Why Is Ophelia Holding Hamlet

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When reading Act 3 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is often described as holding a prayer book in scene 1. Although Shakespeare himself does not say what she is holding, she is described this way because at the time period in which Hamlet is set, the only acceptable reason for a lady to be alone was if she was praying. Michael Gooch refutes this assumption in his essay about Hamlet. In his essay, the practicalities of Ophelia holding both remembrances and a prayer book are discussed. Gooch also suggests that Ophelia holding Hamlet’s book might have served ulterior motives, and was carefully orchestrated into a mousetrap. Gooch goes on to talk about how Ophelia’s manipulation was what had fueled Hamlet’s anger and spurred him to attack her verbally. This essay about Shakespeare’s Hamlet by Michael Gooch provides excellent reasoning as to why Ophelia was holding Hamlet’s book, and not a prayer book. It would have made more sense for her to be holding just Hamlet’s book, because …show more content…
Ophelia’s words and actions were carefully calculated to deceive Hamlet. Hamlet saw through her deception, which enraged him because of the trust he used to have in her.His bitterness caused him to verbally abuse Ophelia. He mentioned how women cannot be trusted, which is exemplified by the fact that in the scene, she outright lied to him, but he already knew that she was lying. When it comes down to it, no one truly knows what Shakespeare intended for Ophelia to hold in this scene. All that can be done is to use context clues and make educated guesses. However, while the evidence as to Ophelia’s holding a prayer book makes a lot of sense, the case for Hamlet’s book is stronger. Polonius himself does not specify what type of book she is to read. There is simply more evidence proving that Ophelia was, indeed, holding Hamlet’s

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