Ophelia Essay

Hamlet Through A Feminist Lens Hamlet can be viewed through a feminist lens by focusing on Ophelia and Gertrude and how various other male characters treat them. Ophelia and Gertrude are dismissed as characters through the entire play because they are women. Hamlet refers to women as “frailty,” implying that they are weak and are dependent on men. Reason suggests that with out the males, Ophelia and Gertrude would simply have no story. Within the first scene of Hamlet the reader discovers that

bottom (3.1 169-170, 174-175). Once Ophelia has reached this point, she is changed forever. She has now seen the evil depths of love and it only takes her father’s death to send her into madness which she displays in Act 4. Scene 5. when she distractedly appears before the Queen singing of death. From this point on Ophelia is lost and only speaks in rhymes until she exits and commits suicide, indirectly stated by Gertrude’s message to the king that Ophelia has “drowned”. Thus, we see Ophelia’s

about the forbidden love of Hamlet and Ophelia. To the mere observer the drama that unfolds between Hamlet and Ophelia may just look like the struggle an average couple might have when falling out of love, but through deeper analysis we see a more complex plot at play, carefully planted by the author. Shakespeare intended to strike contradicting thoughts into the audience and through this deeper analysis we will find the truth. Though it may seem like Ophelia is just another girl to Hamlet like when

Hamlet’s romantic feelings towards Ophelia. The tones that permeate this scene are passionate, indignant and desperate. Hamlet’s evident hurt after Ophelia’s betrayal and subsequent return of his love letters shows us the romantic feelings he still feels for her. He tries to fool everyone else, especially within Polonius’ earshot; therefore he lashes out against Ophelia. Hamlet is indignant that his love and affection has been thrown back at him and that Ophelia- like his mother, Gertrude, are pawns

play, the character of Ophelia particularly places great importance on modern day woman. Ophelia’s importance throughout the play has been many times viewed as only her relation to Hamlet and the effect she has on him. Ophelia is important not just in this sense, but in respect of what she tells the reader about the society she lived in, in contrast to the society one lives in today. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott, parallels closely to the life of Ophelia. Tennyson’s poem written

and Ophelia, enters as Laertes is saying his goodbye to Ophelia. Polonius talks to each of the two characters directly at different points in this scene; however, the conversations are both meant to be a helpful warning and lesson to each of the characters. The main point, or crux, of the conversation between Polonius and Laertes was a series of small, fatherly tips and lessons to Laertes before he goes off on his trip to Paris. The main point of the conversation between Polonius and Ophelia was

his character, Ophelia. It is evident in Hamlet that Ophelia is pregnant and that this pregnancy may have contributed to her death. In the play, many exchanges allude to Hamlet and Ophelia sharing a relationship. One

of women during their time. Ophelia from Hamlet and Lucy from Dracula are a symbol for all women from both the Renaissance and Victorian era and their actions portray the suppression of the patriarchal system. Throughout the whole play, Ophelia and Lucy walk down the same path as both of them get oppressed by their families and go through an extreme character development while expressing their desires. Shakespeare and Bram Stoker emphasize the suppression Lucy and Ophelia bear to portray a significant

Ophelia’s Flowers Ophelia used flowers as a symbol of her deep sorrow and grief. Ophelia was very upset because Hamlet just killed her father, Polonius. She needed a way to express herself, and she did so by passing flowers out to the court in her seeming mad state of mind. Ophelia uses flowers in an indirect way to accuse the King and Queen of the guilt she wants them to feel. She chooses the flowers with the intent to say how she actually feels to the King and the Queen. Rosemary symbolizes remembrance

pictures of the femme fatale is Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Ophelia is often viewed as a flat, one-dimensional character who is so undone by her circumstances that she cannot handle her grief due to her fragility and consequently ends her own life. At first glance, it seems as though Shakespeare is simply following the popular literary archetype of his time, but from a deeper perspective, the message through Ophelia is quite different. Shakespeare’s portrayal of Ophelia as the archetypal damsel in