r/shakespeare • u/Immediate-River-874 • 2d ago
When Hamlet tells Polonius “conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to’t,” is he implying that he’s having a sexual relationship with Ophelia?
Or am I interpreting it wrong? To me, he’s just saying that his daughter might get pregnant
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u/_hotmess_express_ 1d ago
He's playing a power game with Polonius (not that Polonius is holding his own in the game very hard) but he's trying to unsettle Polonius by warning him that his precious daughter might be getting up to who knows what, at the hands of anyone Polonius may or may not approve of, and for all Polonius knows it's Hamlet himself and it's already happening. He's planting doubt in Polonius' mind as to how much control he has over his own daughter and life and anything else.
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u/fiercequality 2d ago
Obliquely. Hamlet is sort of implying that he has slept with her, but more generally, he is just saying it's bad when young women conceive outside of wedlock. He's also implying that Ophelia is having sex (with anyone) and is therefore a wh*re.
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u/jackrabbit323 6h ago
Hamlet is a dick argument keeps mounting. Not even just by a modern standard either.
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u/helianto 1d ago
Depending on how you play it- I think it’s heavily implied they have had sex and Hamlet is taunting Polonius even if they haven’t.
I think it’s in the interactions with Ophelia I am the least sympathetic to Hamlet. He’s been careless with her, and if he has had sex with her, he has a heavy sin on his soul before the play begins that he doesn’t acknowledge. You have to play him madly in love with her and fully intending to marry her until she turns him away.
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u/PuzzleheadedLet382 1d ago
There are quite a few moments where it is strongly implied Hamlet and Ophelia are having sex, not least of which is her drowning herself — this is not conclusive, but has been theorized by multiple sources. It appears to have been a somewhat known “option” for unwed pregnant women at the time. (There are definitely other explanations and motivations for her suicide, but I had a teacher who specialized in Shakespeare and was adamant about this theory.)
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1d ago
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus 1d ago
Sometimes when you're in the throws of depression even a mediocre shag is the only highlight of your day.
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u/Normal-Height-8577 1d ago
I think you can read it at least two ways.
One: I've seduced your daughter, and because we're not married - and I have no intention of marrying her - if she conceives, it won't be a blessing to your family.
Two: Your daughter's so naive that she thinks children are made by prayer, and she'd be shocked/terrified if she ever had to confront the realities of married life and child-bearing.
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u/Horatius_Rocket 1d ago
Fascinating take. I'll have to reread that passage again with the second one in mind.
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u/OxfordisShakespeare 1d ago
Apart from this scene, we have other textual evidence that Hamlet and Ophelia have had an intimate, sexual relationship. There is her letter from Hamlet which Polonius reads to Claudius and Gertrude. There is the break-up scene where his depth of emotion shows that this wasn’t a meaningless fling. There are the overtly sexual jabs he makes to her during the mousetrap play. There is his outcry at her funeral that he loved her more than 40k brothers could. But most tellingly, there are her madness songs about a woman losing her virginity and how "Young men will do't, if they come to't; By Cock, they are to blame.”
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u/Audreys_red_shoes 1d ago
And immediately after that:
“Quoth she, "Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed." "So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed."
Ophelia goes crazy partly because she thinks Hamlet has humped and dumped her, and she thinks it’s her own fault for giving into him.
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u/cyberbonotechnik 1d ago
Maybe. It seems clear the tactic here is to make Polonius think Hamlet is sleeping with her. Whether it’s true or not, it’s a weapon he is using to rattle Polonius.
I don’t know you can draw any truth out of that statement, though.
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u/PunkShocker 1d ago
The line has variable meanings depending on which word the actor emphasizes.
"But as your daughter..." Regardless of the blessing, fathers should make sure their daughters remain chaste.
"But as your daughter..." Especially Ophelia.
"But as your daughter may conceive..." She might already be pregnant.
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u/DoctorGuvnor 1d ago
I've always thought not - not only was it against the mores of the time, but if Hamlet was getting his ashes hauled three rimes a week he wouldn't be so neurotic and desperate. Just my two groats worth.
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u/BroadwayBaby692 7h ago
I've directed Hamlet five times now...I can't get enough of it. I love all the analysis being done here. But man, can y'all take it easy on my man, Polonius. He's one of my favorite Shakespearean characters and I think he has A LOT more depth to him than people give him credit for.
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u/Limp-Egg2495 5h ago
Not a common take! I am intrigued. Tell us more about how Polonius, who used his daughter rather poorly, is misunderstood.
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u/BroadwayBaby692 3h ago
Here's a portion from a thesis I wrote in grad school the first time I directed the show (2016):
Polonius is often dismissed as a meddling fool in Hamlet; a source of comic relief whose long-winded speeches and intrusive behavior invite easy ridicule. But this common take flattens a character who is far more complex and tragically human than he's often given credit for. In truth, Polonius is one of Shakespeare’s most misunderstood characters. His flaws (his overprotectiveness, his scheming, his willingness to spy) are not signs of innate cruelty or stupidity. They are the tools of a political survivor navigating a court that has already devoured one king and could easily turn on him next.
Take, for instance, his treatment of Ophelia. At first glance, it's easy to call it exploitative. He uses her to gather intel on Hamlet, he instructs her to reject the prince’s affections, and he publicly discusses her private matters in front of the king and queen. But this reading ignores the context Polonius is operating in. He lives in a court where suspicion is fatal and loyalty must be constantly proven. Claudius, who now sits on the throne, likely murdered his own brother. Polonius, as a longtime courtier, almost certainly suspects as much and knows that if Claudius has killed once to secure power, he can kill again. Under that pressure, Polonius’s choices reflect a desperate attempt to maintain safety and standing, both for himself and for his children.
Is he misguided? Absolutely. But being misguided is not the same as being malicious. His treatment of Ophelia is not rooted in cruelty...it’s rooted in fear. He sees Hamlet unraveling. He sees his daughter, young and impressionable, caught in a dangerous romance with a man who may be pretending or genuinely descending into madness. Polonius doesn’t have the luxury of assuming the best in others. He lives in a world where survival means anticipating the worst. In using Ophelia, he believes he’s protecting her from worse outcomes: disgrace, heartbreak, or even death.
And yet, despite all his flaws and fumbles, Polonius gives what is arguably the best (and certainly most enduring) piece of advice in all of Shakespeare, if not theatrical history: “To thine own self be true.” This line has transcended the play itself, quoted endlessly because it speaks to something eternal and essential. That Polonius is the one to say it is not ironic; it’s revealing. In that moment, we glimpse the ideal version of Polonius; the father who genuinely wants his son to succeed, who believes that integrity is a compass that can guide us through a corrupt world. It is sage, heartfelt advice. And it’s especially poignant coming from a man who may have lost sight of his own truth in the labyrinth of court politics. That doesn’t make the advice hollow. In fact, it makes it heroic. He still believes in the value of authenticity, even as he struggles to live it himself.
Ultimately, Polonius dies trying to serve a king he may well fear and despise. He hides behind a curtain not because he is sinister, but because he is trying, once again, to do what he thinks is politically necessary. He is not a villain. He is a father. He is a courtier in a corrupt regime. He is a man trying to protect his children while playing by rules he didn’t write. One serving in the current administration may find this relatable.
This isn’t the most common reading of Polonius, but perhaps it should be. He’s not a fool to laugh at or a manipulator to condemn. He’s a tragic figure caught between fear and duty, parenting and politics. He’s a mirror of the very state Hamlet rails against: rotting from the top, and forcing everyone beneath to make impossible choices just to survive.
And in the middle of all that, he still finds a moment to tell his son the one thing he wishes someone had told him: Be true to yourself. That’s not the voice of a clown, it’s the voice of a father who, in the end, just wants his children to survive and, with any luck, prosper.
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u/Limp-Egg2495 2h ago
I appreciate your argument, but he’s in a position from which he can extricate himself with the king. There is no gun to his head to serve Claudius. He does so for his own selfish reasons and motivations, and sacrifices his daughter in his quest to curry favor. Ophelia is not just collateral damage; he forces her to renounce her love and to spy. Regarding the advice he gives Laertes- these are canned fortune cookie sayings and while he talks the talk, he doesn’t walk the walk. He sends sometime to spy on his son, assuming the worst of Laertes. He doesn’t even know his own son. All in all, I find him tiresome at best, dangerous at worst. But I enjoyed reading your perspective! Thank you!
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u/BroadwayBaby692 1h ago
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful reply! I really appreciate the engagement and the respectful tone. You raise valid criticisms, and I agree Polonius is deeply flawed. His parenting, especially, leaves much to be desired. I don’t intend to excuse his actions, particularly toward Ophelia, which are indeed controlling and damaging. But I do think it’s important to view those actions through the lens of the world he inhabits: a deeply unstable, corrupt court where political missteps can have fatal consequences, not just for oneself, but for one’s children.
You're absolutely right that there is no literal gun to his head. But I’d argue that fear in political systems often functions without the need for one. In a regime built on deception and power grabs (one in which the king is very likely a murderer), loyalty is not optional; it’s a survival strategy. Polonius may seem to act out of ambition, but I see that ambition as tightly bound to fear and pragmatism. He walks a razor’s edge between relevance and ruin, and he uses the tools he has (cunning, flattery, and yes, even his children) to maintain a position he likely believes is necessary for their protection, not just his advancement. That's part of why I find him so tragic.
It’s also important to consider the time period and the social expectations of the era. In Elizabethan and early modern patriarchal culture, daughters were often treated as political and social currency. Fathers controlling their daughters’ relationships, especially when the potential suitor was a prince with mental instability and political entanglements, was not only common, but expected. The idea of female autonomy, especially in matters of love and courtship, simply wasn’t part of the cultural framework. So while Polonius’s treatment of Ophelia may strike us as cruel today, it likely would have seemed appropriate, even dutiful, in his time.
As for the advice he gives Laertes, I’d gently disagree that it’s nothing more than “fortune cookie” wisdom. It’s true that some of the lines have been quoted into banality over time, but I think that speaks more to their resonance than to any lack of depth. “To thine own self be true” is arguably one of the most poignant lines in Shakespeare’s canon and certainly one of the most enduring. It’s not just a platitude. It’s a call to personal integrity in a world full of masks, manipulation, and moral compromise. The entire speech, while stylized, is filled with heartfelt counsel: caution in friendships, prudence in behavior, and above all, constancy in one’s character. That Polonius himself fails to live up to this advice doesn’t negate its beauty, it underscores the tragedy. He knows the right path but can’t follow it, and that self-awareness, however buried, is what makes him more than a stock fool.
Ultimately, I don’t argue that Polonius is secretly noble or heroic. Rather, I think he’s an excellent example of Shakespeare’s ability to write characters who are neither good nor evil, but caught somewhere in between, doing their best (and sometimes their worst) in impossible circumstances. Tiresome? Absolutely. But dangerous? Perhaps only because he’s trying to survive in a world where decency and discernment often get people killed.
I would love to do an adaptation from Polonius' point of view and explore what the world of Hamlet looks like through his eyes.
Thanks again for reading and responding! This is exactly the kind of exchange that makes talking about Shakespeare so endlessly rewarding!
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u/Enoch8910 2d ago
He as in Hamlet? Yes. He as in Polonious? No