Ophelia, By William Shakespeare

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.

Because of all the men in her life using her, Ophelia soon becomes confused. Dane tells about Ophelia's descent to growing confused in "Reading Ophelia's Madness. She states, "Male voices fill her head, guiding her very thoughts [...] she grows more and more confused, more sundered from any sense of

Ophelia was such an innocent character. She was young and naïve. Ophelia was faced with many dilemmas. She was in a relationship with Prince Hamlet, who was very distracted and eventually went mad himself. Ophelia’s madness started with an overbearing, over protective father. He controlled Ophelia and used her with out thinking of her feelings, “I must tell you, you do not understand yourself so clearly…What is

The noble and innocent youth Ophelia tries her hardest to obey/impress her elders. Prince Hamlet and Ophelia have a complicated relationship in which they have on and off’s. At the beginning Ophelia’s love for Prince Hamlet is strong but she has to keep her innocence/ obedience

   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.

Ophelia is Hamlet’s love interest throughout the entire play. However, in an attempt to be strategic, Hamlet feigns insanity in order to be deceiving and in turn breaks Ophelia's heart. His sudden disinterest towards her coupled with her father Polonius and brother Laertes’ commands to stay away from Hamlet composes a dire internal conflict within Ophelia's mind. She is torn between her undying love for Hamlet versus her desire to be an obedient daughter and sister. In addition, Hamlet unintentionally murders Polonius rather than Claudius, which also adds to Ophelia's insanity. To make matter worse, Ophelia has no mother figure within her life. So taken all together, she is stuck in a constant battle within herself with nobody who is there for her. “I hope all will be well. We must be patient/ but I cannot choose but weep/ to think they would lay him/ i' th' cold ground” (Hamlet v, iv). This quote from Ophelia demonstrates her deep sorrow towards her father's death, as well as the start of her path to insanity. Her lack of a maternal figure leaves her with nobody to discuss her feelings and troubles with. Because of this constant battle within her life, Ophelia finds herself in a confrontation with her emotions, which ends in her official decision of suicide. Which one could argue makes her decisive in the end which may be true, but her internal struggle leading to her choice of suicide is what makes her a great example of a character struggling with uncertainty during times of

Hamlet, a Shakespearean character, constantly struggles in a battle with his mind. He leads a very trying life that becomes too much for him to handle. Hamlet experiences hardships so horrible and they affect him so greatly that he is unable escape his dispirited mood. In speaking what he feels, Hamlet reveals his many symptoms of depression, a psychological disorder. While others can move on with life, Hamlet remains in the past. People do not understand his behavior and some just assume he is insane. However, Hamlet is not insane. He only pretends to be mad. Because Hamlet never receives treatment for his disorder, it only gets worse and eventually contributes to his death.

This passage conveys the first and only sparks of defiance from Ophelia. When her father gave her similar advice, she caved in and agreed to his wishes. She was playing the role of the typical Elizabethan female, women who were expected to be submissive and weak. Ophelia simply wanted to make the men in her life happy, however, and those sparks of rebellion were soon extinguished.

 In similar fashion does Ophelia manifest great familial affection, agreeing to comply with the advice of her brother Laertes: “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep / As watchman to my heart.”  When her father, Polonius, makes inquiry regarding the “private time” which Hamlet has been giving to Ophelia, she replies unreservedly, “He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders / Of his affection to me,” and elaborates mightily on the subject. Polonius insists that she “from this time forth” not “give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet,” and Ophelia dutifully complies with his wishes: “I shall obey, my lord.” She later even gives him her love-letters from Hamlet. When she acts as a decoy so that Polonius and Claudius can observe the prince, resulting in Ophelia’s chastisement by the protagonist, she nevertheless keeps him as the main focus in her life: “O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!” Her love for brother, father, boyfriend, and others generally, override her love of self. Her respect for the opinions of immediate family is greater than her respect for her own opinions even in the matter of her courtship.

Her life is dominated not only by her boyfriend's royalty and his overbearing family, but also by the Tabloid who hound them wherever they go. They have been best of friends as long as they have been alive. Hamlet is the only guy Ophelia had ever loved. Ophelia and hamlet had an on and off relationship which mean that they are not fully committed to each other and did not trust each other because of what the tabloid say about them. For instance, the tabloid published pictures of Hamlet with another girl which ended their relationship and other example is when Hamlet and Ophelia were arguing, the tabloid expose them and that led the breakup. In order for them to have a future together she knew that she had to stop letting things get into her

As soon as Ophelia acknowledges her father’s death at the hands of Hamlet, her sanity is killed by despair. Her most spiritual assets are gone for ever: the dear father and the love for Hamlet. Ophelia and Gertrude are very unlike; Ophelia is just a victim of conventional moral standard. She is so weak to fight for her love, and her mind is easily bendable by her father and her brother. In her madness, she sings a Valentine song about a girl appears early in the morning at the window of a man to be the man’s Valentine (All in the morning betime… To be your Valentine.). The man then takes advantage of her (Let in the maid, that out a maid), promises to marry her, and after that he pulls a trick on her. He would have married her, if (thou

Overwhelmed by outside forces and her repressed love for Hamlet, Ophelia is truly a sad and remorseful character in this play, an innocent victim with little essence or depth. An evident victimized woman, ruled by her Renaissance sense of romantic love, it can further be argued that Ophelia was extremely ambiguous. She was too incompetent to decide what she really desired in life. Because she falls in love with Hamlet at a very young age she cannot truly comprehend what love is all about, even though there is strong evidence that Ophelia had sexual relations with Hamlet. Hamlet emphasizes the hypocrisy of his words

Ophelia, the love interest of Prince Hamlet, is displayed as being obedient to her father, Polonius, and her brother, Laertes. Both of them instructed her to disregard Hamlet’s affections, saying “his affection will fade after a minute,” (1.3.8) and Ophelia should not “mistake that for true love,” (1.3.119-120). Ophelia, staying true to the obedient role of women at the time, listened to her father

In Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, Ophelia is a young woman raised in a society which doesn’t value the voices and opinions of young woman and in her household this is especially true. She is raised by an overbearing father who wishes her to be the perfect daughter while is also asked to be a romantic interest for young Hamlet. Ophelia is left in a repressive household causing her to lose any way of self expression. Ophelia, an obiediant niave young girl, is taught to repress her feelings and thoughts while held to insanely high standards placed upon from male judgment and from her role as a woman in her society.

Women were given the roles of providing pleasant domesticity in the household, and it was ideal for them to be submissive, gentle, and lacking in ambition. Her love for Hamlet is untouched even by his dismissive, careless treatment of her in the play, and she is so loyal in her affection that it becomes a major factor that leads to her suicide. Ophelia is readily comparable to Shakespeare’s similar heroine, Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet. Both are remembered as heartbroken young women whose identities relied on the men around them , both lacking any sense of power and being merely victims of their own fates and plights.