Ophelia and Hamlet

[Sindhu]

Talking of Movie adaptations brouht this up - I hd beleived, written and taught that Ophelia was a virgin. But Branagh's Hamlet got me wondering. What does anyone think Shakespeare was suggesting?

[IWilKikU]

By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do 't, if they come to 't;
By ****, they are to blame

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to wed.
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

I always took the meaning of this song to be that Hamlet and Ophelia had had a sexual relationship and planned on marriage. When he seemed to go crazy on her in the "get thee to a nunnery" scene, she took that to be a breaking of thier secret engagement.

[Sindhu]

I had interpreted that song as frustrated sexuality on Ophelia's part breaking out in her madness. But your interpretation does make sense. I'll have to rethink the whole issue!