After this letter, Hamlet appears to all of a sudden get to be exceptionally barbarous to Ophelia, first declining he was ever kind to her, then offending her magnificence and trustworthiness, then, as though that were insufficient, requesting she go to a cloister. ... She is unable to ease her pain from her father's death through even revenge, as it is Laertes' duty, unable to ask her brother not to kill the love of her life, and not to say, "Let come what comes, only I'll be revenged Most thoroughly for my father." (IV, v, 134-135); this notwithstanding the loss of ...

• Word Count: 1795
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Yet this could be viewed as unjustified as both texts present them as arguably formidable; Gertrude in Hamlet may be viewed critically by audiences as she seems to act without grief when referring to her late husband's death as "common"" in Act One, Scene Two. ... She starts to live through her children and at the end of "Death in the Family," Lawrence describes how she "now clung to Paul"." ... Their relationship throughout the play is strained; it is in the passage after Blanche's confession of the loss of Belle Reve that Stella starts to understand what actually happened and plac...

• Word Count: 3412
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Undergraduate