Ophelia In Hamlet

In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, the character Ophelia is very controversial due to the fact that Shakespeare places her as the focus inside the minds of all the men in her life such as Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet. Although Ophelia may appear to just be a beautiful, weak girl, she has the ability to gain power and attention over all of the men in her life. Throughout the play, Ophelia does not have much of a voice while also being mistreated and emotionally abused by her boyfriend Hamlet. Although Ophelia does not express her opinions and emotions publicly, she propels the plot along by influencing major events. Ophelia’s weak, indecisive, and obedient personality allows her to progress the plot by Shakespeare making her the focus of the men in

In medieval times, the word of the man of the house, in this case being Polonius was to be obeyed by the women of the residence. Also the word of the husband is held to a similar standard. Therefore, Ophelia would have felt an obligation to obey both Hamlet and her father. This however, creates controversy within Ophelia herself due to her commitment to both her father and her unnecessary commitment to Hamlet. Her passion for Hamlet seems to be diffused by her greater sense of commitment to her father. Ophelia is not entirely true to Hamlet in that she lies to Hamlet and tells him that her father is at home when he is actually behind a curtain listening in on the conversation. This is evidence that Ophelia is not able to operate and maintain sanity under the pressure from both sources. In her choice of obedience to her father, she in a sense has chosen the course of her fate (which is inevitable doom). But does Ophelia fulfill the requirements of her day as a woman? One way of looking at the issue is the question that was Ophelia driven insane by her desire and love for Hamlet, or was she merely a casualty of a culture that creates unfeasible demands from women? Due to her incapability to create her own decisions, she is vulnerable to the influence of her father and brother and

The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, looks at the issue of madness and how it effects the characters of the play. Madness can be looked at from very different perspectives, such as strong and uncontrollable emotions, a person’s desires, and also a persons mental stability. Throughout the play, the audience is questioning the sanity of the main character, Hamlet, as he goes on his quest for revenge. The people around him also show signs of madness, such as Ophelia and Claudius, but in different forms. Existentialist philosopher Friedrich Nietzche says, “There is always some madness in love. But there is also some reason in madness.” What Nietzche is saying is that when you are in love with someone or something, there is always a little

Even in death, she displays yielding and passive behavior: Ophelia does not have the intention of committing suicide, though she fails to save herself from sinking. She is essentially a casualty of a society that enforces unreasonable expectations for its women and is never afforded the liberty of thinking for herself and making her own judgments and decisions. Her passive death represents the lack of control she has over her own person and the dependence she has developed on other people. Therefore, Ophelia is mentally unstable and not capable of realizing that her life is on the line. Ophelia is trained by the men in her life to be compliant with their demands, preventing her from practicing her autonomy and enabling her to be easily manipulated by Hamlet.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static character in the play. Instead of changing through the course of the play, she remains suffering in the misfortunes perpetrated upon her. She falls into insanity and dies a tragic death. Ophelia has issues surviving without a male influence, and her downfall is when all the men in her life abandon her. Hamlet’s Ophelia, is a tragic, insane character that cannot exist on her own.

There are many examples of when a women needed a man by her side to feel otherwise. For example the play Hamlet, Ophelia as a figure who is incomplete or incapable by herself, she needed her father to tell her what and what not to do. In act I scene III King Polonius tells Ophelia that he is not allowed to be with Hamlet. “For Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him, that he is young And with a larger tether may he walk Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, The better to beguile. This is for all: I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Have you so slander any moment leisure, As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to 't, I charge you: come your ways (Act 1 Scene 3).” King Polonius does not want Ophelia to marry Hamlet because Hamlet is royalty and Ophelia is not. Royalty are supposed to marry into

Throughout the book, Ophelia is saddened as she watches Hamlet deteriorate in his grief, and when these feelings are accompanied by her father’s death, her condition escalates to a point where even stage directions read, “Enter Ophelia, distracted” (4.5.19). When translated to more modern language, this reads “Enter Ophelia, insane” and her aloofness in the following scene portrays how strained she is as she struggles to bottle up all the pain she is experiencing. Ophelia’s state only intensifies as the story continues, and eventually the Queen explains that Ophelia has fallen into a river and drowned (4.7.162-180). Given the circumstances, this “drowning” can be interpreted as a suicide, which for readers, depicts an exaggeration of the internalization of

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be read as a feminist play given Ophelia’s experiences within the Danish society. Through Ophelia’s interactions with the men of the play, the audience can see that the male-dominated society brings inequality, distrust, and destruction. As Ophelia interacts with her brother, her father, and Hamlet, she is completely unable to assert her own independence, and her lack of personal autonomy eventually drives her to madness. These three men all deny Ophelia’s individuality and desire for self-control because they are accustomed to their male-dominated world. However, once Ophelia is driven to madness, she is regarded as an individual and finally has political and social power. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a feminist play located within a misogynistic culture that Ophelia struggles to escape.

Although Ophelia was a minor character in the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, almost everything that happened in the play directly affected her. She was forced to stop seeing her boyfriend by her father, her boyfriend “went mad” for her love and eventually her father was murdered by her boyfriend. All of these things really took a toll young Ophelia and caused her to go mad. There are many differing arguments from scholars as to why Ophelia decided to commit suicide. Many think it solely had to do with the death of her father while others believe it was a result of her breakup with Hamlet.

This is the woman she might have become – warm, tolerant and imaginative. Instead she becomes jagged, benighted and imaginative. . . .Ophelia is made mad not only by circumstance but by something in herself. A personality forced into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfully open to impressions that they now usurp her reflexes and take possession of her. She has loved, or been prepared to love, the wrong man; her father has brought disaster on himself, and she has no mother: she is terribly lonely. (73-74)

Additionally, as Ophelia breaks out into “temper tantrums”, some people such as Mrs. Jameson, author of Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical, use these pieces of information to characterize Ophelia as having a childlike disposition. Referred to as being reverted back to having the mentality of a child, by participating in such childish and almost innocent types of activities, there is no possible way her suicide was intentional, but more like accidental because of her psyche. On the other hand, Barbara Smith thinks that it could be either intentional or accidental. Because of her lack of action to save herself it could be looked upon as intentional (“the time spent “‘chaunt[ing] snatches of old lauds’” before her clothing became saturated”), but also accidental because she had an unstable mindset (Smith). From the beginning, Ophelia had been portrayed as an innocent and delicate beauty who had not much to say, a relatively minor character.

To begin with, Ophelia is a character from the Shakespeare classic Hamlet. She is perceived as a young woman who is kind hearted and obedient towards the male characters within the story. These characteristics cause her to be seen as the victim of the male characters who revolve around the story of Hamlet.

In the relationship between her and Hamlet, he desired her like bait. He only showed lust for her, and wanted her to fulfill his sexual desires. “The majority of the critics have viewed Ophelia as a week character, in both form and function, and many have dismissed her as a woman … she has been consistently viewed as the least complex of the principal characters of Hamlet, the least useful.” (Resetarits). Ophelia loses her identity as a woman as she becomes a pawn to the men.

as these lines relate back to the development of Ophelia’s character, as well as play an important role in the plot of the play, and a major conflict that is portrayed.

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.