Hamlet's Life Without Ophelia Essay

The character of Ophelia is illustrated and cited as a heroine of Shakespeare. Although Hamlet’s life without Ophelia would practically be the same, Ophelia literally has no life without Hamlet evoking the question, “Is a woman’s life solely defined by the men in it?”. William Shakespeare is a universally acclaimed writer who lived during the late 1500s and early 1600s. Throughout his lifetime, he wrote over 35 plays and over 150 sonnets, including the very famous Hamlet (“Shakespeare FAQ”). Hamlet is in many ways a product of the Catholic Reformation and addresses many issues such as sin, fate vs free will, gender roles, and power and control (“Historical Context of Hamlet”). In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Ophelia, one of the two female characters, serves as a representation of females in a patriarchal society. Throughout the play, Ophelia
Forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her? (5.1. 108)
Through this scene, it is made clear that both Hamlet and Laertes did indeed love Ophelia; however, it is ironic that instead of mourning for her death and respecting her burial, the two men chose to jump onto her casket and fight over who loved her more. Even after her death, Ophelia is still simply a pawn. In contrast to Ophelia being an object of manipulation, Shakespeare also depicts her as an object of sensual desire. Across the majority of his plays, Shakespeare illustrates the emotion of desire and Hamlet is no exception. A question frequently debated is whether Hamlet truly loves Ophelia. In the play, Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, does not believe that Hamlet loves her and that his intentions are not pure. He warns her to not get too serious with the Prince and says:
Perhaps he loves you now,
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will; but you must fear