Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic play; it’s full of uncertainties and revenge. One of the biggest doubts I had while reading the book was: Did Hamlet really loves Ophelia? This question popped up in my mind many times as I read the novel. Although there is much evidence that makes us think he just wanted to use her and he didn’t really love her, there is even more evidence that disprove those ideas. Through different actions like sending her a letter, being jealous, and declaring his love to her directly, is how Hamlet shows Ophelia that he is truly in love with her in his own way.
The first time we saw Hamlet’s love for Ophelia was in Act 3, Scene 1 (page 147). In this part, Hamlet confesses his love directly to her by saying: “I did love you once.” That is our first piece of evidence. Some readers may think that he didn’t love her anymore because he retracts himself by saying “I loved you not.” However, this is because of the fact that Hamlet knew that Polonius was spying on them. We are sure about this because he after asks her: “where’s your father.” This demonstrates that Hamlet wanted Ophelia to know that he loved her but he is retracting his words in order to make Polonius think that he has nothing to do with her daughter anymore. Why did Hamlet wanted Polonius to think that way? The reason was because he knew that Claudius and Polonius were planning something against him and would use anything he said to use it against him. Hamlet was struggling in his love life, contributing to the cause why Hamlet wants to act crazy; this could help him stay out of serious problems. Hamlet tried to make everyone else think that he won`t do bad things and feel pity of him leaving his enemies out of possible actions of affecting him.
