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.
I save my Shakespearean throwdowns for the Sonnets. I claim no expertise of Hamlet, or any of the plays, though my amateur opinion of this particular scene sides with Teppy.
I once heard a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago explain to a bunch of tourists that the women in Seurat's Afternoon at the Isle of La Grande Jatte were all in fact prostitutes so perhapes the whore is in the eye of the beholder.
I think I agree with Teppy in this one, too.
I save my Shakespearean throwdowns for the Sonnets.
Nobody kicks Sonnet ass like you. I still laugh when I hear someone use the Sonnets as a profession of undying love, thanks to you.