SARAH:  In this scene, Hamlet’s anger and animosity towards Ophelia grows steadily throughout their conversation.  He starts off cool and distant, then he becomes sarcastic and cruel to her, and, finally, he bursts out in an angry diatribe against not only just Ophelia, but women in general.

RALPH:  Many of the early Shakespeare critics had high ethical standards for their heroes, making it almost impossible to excuse Hamlet’s offensive behavior in this scene.

SARAH:  And it continues to be difficult to condone Hamlet’s behavior.  Modern audiences are often surprised or upset by the cruelty Hamlet shows Ophelia, and critics have gone to great lengths to explain, if not justify, his behavior.

RALPH:  Many critics assume that Hamlet is aware that this encounter with Ophelia is a trap, or at least that it was a planned encounter.  John Dover Wilson thought it was so critical that the audience understood this, that he actually modified Shakespeare’s stage directions so that Hamlet would have been able to overhear Polonius and Claudius as they planned the meeting.

SARAH:  Some productions of the play show Hamlet becoming aware of Claudius and Polonius at some point during the scene.

RALPH:  Neither of these choices are required by the text, however – and we can imagine Hamlet suspecting a trap even if he doesn’t actually overhear the plan or discover his eavesdroppers.

SARAH:  That’s right, Ralph - Shakespeare has already provided sufficient clues for Hamlet to become suspicious. After all, Hamlet’s been summoned to meet with the King, and he just happens to come upon Ophelia waiting for him in the hall.  What’s more, she just happens to have some of his gifts or letters to return, and some of the things she says sound like she’s been coached by her father.

RALPH:  But Sarah, just because Hamlet knows this meeting has been engineered by either Polonius or the King or both, it doesn’t necessarily warrant his angry outbursts and rude behavior.  What else have critics put forward to help us understand Hamlet in this scene?

SARAH:  Well, some writers have usefully pointed out that, even if Hamlet does suspect this is a kind of trap, it shouldn’t mean he knows what Ophelia is really thinking. What is she up to?  Does she really love him, or is she completely siding with Polonius and the King?

RALPH:  Ruth Nevo, who was a Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, writes that it would actually be easier for Hamlet if he were sure that Ophelia were lying to him – then at least he’d know something for certain.  As she puts it, “It is precisely his total inability to know her, or for that matter himself, that … is the center of his anguish.  He is tormented precisely by doubts, not by confirmations.”

SARAH:  Other critics, like Valerie Traub, a Professor at the University of Michigan, think that Hamlet is exhibiting a more generalized fear of female sexuality that was typical of the early modern period.

RALPH:  Elizabethan society was patriarchal and patrilineal, which means all inheritance passed through the male line only.

SARAH:  But because men had to take women’s word on the paternity of their children, this produced a great deal of anxiety about women’s fidelity, as well as attempts to control or regulate their sexuality.

RALPH:  However reasonable that may be, Ophelia doesn’t seem to merit so much concern about her fidelity – we certainly haven’t seen any rivals for her affection.  This suggests that if Hamlet’s anger is really rooted in some kind of fear of female sexuality, then Ophelia may only have been a trigger for all his emotion – perhaps the real target of Hamlet’s speeches is his own mother.

SARAH:  Good point, Ralph.  After all, it’s Gertrude who could more easily be accused of being unfaithful, and who’s just recently gotten married.

RALPH:  If that’s the case, then Hamlet is, as always, shuttling back and forth between the particular and the general in his lines.

SARAH:  And here, the particular case would not just be Ophelia, but his mother, who has disgusted Hamlet by continuing her sexual life after his father is dead.