Hamlet: Ophelia's Madness

William Gatewood
Tyler Wildman
English 12
03/14/2016
Ophelia’s Madness Shakespeare has introduced the world to numerous influential and thought-provoking characters during his whole career as a playwright. Perhaps one of the most intriguing female characters we encounter is Ophelia in the play Hamlet. During the 19th century when Hamlet was produced, Ophelia was a beloved character by all of Hamlet’s readers. She began to encompass the virtues of grace while simultaneously being heartbroken and mad in love. While Ophelia was a major character in life, she also had a substantial role in the play after her death. This sense of double the influence almost gave her two different characters to be analyzed. One character to be analyzed in life,
and the other to be analyzed in death. Ophelia has many scenes where the actions that she takes and the words that she speaks create forms of symbolism that make her character deeper than most would think. Ophelia is one of the many important characters in this play, but she is the most intriguing because she is enveloped by madness, a pure sense of feminism, and a true meaning of virtue. These different parts of her personality create this character that is seen to be mad, but no in the ways that most would think. Ophelia is not driven mad by love, but through the resistance she receives from Claudius and Laertes about her relationship with Hamlet In act 1 scene 3, we see Ophelia having a conversation with her older brother, Laertes, about Hamlet and the love that he supposedly has for her. This conversation brings up some contradiction between the two over whether Hamlet is truly in love with Ophelia. Ophelia does not agree with Laertes that Hamlet is young and incapable of knowing how to love such a woman. Laertes has the belief that Hamlet, like most young men, would only wish to take Ophelia’s innocence and to never actually take her as a wife. Laertes believes this because of the position of power that Hamlet is in. Usually when men are in this kind of position of power, they are seen to be misusing their power to personally pleasure themselves rather than showing their true affections for these women. This scene is important because it begins to show the audience the beginning of the amount of resistance that Ophelia will receive from her brother and father about her relationship with Hamlet. This scene also begins to show the audience the potential that Hamlet has as a lover to Ophelia, while creating an air of suspicion over their relationship. In this time period, women were not encouraged to be independent thinkers but rather to be told what to do and think by the men in their lives. Ophelia says to her brother that his advice is in her “memory locked” and that he hold the key to what he has said to her (1.3.85-6). After she speaks with her father, she is forbidden to see Hamlet again because of the qualms that he has about Hamlet being too young and naive to understand the complexity of love. These scenes together let the audience know of Ophelia’s innocent background and her obedience to her father and brother, while also revealing Hamlet’s spoken love for her. Up to this point the audience is aware of very little, and can only realize that Ophelia has feigned interest in a man that she has been warned to steer clear from. In simple terms, Ophelia is becoming a very relatable character for many girls this early in the play. After we see Hamlet contemplating the nature of his being, existence, and the uncertainties of death, Ophelia shows up to end the relationship that they have, just as her father and brother would have wished (3.1.92-6).
Just as a “good” daughter should, especially so in this time period, Ophelia does what her father tells her to and places her future within his hands. The fact that Ophelia listens to her father and does not continue to see Hamlet becomes a very important issue later in the play; during Ophelia’s short time of perceived madness. This scene is one of the most famous scenes from the play because of the utter despair that is clearly seen from Ophelia. Within this scene, Hamlet denies having ever loved Ophelia, which we can see is the beginning of her decline of mental stability. This seemingly sudden outbreak towards Ophelia can be rooted in Hamlet’s all around distrust towards women. This distrust stems from his lack of respect for his mother because of her unfaithfulness to her dead husband. Ophelia is beginning to be viewed just like the other women, in that she is no longer being viewed as his love interest, but as his evil temptation. “Get thee to a nunnery” is one of the most well-known lines that Hamlet throws at Ophelia during his blind rage (3.1.121). Ophelia does not immediately show signs of offense to these words but rather she dramatically calls out to beyond by saying; “O, help him, you sweet heavens!” which shows her religious affiliations and innocence as a character to the audience (3.1.133). After Hamlet exits the scene, Ophelia gives a short speech that reveals her truly shaken state of mind and being; “And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, that sucked the honey and musicked vows” (3.1.154-55). Ophelia is just not beginning to realize that she been deceived and that Hamlet never truly loved her. But, the question then becomes, did Hamlet truly never love her or is he feigning madness to draw out the king? The words that Ophelia
chooses to use, such as “deject” and “wretched”, show us the inner workings of her mind and how she perceives herself. These words show the true inner conflict that Ophelia is having because she now loves a man who just told her that he never loved her. These words show that Ophelia is coming to the realization that she has been lied to throughout their whole relationship. This encounter with him drives her into a new mental state that is very unlike her normal state of being. The problem is not that Hamlet told Ophelia he never loved her, but more so that the whole encounter was forced upon her by her father. A new form of madness begins to take over, which will continue to be a very powerful theme in the play. The end of act 3 scene 1 also begins to bring about a very common question by the audience about Hamlet’s love for Ophelia. This sudden withdrawal of love, brought about by the actions of Laertes and Polonius, is what starts Ophelia’s descent into madness. The love that they have for eachother is very apparent in the beginning of the play, but quickly begins to decline after the encounter where Hamlet is driven mad. There is very little reason to question Ophelia’s actions after this encounter because of the words that were exchanged between Hamlet and herself. Hamlet is most merciless and cold-hearted during this scene which brings about quick decline of Ophelia’s mental health. It is safe to say that the audience should not believe that Hamlet never loved Ophelia because it is clear to see the amount of madness that Hamlet is being driven to and how he is no longer himself. He is in a state of mind where nothing is for him, not even the woman he loves. Because we can believe that Hamlet did love Ophelia at one point, we can easily identify with her actions and emotions. Hamlet was capable of loving Ophelia before he fell into this state of madness, and Ophelia did indeed give him love in return. But, she exits the scene while believing that he never loved her and ultimately falling for his faux love. The next major scene where we see Ophelia, we can see that she has fallen completely into madness with little to no hope left for her. Her father has now been murdered by Hamlet. This in itself is enough for a woman of this time to be driven to madness. This death overwhelms Ophelia because she has now lost Hamlet’s love and he has also killed a man that was very dear to her. We see Ophelia after this as physically there, but mentally she is absent. The madness that she has been driven to has left her mind and heart wrecked by the people around her. The death of her father in itself is enough to drive anyone mad, but because he died at the hand of the man that she loves, it makes it far worse. She now cannot reconcile the fact that she loves a man who killed her father. Throughout the entire play we see the slow decline of mental stability in Ophelia. There are many different symbolic issues that are seen in this play with the relationship between Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, and Hamlet. Ophelia’s character could be argued as being the most important in the play, simply because of the amount of impact that she has on Hamlet’s life. Both in life, and after death, Ophelia has major impacts on the play, making her a major character even in her madness.