Hamlet Essay on Ophelia's Death

Throughout Hamlet, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, religious beliefs are often brought up and affect the outcomes of situations faced by the characters. The same goes for people in time; many religions affect the way people react to situations. For some situations, the religious beliefs of the persons involved affect the situations outcome in a negative way. Sometimes, a person’s traditions are compromised because they conflict with their religious beliefs. In our lifetime, you see this when there are religious groups, such as Hindu or Islamic religions, living in America amongst Americans. Although weddings held in churches and funeral ceremonies held in funeral homes are common traditions in America, a person of a different faith’s religious beliefs may go against ceremonies in that way and have different traditional ceremonies for such pivotal events. In Hamlet, the family of Ophelia is faced with a difficult decision surrounding the death of she and her funeral procession. Through this knowledge, our minds may come to ponder whether people are more likely to disregard their religious beliefs in times of the loss of a loved one, or if they are to stay true to their beliefs and its practices. In many times, the tragic loss of a loved one can cause a family, or group of people to compromise the rituals and ceremonies to honor the loved one who passed on. We can see the way religion affects a person from events in history and literature.
Ophelia, the character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, was a young woman with whom Hamlet was in love with. Most of the religion references in the book connect back to Ophelia, and her untimely death. Although we don’t see Ophelia’s death on stage, we hear of it from Gertrude, and she leaves us wondering if the young girl’s death was an accident or an act of suicide. We find our suspicion of Ophelia’s death in Act 4, scene 7 in the lines;
“When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread