William Shakespeare 's Hamlet - Prince Of Denmark

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

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

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.

Throughout the play of Hamlet, there is an emerging of events that occur within Ophelia. She believed she would marry Prince Hamlet even though her father and brother advised her to stay away from him because they knew she was not worthy and that Prince Hamlet would only a predicament in her life. Laertes stated, “Hamlet might love you now, he is subject to his birth” (2640). Her brother also told her before he left for school, “Fear it, Ophelia; fear it, my dear sister, and keep you in the rear of your affection, out of the shot and danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough, if she unmask her beauty to the moon. Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes. The canker galls the infants of the spring too oft before their buttons be disclosed, and in the morn and liquid dew of youth, contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then, best safety lies in fear. Youth to itself rebels, though none else near” (2640-2641). During Laertes speech to Ophelia, he instructed her not to give herself away to Prince Hamlet because no one would seek her anymore, as she would be viewed as used goods. The reader can sense a form of foreshadowing in the play with the domination of men in Ophelia’s life affecting how she handled her various situations with Prince Hamlet. Later, Ophelia is indeed worked by

Midway through Hamlet, Ophelia is well under the control of Polonius and Hamlet. They are both manipulating and using her as a pawn as to get what they want and she has little to no say about it. Act 2, scene 1 serves as a turning point, as it is when Ophelia begins to realize the manipulation she faces at the hands of both her father and Hamlet, and that she can only truly gain her freedom when she herself descends into madness. Polonius’ manipulation, Hamlet’s control and Ophelia’s own thoughts and actions demonstrate her descent, and the aftermath.

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.

During the time of Shakespeare, women did not have as much freedom and power as they do today. In the 1500’s women were dominated by men. Decisions that impacted women were decided by men. This dominance is evident with Ophelia in Hamlet. Ophelia was controlled by her father and brother. They told her to stay away from Hamlet; however, Ophelia wanted to continue to see Hamlet. This is an external conflict that Ophelia faces. The internal conflict Ophelia faces is her continuing love for Hamlet, after their breakup. Ophelia eventually went mad and killed herself because she struggled with an internal and external conflict that eventually overwhelmed her.

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.

Ophelia could no longer could keep herself together. Ophelia burst out in sad songs before her death. These songs were mainly centered around loving Hamlet (and possibly even losing her virginity to him). Ophelia had premarital sex with Hamlet which is a sin, this is a lot of pressure to put on a young woman. Ophelia sings, “Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed. (IV.

Hamlet uses this to his advantage by quickly acting mad. Through his foolishness, he rants and raves to her, convincing her that his madness comes from her.then To Hamlet, she is a sexual object, a corrupt and deceitful lover. With no mother to guide her, she has no way of breaking the opposite expectations. But his intentions are not to actually be with her she would have to go to a nunnery because she got pregnant but was not married. As shown above Hamlet is playing with Ophelia emotions to get what he

Ophelia is shortly affected by the protagonist’s mad conduct. And immediately she goes to her father, Polonius, to explain how she is “so affrighted” as a result of Hamlet’s visit:

of a terrible waste of young life. As a result of the way in which

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, it is clearly evident Prince Hamlet is overcome with “madness” due to his father’s murder and other malicious actions taken against him. Throughout the play, there are many examples of how Hamlet displays his insanity due to certain situations he experiences and how he handles them. Hamlet shows his madness through the killing of Polonius, his treatment of Ophelia, his thoughts of suicide, and the treatment of his mother Gertrude.

When her character is first introduced, Ophelia plays a passive daughter and younger sister. She first listens to her brother Laertes warn her about the dangers of falling in love with a man whose only concern is his own agenda. He advises her to view her relationship with Hamlet as “a violet in the youth of primy nature” – quick to bloom and just as quick to die in an unweeded garden. She then listens to her father give essentially the same

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.