Why does Hamlet leap into Ophelia’s grave? Is he expressing true love for Ophelia, or merely dramatizing himself?
When Hamlet returns to Denmark at the beginning of Act V, he has changed from the Hamlet of the previous four acts. He still has the same personality at heart, but he has become more mature, and perhaps transcended his former self. This is evident in his speech at the beginning of Act V Scene ii: “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” (V. ii. 10-11).
We can only assume that in the gap between acts, and possibly the years that have passed, he has experienced things that have forced him to conclude that destiny is inescapable, and that our ends are ultimately shaped by a divine power. This new Hamlet must inform our understanding of his spontaneous jump into Ophelia’s grave.
It may be argued (perhaps cynically) that Hamlet’s action does not express his love for Ophelia, but is merely an attempt to dramatize himself, just as he was wont to do in previous acts. To back this argument, it may be said that Hamlet never truly loved Ophelia, as perhaps is shown in the famous instance in which he tells Ophelia to go to a nunnery (III. i. 121), as well as his general mistreatment of her. But this is to brush aside the evidence to the contrary, as when Ophelia herself speaks of Hamlet’s true love for her: “He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders / Of his affection to me” (I. iii. 99-100).
Polonius dismisses this as naïveté, though we are inclined to think of Polonius’ view as cynical. Although Hamlet’s treatment of Ophelia is undeniably rash, this does not prove he did not love her: indeed, it might be understandable in the circumstances, given that he has become temporarily disillusioned with women in general, following his mother’s swift marriage to Claudius.
Hamlet is a notoriously ambiguous play, and one cannot say with logical certainty whether the protagonist truly loved Ophelia or not; however, we get the overwhelming feeling that his mistreatment of her must be due to something other than not loving her, or feigning madness. With this in mind, it is difficult to read the graveyard scene and conclude that Hamlet is simply dramatizing himself – he is too complex a character to be explained so simply.
However, Hamlet is certainly a character inclined to dramatize himself. This dramatization manifests itself in soliloquies, as in “O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew” (I. ii. 129-130), which is perhaps hyperbolical even given the circumstances. Apart from his soliloquizing, almost all his behaviour in the first three acts (or at least, while he is in Elsinore), whether consciously or not, dramatizes himself. He feigns madness, he writes a speech in the play-within-the-play (partly dramatizing his feelings to create an emotional reaction), and he kills Polonius accidentally and then says that it means nothing to him, among other similar incidents.
Indeed, Hamlet might be said to be more than just a protagonist – his self-dramatization and charisma are so great that the whole play, including the scenes in which he is not present, are effectively about him: Ophelia turns mad because of him, Gertrude is torn between him and Claudius, Laertes plots revenge against him, and the success or failure of Claudius’s future career is so greatly hinged around Hamlet that he must kill him if he is to continue his kingship.
However, we cannot simply state that Hamlet is inclined to dramatize himself and leave it at that. We must understand why he is inclined to do so. The clue is in his famous statement at the end of Act I: “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet / To put an antic disposition on” (V. i. 179-180).
We know from this that his madness is an act, it is put on. From here we can only speculate as to what ends he hopes to achieve with this. It seems likely that a primary objective of his is to unsettle Claudius, thereby presenting himself as a threat to his leadership. He hopes also to catch people unawares, and force hidden information out of them, particularly in relation to his father’s murder.
In the interest of consistency and believability, he must pretend to be mad in front of most people, including, of course, Ophelia, since she is in constant communication with Polonius. Therefore Hamlet’s self-dramatization exists for a very good reason.
When Hamlet returns to Denmark from England, as we have seen, he comes with a newfound maturity. It seems unlikely that in his state in Act V he would be inclined or deem it necessary to “put an antic disposition on.” He appears to have a kind of resolve that he did not have before, albeit one in which he places his fate in the hands of divinity. In that condition, what use would he have of feigning madness? Nevertheless it is entirely possible that Hamlet consciously dramatizes himself – not in an effort to make himself the centre of attention, but simply to prove his love of Ophelia more strongly.
The act of leaping into the grave is an act of passion. Because he sees Laertes jump into the grave, the act is in part a way of expressing a oneness with Laertes and partly an implication that they should be grieving together. But Laertes does not take kindly to this and says, “The devil take thy soul!” (V. i. 251) Laertes’ relationship with Ophelia is presented subtly throughout the play, and there are overtones in his behaviour and speech of incestuous feelings towards her. When he leaves for France he tells Ophelia to “weigh what loss your honor may sustain” (I. iii. 29) if she loses her virginity “To his unmaster’d importunity” (32).
Apart from this, Laertes strikes us as being competitive with Hamlet, and since this competitiveness is in relation to Ophelia, it may be interpreted as coming from extra-familial feelings towards her. This is again expressed in his physical embrace of her in the grave and could be the reason for his hostile behaviour towards Hamlet. Hamlet seems to notice this when he says “Forty thousand brothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum” (V. i. 264-266). To compare a lover’s love to a brother’s love is impossible, and Hamlet seems to be very subtly hinting that he knows of Laertes’ feelings.
Given Laertes’ surprising reaction to Hamlet, it is only natural that Hamlet should want to defend himself. Because of his past record of appearing to be mad, however, it is Hamlet’s behaviour that is interpreted as extreme, not Laertes’. Claudius and Gertrude both react with shock at Hamlet, and this further gives the impression that Hamlet is the one at the centre of attention, despite the fact that he is merely expressing himself just as Laertes is. That this is true is made touchingly evident when Hamlet says “What is the reason that you use me thus? I lov’d you ever.” (V. i. 284-285).
Readers of the graveyard scene should acknowledge Hamlet’s immense complexity as a dramatic character, and should not be quick to dismiss his behaviour as merely self-dramatizing or an attempt to outdo Laertes. If he does not express his love for Ophelia fully or properly throughout the play, this does not mean that he does not love her, but that he is too overwhelmed by his situation and too caught up in the whirlwind of his mind to give her his full heart.
