Ophelia Character Analysis

At one point in time, Ophelia was one who Hamlet truly loved and trusted. Ophelia comes and speaks to hamlet to return his gifts from her but Hamlet immediately realizes that something is wrong and finds out that Ophelia is being used by Claudius and Polonius to spy on him to find out the real reason of Hamlet’s facade of madness. After realizing this, Hamlet is incensed and acts as if he is truly insane. Hamlet is clearly hurt because of the fact that Ophelia has been as a pawn in Claudius’ game. The effects of the matter cause him to verbally abuse Ophelia and rejects her love by saying that they will never get married and also degrades women. At this point Hamlet is raged and does not understand how harsh his words can be to a woman, especially a human being in general. In conclusion, the death of Hamlet’s father had looked like as if it has not even affected his mother which he so dearly loved and the one true love he thought he had, seems to him as deceiving and just a pawn for his enemies. These factors continue to diminish the subordinate attitude that Hamlet has towards

By his cockle hat and staff and his sandal shoon.” (V. IV. 23-26) This shows how Ophelia has became crazy over Hamlet’s inability to show affection towards her and him rejecting her. Ophelia’s madness soon spirals into her commuting suicide by drowning herself in the river. This can be linked to Nietzche’s statement that there is some madness in love, as Ophelia’s love for Hamlet caused her to become crazy. Hamlet also shows signs of madness due to his relationship with Ophelia. Throughout the play it is unknown to the audience if Hamlet truly has feelings for Ophelia. It is not until Act V that the audience becomes aware of Hamlet’s true feelings when he finds out about Ophelia’s death, Hamlet states, “ I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?” (V.I. 255-257) This shows how Hamlet become mad with rage and sorrow as he hears of her death, finally revealing his true feelings. This relates to Nietzche’s statement that there is some madness in love, as Hamlet has not been able to show his true feeling for Ophelia, and once he become aware of her death he is filled with sorrow. This madness is shown when Hamlet develops a plan to fool everyone to thinking he is crazy.

In another scene, Polonius orders Ophelia to return the gifts that Hamlet gave her, and to make her rejection of him unmistakable and absolute. Polonius believes that if she is the cause of Hamlet’s madness, this would be the proof. “That Hamlet loses his mental stability is arguable from his behavior toward Ophelia…” (Foster, par.16) In Branagh’s version, we see how terribly this tears Ophelia’s heart. When Hamlet sees her, he walks up to her, telling her how much he loves her. After Hamlet kisses her, she returns the love letters that he wrote back to him. She sees how crushed he is, which makes her feel even worse; but she also believes she has to do this because her father ordered her to. Hamlet tells her “Get thee to a nunnery” (William

She falls in love with Hamlet, but begins turning away from him because he has become mad from losing his father; yet, no one can figure out why. Ophelia has empathy for Hamlet, but does not really experience his pain until her own father is killed. Ophelia instantly turns crazy from the shock of losing her father so suddenly. Her form of grief shows that she really cares for her father, and he was truly all she had. The news that Ophelia is losing her mind spreads throughout the kingdom and the queen starts to become concerned. As Gertrude is talking with the gentleman about Ophelia, he explains to her that, “She speaks much of her father, says she hears/ There’s tricks i’ the world, and hems and beats her hear,/ Spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt” (IV.v.4-6). He is explaining that since her father’s death, she has become to hate the world she lives in realizing that it has nothing to offer her. Gertrude and Claudius also realize that her father must have meant a great deal to her to cause her to respond like this. Claudius says, “O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs/ All from her father’s death” (IV.v.81-82). At the end, she commits suicide by drowning because she did not believe the suffering was worth being alive. Her grief was too strong and this is because she was attached to him by love. To lose someone she truly loved broke her

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

The character Ophelia is a young attractive woman. Hamlet finds her extremely beautiful with an innocence that keeps him wanting her. Ophelia sees the relationship as young love while Hamlet sees the relationship as a physical lust. Polonius, her father and Laertes her brother, do not agree with the relationship of Hamlet and Ophelia, shown early on in the play in act 1 scene 3 Laertes says, “Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will, but you must fear.” She fell in love

In contrast to Hamlet, Ophelia did in fact go crazy for many reasons, one being Hamlet’s madness. After “going mad,” Hamlet taunts Ophelia numerous times when he says things like, “I could interpret between you and your love,/ if I could see the puppets dallying” (Ⅲ.Ⅱ). It is Hamlet’s statements that leave Ophelia embarrassed and confused, which eventually lead her to madness. She becomes so distressed by the thought of Hamlet’s incapability to love her back. When Ophelia went mad, even a gentleman just passing by noticed how “she speaks things in doubt,/ that carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing” (Ⅳ.Ⅴ). When Ophelia loses it, she really goes insane. Her words only make sense “half” of the time as if she is only half there in her brain as well. Ophelia is pitied by most people who come into contact with her and when she dies, Gertrude justifies Ophelia’s death by saying that she was “incapable of her own distress” (Ⅳ.Ⅶ). The amount of pity that Ophelia received is so much that “Poor Ophelia” is mentioned twice in act four. While Ophelia’s madness becomes a pity party, Hamlet’s madness is seen as strange and unusual. Ophelia became mad because of her confusion inflicted by Hamlet.

Hamlet is a tragic play that is focused on Hamlet’s attempt to try and avenge his father 's death. A huge tragedy of the play surrounds a character Ophelia and Hamlet’s relationship with the young woman. Ophelia made people concerned and uneasy during the “mad scene.” The death of Ophelia was described in the play, but the Queen did narrate on it a little. She could have been a lovesick mad woman, she may had been grieving from the loss of her father, or everything going on in her life may had just finally pushed her to her limits (Maki 1). When Laertes called Ophelia “a document in madness” he is referring to her speech, her singing, and what was emerging from this was suicidal insanity.

In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, is seen as a fair maiden who wants her love with Hamlet to be eternal. Due to the many warnings from her father Polonius and her brother Laertes, she succumbs to her father’s wishes and plays the role of a good daughter, thus betraying Hamlet. Previously in the play where Hamlet gives his soliloquy on life and death, Ophelia has been ordered to break off her relationship with Hamlet while Polonius eavesdrops to prove that Hamlet has truly gone mad. As a result of Hamlet’s supposed madness and Ophelia’s docile character during the confrontation, both of their fragile hearts shatter and Ophelia begins her dark descent into madness, leading to her eventual death.

Was Ophelia in love with Hamlet, or did she have more feeling for her father than for her boyfriend? In Shakespeare’s Hamlet was Ophelia’s madness contributed to by the prince’s rejection of her? The answers to these and other questions about this tragic figure will be given.

64. As opposed to Hamlet’s madness by becoming too consumed within his own thoughts of revenge, Ophelia’s madness stems from her loss of identity. Though both characters had lost their fathers, Hamlet maintained his individuality, whereas Ophelia, without her sense of duty, has been rendered unto nothing. Ophelia is not the tragic hero that Hamlet is, she serves merely as a plot point and a foil to Gertrude in her purity and lack of selfhood. Ophelia is a damsel left to wallow in her tragic fate as no one comes to her rescue.

The Foils are secondary characters that have differences or mutual things with the main characters, and they also help to give more protagonist to the principal character. Hamlet has different foils, and one of them is Laertes. Laertes is put in the play as the antagonist of the play. Laertes and Hamlet have a mutual feeling, revenge. Both of them want to take revenge for the death of their respective fathers.

Through Hamlet, William Shakespeare reveals that madness is driven by different factors, and whether someone is truly mad depends on their inner self and life struggles. In the play the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia are both mad. Shakespeare uses archetypal characters to compare one who is driven to madness and one who is only pretending. Ophelia is the “good girl who has gone mad”.

Ophelia was in a bad situation throughout the play, leaving her without much control of her life. She was not able to fix things between her and Hamlet because Polonius, her father, prohibited her from seeing him. She was subject to the rule of her father above all else. This contributes to Hamlets “act” of being crazy. She blames herself for Hamlet's

As a result of spending her life under the protection of her father and his orders, due to her submissive nature, Ophelia remains naive and unaware of the deceit and bitterness surrounding her which renders her incapable of facing the harsh realities of life once her father dies and Hamlet leaves her. After the death of her father and with the absence of both Laertes and Hamlet from her life at the time, Ophelia is driven to madness and Gertrude explains it the King: “She speaks much of her father, says she hears there’s tricks i ' the ' world, and hems, and beats her heart, spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt that carry but half sense.” Finally seeing the grim reality of her surroundings without her father to hide behind, Ophelia loses her sanity and eventually end her own life as she no longer knows how to lead an independent life. In conclusion, Ophelia is portrayed as a puppet on strings being pulled around by the males in her life, making all her decisions and controlling what she can and can’t do, and once all the men are gone, she no longer able to function on her own and she ends her life as a result.