He tells her that the only way she will be able to protect herself from her female nature – the fickleness and betrayal that he attributes to women – would be to lock herself away in a nunnery where she will not have any contact with men and therefore be unable to betray them.
He goes on to insult Ophelia and tells her to go to a nunnery. He tells her that this will be the best place for her and, by being a nun, Ophelia won't have children and produce wicked men like his uncle.
Why does Hamlet repeatedly say to Ophelia, "Get thee to a nunnery"? He views the world, people, and especially woman as hopelessly corrupt.
Bitterly commenting on the wretchedness of humankind, he urges Ophelia to enter a nunnery rather than become a “breeder of sinners” (III. i. 122–123). He criticizes women for making men behave like monsters and for contributing to the world's dishonesty by painting their faces to appear more beautiful than they are.
Words from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare; the advice Hamlet gives to Ophelia when he bids her live a life of celibacy.
The nunnery scene is important because it reveals a great deal about Hamlet's character. It is one of the best instances in which readers may find themselves torn between Hamlet's assertion that he's pretending to be mad and the possibility that he may actually be mad.
In the play of Hamlet the nunnery scene (Act 3 scene1) is a very important part of the plot. It develops both characters and themes, it brings new bits of information and it connects the start and end of the play together. In this scene we see Hamlet express the emotions he has and we see him acting on his anger.
HAMLET: Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.
What new reason for Ophelia needing a “nunnery” does Hamlet introduce in lines 131–132? Hamlet suggests again that Ophelia go to a “nunnery” (line 131), so that she will not be “a breeder of sinners” (line 132); so she will not have children.
'To be, or not to be: that is the question'.
Arguably the most famous quotation in the whole of Hamlet, this line begins one of Hamlet's darkest and most philosophical soliloquies.
Ophelia uses flowers as symbols of her deep sorrow and grief. She is very upset because her father, Polonius, has just been killed by Hamlet. Being a sensitive and intelligent young woman, Ophelia needs to express herself, and she does so by passing out flowers to the court in her seeming mad state of mind.
While she lives in the same patriarchal society that demands that she subjugate herself to her father and her brother until she is married, Ophelia has fallen in love with Prince Hamlet. There is strong evidence that she has even had sexual relations with him.
Hamlet seems to know that Ophelia is helping her dad spy on him, and he accuses her (and all women) of being a "breeder of sinners" and orders Ophelia to a "nunnery" (3.1.
Her heart has convinced her that Hamlet loved her, though he swears he never did. To her father and brother, Ophelia is the eternal virgin, the vessel of morality whose purpose is to be a dutiful wife and steadfast mother. To Hamlet, she is a sexual object, a corrupt and deceitful lover.
A nunnery is a group of buildings in which a community of nuns live together. [old-fashioned] Synonyms: convent, house, abbey, monastery More Synonyms of nunnery.
She refers to her father's death and Hamlet's behavior, and finally, her sad fate with, “Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
People can stage Hamlet that way, but there is no evidence in the script that Ophelia is pregnant. The best evidence that she has had sex with Hamlet is the song she sings that ends: “Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed.
First, her boyfriend dumps her, then he calls her vulgar names, and lastly, he kills her father. Just one of these traumatic events could make a character go mad, but the combination of the three justifies Ophelia's madness. The use of these three tragic events in Ophelia's life makes her madness reasonable.
OPHELIA 130I was the more deceived. 140 ⟨all;⟩ believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?
Polonius instructs Ophelia to stand in the lobby of the castle while he and Claudius hide. Hamlet approaches Ophelia and talks to her, saying "Get thee to a nunnery." Hamlet asks Ophelia where her father is; she lies to him, saying her father must be at home.
Throughout the entire play, Hamlet's love for Ophelia is questioned. What Hamlet is really doing is trying to throw off the other characters and make it seem like he does not love Ophelia, even though he really does. Hamlet did not want Ophelia to become involved in case Claudius decided to get revenge on Hamlet.
Aware that they are being watched, Hamlet stages his own response and argues that he gave her nothing and that he has never loved her. He tells her to go to a nunnery, assaulting her with another double entendre insult.
While she lives in the same patriarchal society that demands that she subjugate herself to her father and her brother until she is married, Ophelia has fallen in love with Prince Hamlet.
From the death of Ophelia, we naturally pass to the scene of her burial. Without interrupting the action of the drama, her funeral serves as a brief respite for the audience before the breathless on-rush of the fast approaching and final catastrophe.