frequently described as “begging” or “poor”) [16].
In these ways, the theme of incest in Denmark's monarchy is also present in the ways Polonius and Laertes treat Ophelia: a selfish hoarding, where circles of affection are too small and controlling, too figuratively incestuous, failing at self-transcendence.
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NOTES
[1] 1.3.6-49, 1.3.95-144. All quotes are from the Folger Shakespeare Library online version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/hamlet/read/
[2] 1.3.3-5.
[3] 1 John 4:18: “18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear: for fear hath painfulness: and he that feareth, is not perfect in love.“
[4] 1.3.19, 37, 47: “you must fear”;
“Fear it, Ophelia; fear it”;
“Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear.”
[5] 1.3.92-3.
[6] 1.3.95.
[7] 1.3.84.
[8] 2.1.124-130.
[9] 1.3.122-123. Marriage in England and Europe during Shakespeare's lifetime, as in Christianity in general, placed more importance on the couple's vows than on a ring or the witness and officiating of a priest or minister. The official councils of the Catholic church did not officially define marriage as a sacrament until 1184. For many centuries people often married by exchanging vows without a priest.
[10] 2.2.190-206
[11] 5.1.262-266
[12] See A Looking Glass for London and England, by Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge, 1589 or 1590, a play that retells the Jonah story and includes a theme of incest with a sister.
See also the incest theme in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi,
and in Pericles by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins.
[13] William Cecil, Lord Burghley, was top advisor to Elizabeth I, and may have been perceived as having over-managed and thereby spoiled possible marriage arrangements for Elizabeth. After his death, his son Robert became a key advisor to Elizabeth and to King James after her death.
[14] page 71, Moretti, Franco, “The Great Eclipse: Tragic Form as the Deconsecration of Sovereignty,” Shakespearean Tragedy, ed. John Drakakis, Longman, 1992, 45-84.
IN OTHER WORDS, a monarchy that cares for the poor and welcomes strangers, or a Cinderella tale in which a monarch marries a pauper, would tend more toward transcendence, or toward expanding rather than merely “reinforc[ing] and perpetuat[ing] the network of wealth.”
[15] 4.7.198.
[16] Using the search engine at OpenSourceShakespeare.org, one finds that Hamlet is the character most often described as “poor,” “beggar,” “begging,” or the verb “beg.” I mentioned this in a 2018 blog post (point 8): https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-ghost-of-lazarus-haunts-hamlet.html
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IMAGES:
Left: Laertes kisses Ophelia, and text. via
http://hyperion2satyr.blogspot.com/2010/02/act-i-scene-3-branagh-96.html
Michael Maloney as Laertes, Kate Winslet as Ophelia in Hamlet, dir. Kenneth Branagh, 1996.
Bottom right: Laertes and Ophelia in her grave. Edward Bennett [Laertes], Mariah Gale [Ophelia], RSC Hamlet (TV, 2009), Dir. Gregory Doran. Fair use via https://cinemorgue.fandom.com/wiki/Hamlet_(2009_TV)?file=Mariahgale.jpg
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INDEX OF OPHELIA POSTS:
My 2023 series on Ophelia, and earlier Ophelia posts:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/index-of-ophelia-posts-2023-series-and.html
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IF YOU WOULD PREFER to support me on a REGULAR basis,
you may do so on Ko-Fi, or here on Patreon:
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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