Hamlet Essay On Ophelia's Mind
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Ophelia is a beautiful and simple-mind girl, easily influenced by other’s opinions and desires. Always doing what she is told, even if it is not what her heart wishes. She is easily influenced by her father, Polonius and brother, Laertes the most. Later on the love letters Ophelia receives from Hamlet cause her mind to become confused, and is forced to choose between obeying what her father wants or following her heart. Ophelia is not able to understand what is really happening because of all the pressure they put on her to be someone else. The weakness of her mind and will that force her to obey her father causes her to go insane and die. During the first act, Polonious and Laertes make Ophelia
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forget about Hamlet’s feelings toward her by saying that he is out of her league. That Hamlet cannot love her because he is of high royalty and will only play around with her feelings. That she will be a fool for believing Hamlet and should think more highly of herself, but Ophelia could only reply “ I don’t know, my lord what I should think” (I.iii.104). Used to relying on her father’s direction, she cannot do anything more but accept her father’s belief. She also was to obey her father’s orders not to ever see or talk to Hamlet again. Ophelia is confuse, she does not know what to think anymore, because to her Hamlet’s letters sound very convincing that he loves her. But because she is raise to be obedient and not thinking for herself, Ophelia can only go along with what ever her father and brother say ruining her chance of love with Hamlet. Polonious then uses Ophelia as bait to prove to the King that Ophelia is the reason for Hamlet’s madness, which she willingly obliged to. This is showing that Ophelia is also being use by her father to please the king and not at all thinking about her feelings. Later on during a planned encounter, Hamlet put pressure on Ophelia by expecting her to be different from his mother’s doings. He tried to see some innocence in her or any sign that she love him but he mistook Ophelia’s fear for guilt and compare her to his mother as both false persons. Hamlet then denies any feelings he had for her: Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than
the force of honesty can translate beauty into his
likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now
the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
(III.i.111-115)
He tells her that she should had never believe him for the love he once had for her is gone, he wants Ophelia to believe this even though he still loves her.
But Ophelia has no mind of her own to understand how much she is making Hamlet suffer because all she can see in Hamlet’s behavior is madness. “That unmatched form and feature of blown youth blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me t’ have seen what I have seen, see what I see!” (III.i.162-164). In act four Ophelia finds out that her father has died. Her weak mind cannot sustain this burden causing her insanity. Not only did her father’s death cause her to go crazy but the hate for him when he tried to protect her from everything by controlling her actions and the love for Hamlet, which she was denied. In trying to cope with it all she looses her mind and makes her act out in front of the King and Queen, singing a children’s song like she were an innocent child who cannot think for herself and know wrong from right. Ophelia’s insanity causes her to commit suicide by drowning herself. In the end she never understood why Hamlet acted the way he did but found a way to relate to him in which her father too is killed and the betrayal of a loved one but her weak mind could not stop her from
dying.
forget about Hamlet’s feelings toward her by saying that he is out of her league. That Hamlet cannot love her because he is of high royalty and will only play around with her feelings. That she will be a fool for believing Hamlet and should think more highly of herself, but Ophelia could only reply “ I don’t know, my lord what I should think” (I.iii.104). Used to relying on her father’s direction, she cannot do anything more but accept her father’s belief. She also was to obey her father’s orders not to ever see or talk to Hamlet again. Ophelia is confuse, she does not know what to think anymore, because to her Hamlet’s letters sound very convincing that he loves her. But because she is raise to be obedient and not thinking for herself, Ophelia can only go along with what ever her father and brother say ruining her chance of love with Hamlet. Polonious then uses Ophelia as bait to prove to the King that Ophelia is the reason for Hamlet’s madness, which she willingly obliged to. This is showing that Ophelia is also being use by her father to please the king and not at all thinking about her feelings. Later on during a planned encounter, Hamlet put pressure on Ophelia by expecting her to be different from his mother’s doings. He tried to see some innocence in her or any sign that she love him but he mistook Ophelia’s fear for guilt and compare her to his mother as both false persons. Hamlet then denies any feelings he had for her: Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than
the force of honesty can translate beauty into his
likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now
the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
(III.i.111-115)
He tells her that she should had never believe him for the love he once had for her is gone, he wants Ophelia to believe this even though he still loves her.
But Ophelia has no mind of her own to understand how much she is making Hamlet suffer because all she can see in Hamlet’s behavior is madness. “That unmatched form and feature of blown youth blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me t’ have seen what I have seen, see what I see!” (III.i.162-164). In act four Ophelia finds out that her father has died. Her weak mind cannot sustain this burden causing her insanity. Not only did her father’s death cause her to go crazy but the hate for him when he tried to protect her from everything by controlling her actions and the love for Hamlet, which she was denied. In trying to cope with it all she looses her mind and makes her act out in front of the King and Queen, singing a children’s song like she were an innocent child who cannot think for herself and know wrong from right. Ophelia’s insanity causes her to commit suicide by drowning herself. In the end she never understood why Hamlet acted the way he did but found a way to relate to him in which her father too is killed and the betrayal of a loved one but her weak mind could not stop her from
dying.