Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Part 45: Ophelia's Terrible Awakening and Liberation Ophelia and Gertrude awaken from earlier naivete and become liberated from aspects of patriarchy, Ophelia from her father, and Gertrude from her husband. Consider Ophelia: Ophelia had been excited to spend “free and bounteous” time with Hamlet [1], to be wooed by him “in honorable fashion” [2], to receive from him “almost all the holy vows of heaven” [3], probably a marriage proposal, not snares [4] to steal her “chaste treasure” [5] as her brother and father fear and suspect. She is forbidden by Polonius to see Hamlet or receive his letters [6], but used as bait by him and Claudius for their spying [7]. Gertrude tells her that she hopes Ophelia’s “virtues” will help to heal Hamlet [8]. Hamlet does not tell her that he has spoken with an apparition like the ghost of his father, but seems to fear that those he loves most may be at risk at least of suffering purgatory for sins, apparently like his father. He tells her to go “to a

Part 44: Ophelia, Ariadne, Aegeus: Rejection, Ecstasy, Drowning After Ophelia’s father Polonius tells her to reject Hamlet [1], she obeys; later Hamlet is unkind to her and tells her, “Get thee to a nunnery” [2]. But the fact that her father forbade her to see him could not erase her feelings for him [3], or her hurt at being rejected. The story of Theseus, son of King Aegeus, and how he killed the Minotaur with help from Ariadne, was quite familiar in Shakespeare’s time, and the playwright even has Theseus as a character in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Ariadne loved Theseus, as Ophelia seems to have loved Hamlet. But like Polonius, Ariadne’s father, King Minos, would not have approved. In the Greek myth, Theseus takes Ariadne with him when he leaves the island of Crete after defeating Ariadne’s half-brother, the Minotaur [4]. He later abandons her on the island of Naxos. Ophelia may feel similarly abandoned after Hamlet leaves for England [5] and her father is found dead and given