Get thee to a nunnery

[Hgrove]

Forgive my ignorance but I think this is something that Hamlet tells Ophelia.  Could someone tell me why and the context please?

[auntie sar]

From the little I remember from school ...

Nunneries in mediaeval times were not always the saintly places you might think them. Illegitmate children born to nuns were fairly common and some nunneries were even known to operate as "houses of ill repute".

I think Hamlet is calling Ophelia as bit og a psychotic nympho and telling her to go to a brothel.

[dafyd]

Ophelia = psychotic nympho. Novel interpretation... but I like it!

[Quizmonster]

He says these words to Ophelia immediately after his 'To be or not to be' speech (Act III ScI). That is, he has been contemplating suicide and death, so he is not at his most mentally stable. In addition, he has been playing the madman in any case, so this may be real or a pretence.. He claims to see himself as a sinner and a knave and all other men as the same, so he asks her why she would wish to give birth to such creatures by marrying. Also he feels women are treacherous, too - remember, his own mother has married his father's murderer. Consequently, any notion of love between the sexes is absurd and thus: "Get thee to a nunnery."