I like the way you think, David.
Spike's Bitches 42: Which question do you want me to answer first?
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent
so nunnery != whorehouse?
so nunnery != whorehouse?
Um, no. Hamlet follows his "Get thee to a nunnery" line by asking Ophelia why she would want to be a breeder of sinners.
Hamlet has become revolted by sex, because of his mother's o'er hasty remarriage to Claudius. He's telling her to live a life of celibacy, if she wants to find happiness.
Though, yes, in Elizabethan slang, whorehouses were also referred to as "nunneries," and Shakespeare was fond of making exactly that kind of double entendre in his works, the context of the scene suggests that this was one of the times he did not intend the line to be suggestive.
so nunnery != whorehouse?
Um, no. Hamlet follows his "Get thee to a nunnery" line by asking Ophelia why she would want to be a breeder of sinners.
"Nunnery" was Elizabethan slang for "whorehouse," though. I mean, yes, Hamlet has flipped his shit and gone all St. Paul with the "don't marry" bit, but to read it as just a straight line is really an incomplete reading, and not nearly as salacious as it comes across with the "whorehouse" bit tucked in there.
the context of the scene suggests that this was one of the times he did not intend the line to be suggestive.
Hm. I disagree. Hamlet is pretty contemptuous of Ophelia there, and he's not speaking out of concern for her future well-being by saying to her that it's better if she doesn't marry; he's saying that, because she loved him (in good faith, I might add), she's a big whore, *like his mom.*
Oh, Hamlet. You so fucked up, dude.
Oh, Hamlet. You so fucked up, dude.
"It is to be
Or Not to Be
That Is the question
That I ask of me."
From the immortal Gilligan as Hamlet musical version.
SHAKESPEAREAN TEXTUAL THROWDOWN!
Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui
Your antic disposition is embarrassing to see
And by the way you sulky brat the answer is To Be
You're driving poor Ophelia insane
So shut up you rogue and peasant
Grow up it's most unpleasant
Cheer up you melancholy Dane
--from the potentially immortal Slings and Arrows song.
SHAKESPEAREAN TEXTUAL THROWDOWN!
Good thing Jen's in the house. And Juliana and Fay. This could be a battle royale.