Essay On Ophelia

The story of Hamlet is a morbid tale of tragedy, commitment, and manipulation; this is especially evident within the character of Ophelia. Throughout the play, Ophelia is torn between obeying and following the different commitments that she has to men in her life. She is constantly torn between the choice of obeying the decisions and wishes of her family or that of Hamlet. She is a constant subject of manipulation and brain washing from both her father and brother. Ophelia is not only subject to the torture of others using her for their intentions but she is also susceptible to abuse from Hamlet. Both her father and her brother believe that Hamlet is using her to achieve his own personal goals.

Hamlet was deeply in love with the recently departed fair Ophelia, daughter of Polonious, who also sadly is not with us. He loved her much more than he expressed, and it is unfortunate that his inability to express his love for her could have been part of her downfall. Although he treated her scornfully and rudely I know that he loved her more than anyone could imagine. Hamlet, I remember, at the dear Ophelia’s funeral, you told the whole world of your love. “I loved Ophelia. 40 thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love make up my sum,” you said. I cannot help but think that if you had expressed your love for the fair maiden, both her and quite possibly you would still be with us today. He loved his mother, Queen Gertrude. Although he held her in disdain for her hasty marriage to Claudius, who he despised, he still loved her with all his heart

Even though Ophelia has a fondness for Hamlet, she listens to her father when he tells her to leave Hamlet alone. Conclusion.

When Hamlet learns that his father was murdered and that his stepfather is the killer, it is more than he can handle. This news drives him mad as Ophelia's news of her father's death does to her. It is how the two characters deal with their madness that leads to the differences between them.

Ophelia tries to obscure the truth because she is afraid of disobeying her father. It is obvious that Hamlet is already well aware that Polonius is watching after he states “Let the doors be shut upon him, the he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house.”(3.1.132-133) Ophelia could have easily told Hamlet the truth, but due to her undying love for her father chooses to deceive Hamlet. Ophelia’s deceit leads Hamlet to start questioning her honest nature. Hamlet begins tearing apart by Ophelia because he is so irritated with her for being insincere to him. He states to Ophelia that “you should not have believed me: for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.” (3.1.117-119) Hamlet states that he does not love Ophelia because he believes that through this scheme, Ophelia will reveal the truth that Polonius is in fact behind their “unplanned” meeting. Ophelia had betrayed Hamlet by lying to him, thus Hamlet felt the need to betray her. If Ophelia had just been honest with Hamlet he would have not become so discourteous towards her, but she was not which resulted in him denying his love for her. Just as Hamlet was deceived, Ophelia was also because it was her lies that led to the ending of their love. Ophelia’s dishonesty resulted in her becoming a mockery of Hamlets antic disposition. Hamlet uses Ophelia to uncover

Making use of her dutiful and obedient personality, Hamlet victimizes Ophelia and her lack of resistance to his treatment is paralleled in her surrender to the water and subsequent drowning. In a fit of rage, Hamlet angrily denounces Ophelia and claims to have fallen out of love with her:

   Poor Ophelia, she lost her lover, her father, her mind, and, posthumously, her brother. Ophelia is the only truly innocent victim in Hamlet. This essay will examine Ophelia's downward spiral from a chaste maiden to nervous wreck.

He therefore had to act mad even when talking to her because he realized his every move was being watched. This is evident when he told her he is not in love with her and that he never loved her. These statements by Hamlet caused him to inadvertently hurt Ophelia to such a great extent that she committed suicide. As a result, Hamlet was forced to permanently sacrifice his true love out of concern for his own safety and his goal.

Throughout the play, Hamlet and Ophelia have a very strong love connection. They loved each other and wanted to eventually get married. Hamlet and Ophelia hit some bumps in the road in their relationship but they always secretly wanted to be together. In Act 1, Scene 3, It was hard for Ophelia to comprehend when Polonius told her that he thought Hamlet's love for her wasn’t real, but she didn’t know what to believe. When Hamlet could no longer see Ophelia he began to get mad a frustrated, to add on also that he was going crazy over his own father's death.

Ophelia, ever since her introduction, has been introduced to be a sweet and sympathetic person, providing the play with emotional moments, but her death was used as a bait and switch by Shakespeare towards audience members who had expected her to change the play’s somber mood to more hopeful one, which in turn makes the play even more tragic. After she had been visited by an apparently crazed Hamlet, she tells Polonius about the visit, prompting him to believe that the young prince is crazy in love, and goes out to tell the king. After it was explained to Claudius, and Hamlet’s former friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern failed to find the underlying cause of his madness, Polonius makes Ophelia approach Hamlet while he and the king hide and monitor his behavior.

Hamlet first seeks Ophelia’s love. Then he pretends to have “gone crazy,” or so everyone thinks he has but he really is putting on a show after planning his revenge. He wants to use Ophelia to his advantage to make himself look crazy because everything she sees and hears from Hamlet will be told to her father, like she is told to do. So, Hamlet shows himself to her in a very sad and depressed state (Maki). She begins to tell her father, “And with a look so piteous in purport/ as if he had been loosed out of hell / to speak of horrors” (II.i. 82-84).

When Polonius tells Ophelia to repel Hamlet's advances, she promises to obey. And it is only after their fathers are killed that Hamlet and Ophelia begin to act mad.

at her father’s request. Ophelia exaggerates her love for Hamlet, so her father can prove to the

There are a few other incidents in the play which help develop Ophelia’s madness. When Hamlet receives the letter from Ophelia, he is affected terribly by her words. The next time she sees Hamlet she is surprised and even a bit frightened by his behavior. He did not look like he usually does, and he acted very strange towards her. Hamlet harms her wrists, and gives many scolding looks upon her. After that she tells her father, and he believes that Ophelia’s love is what made him mad. "That hath made him mad" (II. i.110). Polonius then goes to tell the King and Queen of Hamlet s strange behavior. Polonius plans to spy on Hamlet to prove he’s gone mad. Ophelia is now left feeling guilty. When she sees Hamlet later, she tries to speak with him, but is rejected coldly. He does not listen to her, and screams harsh words, leaving her feeling worthless and embarrassed. " I loved you not." (III.i.119). "Get thee to a nunnery." (III.i.121) " you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and

Hamlet faced many obstacles that led him to question his art of love. He witnessed his own mother marry the brother of her dead husband, months after his death. His mother's deceiving behavior made him incredibly weary of love and poisoned his idea of it. He winds up transferring a lot of this anger -- already poised to hop from one woman to another -- to Ophelia. As he has lost his faith in his beloved mother, he lost his faith in Ophelia because those were the two most important female roles he had. Hamlet is dangerously strict about love