Act Two
Act
Two Scene One
Sub
Scene Two
Virtue
or Virtuous?
"I'm not Meg tonight, I'm a doll' who does all
sorts of crazy things. Tomorrow I shall put away my 'fuss and feathers' and be
desperately good again." (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.). Meg's wealthy friends dress her up to attend a ball, and she flirts and
drinks champagne. When Laurie sees her he expresses his disapproval. She tells
him to lighten up, but later feels ashamed and "confesses" to her
mother that she behaved badly A poor girl getting to enjoy a party hardly seems
like the worst possible behavior, but the moral code of Alcott's novel is
strict.
That
was the reading of Ophelia; a gift once from Hamlet to her. She had marked the
passages in the book to be read many times over. To her, she could relate to
the characters there. Hamlet was her friend for a long time, loving each other
from a distance, or was it a perceived notion of her anyway. She was encouraged
then by her father much earlier but the turn of events with the King’s death
had turned the elderly man to object then.
Why
the sudden change? Laertes had that some years ago when they were celebrating
the coming of age as adults then.
“Why
the sudden change of attitude towards Hamlet? You are his childhood friend, and
upon you going to a different college, you decided he was not to be mine
anymore.” Ophelia had confronted Laertes. “Has he spiked you with your friends
that you demean him now?”
“No, he dares not. He is just not good enough for
you.” Laertes rebuked his sister. “You deserve more.”
“Should that be my decision and not yours?” Ophelia
had questioned her brother. “I have never ticked you off on your ….slutty
friends.”
“Slutty? How dare you call my friends as such.”
Laertes stepped up to the sister. “They are ….virtuous.”
“I am sure but soon the wines hit their brains,
they are all ….slurring at best,” Ophelia said. “Their virtues are thrown wide
like their …vanity.”
“I shall have this conversation with you, Ophelia.
Have your caution on Hamlet. He is not whom you may …assumed. I do care for
you, my sister. I love you very much. If only you could feel it.” That was
Laertes's first argument of many on Hamlet with Ophelia. She will never know
why Laertes disliked their childhood friend of theirs.
“I want to be like Laurie at times but I am not.”
Ophelia had always maintained a virtuous image of herself. She had not kissed
any other except Hamlet. It was only he who had seen her beneath her dress.
“I am virtuous.” Ophelia sighed. “Or am I not?’
It was what drove her to see her father that day.
He was on the headset and she waited like the obedient daughter outside the
chamber. She continued her reading on her marked passages to ease her troubled
mind.
"Money
is a needful and precious thing,--and, when well used, a noble thing,--but I
never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I'd rather
see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented than queens on
thrones, without self-respect and peace." Another passage she marked
in the book.
Money
was never a contention at all. All her expenses were paid by her father, who
served the King. He sent her to the best school; near to the boys then, and
never once reprimanded her for any bad behaviour, which she has none. She did
question the funds in her life one day to her father and his reply was close to
what she read.
“Money
is a needful and precious thing,--and, when well used, a noble thing,--but I
never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I'd rather
see you happy but trust me, money buys more happiness than love. Money can make
you feel more beloved, contented like queens on thrones.”
“Father,
we may have read from the same book but your lines are …different.”
“Ophelia,
I am a playwriter. I have to adjust the script to the moment to appease the
audience.” The proud father smiled. “The audience pays me to do so. That’s what
matter to me.”
“Does
it matter how we shape our view to that of the audience?” Ophelia asked.
“Do
you want to act before an empty hall or one filled with an attentive audience?”
“I
don’t know, Father. I am unsure.”
“That’s
why you are not an actor like Laertes, or…Hamlet? They leaned to the audience.”
“Is
that virtuous?” Ophelia asked.
“Being
virtuous is an act that we all partake in.” The elderly man smiled. Ophelia
remembered leaving her father with one thought.
“Do
I love him or not?”
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