I suddenly thought, what if Ophelia had been charged with writing down all that Hamlet said. Like, what if, after she indulges in some “woe is me,” she has to sit down and try and transcribe the whole scene for her father.
What if, the whole time Claudius and Polonius are talking, she’s busily writing and remembering what Hamlet said. Maybe editing out a few choice phrases she wouldn’t want her father to see. And then JUST as she’s offering up this piece of text to her father, he rejects it with this.
The Hamlet Project 