4. The term nunnery carries with it a double meaning. Literally, it is a convent; in Elizabethan slang, it was a brothel. Thus, Hamlet's urging to ¨get thee to a nunnery¨ has a few implications. Discuss what Hamlet is speaking about in this: ¨I have heard of your paintings. . .To a nunnery, go¨ (144-152).

In this scene, Hamlet is often assumed to be shamming insanity as a part of his elaborate plan to avenge his father's murder. Even if this interpretation is correct, it cannot mitigate or excuse his abusiveness to Ophelia. The word "paintings" in this context means the use of cosmetics. This is why he says,

God has given you one face and you make yourselves another.

As his descriptions continue, he seems to be condemning not only Ophelia but women in general for simply being attractive. There is clearly an ugly streak of misogyny in Hamlet's character, which comes through in this scene more than anywhere else. The double entendre of "nunnery" is the clincher of this line of thought. Hamlet is against marriage and sexuality:

I say we will have no more marriages. Those that are already married, all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.

Apart from his veiled apparent threat against Claudius ("all but one, shall live"), the whole point of these lines seems to be anti-women and anti-sex. If he wishes Ophelia to take vows and go into an actual nunnery, it's because he wishes her to renounce sex, as he apparently intends to do himself. But if by nunnery he also means a brothel, his point is the misogynist judgment of Ophelia as a prostitute. In either case it is a startlingly abusive tirade, leaving Ophelia completely devastated.