eternalgirlscout:

give me a Hamlet who believes he must be cruel to be kind

a Hamlet whose “I loved you not” is choked out like the lie it is. whose words to Ophelia begin stumbling and contradictory but build to viciousness, tears in his eyes barely in check. Hamlet, whose attacks upon her femininity are calculated and careful, hitting her where it hurts most. a Hamlet who tragically mistakenly believes aiming for her most intimate insecurities, betraying that trust born of a tender love, will make a cleaner break of it all and keep her away from him, away from the doom that he sees settling over Elsinore like a black cloud.

give me a Hamlet who acts, as he always does, from a sense of necessity. Hamlet who protects those he loves by betraying them. Hamlet whose mistake was acting too much on his own, making true the isolation and single-minded purpose he promised the ghost of his father. Hamlet who walks away from Ophelia disgusted with himself, self-loathing and heartbroken but that’s nothing new. 

give me a Hamlet whose lamentations and rage at her graveside don’t feel hypocritical. a Hamlet who loved her and hates how he failed to keep her away from all this death, driving her to it instead. a Hamlet who sees that the pain he caused with good intentions only continues to build.

give me a Hamlet quietly begging that, in Ophelia’s orisons, all the sins he is about to commit against her be remembered.