Ophelia was another character in the story that lost her mind because of her father’s death. She was mad acting like foolish and this madness has caused her several psychological damages. Ophelia much like Hamlet has experienced the exact same thing when her father has murdered. The dilemma drove her into madness because she had no control over her emotional pain. She might become depressed because of the conflict between her father and Hamlet. She could not handle traumatic experience when she lost her father; she became insane to ultimately drown herself in the river.…
Ophelia was a modern day good girl gone bad. She obeyed her father, Polonius, and brother, Laertes’ wishes to stay away from Prince Hamlet while trying to fight for her love for Hamlet and being herself. Throughout the entire play Ophelia is used as pawn in a game of revenge between Hamlet, Polonius, and King Claudius. Polonius and Laertes forbid Ophelia from seeing Hamlet because they believe that he is only using her for sex, yet Polonius uses her to seek information from Hamlet as though she were his personal spy. Although Hamlet loves Ophelia and genuinely cares for her, he sees the danger he and the royal court pose on her. Hamlet wants to get her away from the corruption while putting on an act for King Claudius to prove that he is really mad, and in that attempt, acts as though Ophelia means nothing to him. He treats her in the same manner he treats his mother and all women for that matter. Hamlet sees all women as ignorant and deceitful. Despite Ophelia’s ability to see through Hamlet’s charade, there is still a sense of pain in the words he speaks to her. “Get thee to a nunnery, go. Farewell...To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell.” (Act 3.1) This had to have been the largest insult to Ophelia ever spoken, but was not meant in that…
Hamlet’s lust for Ophelia is shown how he fights over her. For example, when Hamlet jumps in Ophelia's grave with Laertes and…
Ophelia, a fictional character in Hamlet, is the daughter of Polonius and young lover to the main character. Her father, the right hand of the king, originally requests she keep her distance from Hamlet. Quite soon, the company of Hamlet believes he has gone mad. Polonius, of course, asks his obedient daughter to spy on her lover. Mary Salter stated, “She certainly has a great deal of respect for her father and unquestioningly obeys his instructions…” Ophelia and Hamlet spend an extravagant amount of time together. In the time of Shakespeare, this was nearly unacceptable. One could understandably be under the impression they…
Ophelia’s relationship with Hamlet was one that was very hard to understand. She was in love with him and that complicated things. The character of Ophelia was the daughter of the King’s Advisor. She was not royalty or even remotely from a royal lineage. Hamlet, on the other hand, was a prince. He was the prince in line for the throne. Ophelia was in love with Hamlet and the only chance she had was to conspire with him and earn his trust. Hamlet discovered that his father had been murdered by his uncle. His uncle, Claudius, then became the king. Hamlet pretended to be crazy in order to expose his uncle. Ophelia found out that this was what was happening and went along with it in order to convince her father, Polonius, that Claudius had murdered the king. Polonius was, after all, the king’s advisor. Speaking of Hamlet, she says in Act 2 Scene 1, “He took me by the wrist, and held me hard” (1546). She knew, by telling her father that Hamlet had gone crazy and grabbed her, that he would relay it to the queen and her new king.…
You don't have to be a feminist to know that Ophelia is little more than a plaything and a tool of the men around her. Hamlet may well have loved her and treated her well once, but by the time he has the burden of revenge on him, he treats her rather badly. Now, of course, he does so because he knows that she's followed her father's orders and has rejected his love. Further, Hamlet knows that Ophelia is being used by her father and the King to spy on him.…
"Pretty Ophelia," as Claudius calls her, is the most innocent victim of Hamlet's revenge in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Hamlet has fallen in love with Ophelia after the death of his father. Ophelia "sucked the honey of his music vows" and returned Hamlet's affection. But when her father had challenged Hamlet's true intentions, Ophelia could only say: "I do not know, my lord, what I should think." Ophelia was used to relying on her father's directions and she was also brought up to be obedient. This allowed her to only accept her father's views that Hamlet's attention towards her was only to take advantage of her and to obey her father's orders not to permit Hamlet to see her again.…
Ophelia is introduced to the audience as naïve young girl hopelessly submerged in affection for her beloved Hamlet, the son of the former king. She is the daughter of the current king’s most trust advisor, Polonius. Ophelia’s first plank of madness is laid with the departure of her brother for France. This early “loss” of a loved one is similar in many ways that Hamlet’s father is also gone. However both Laertes and Hamlet Sr. inevitably return.…
Hamlet and Laertes share a different, but deep, love and concern for Ophelia. Before his departure for France, Laertes provides lengthy advice to Ophelia pertaining to her relationship with Hamlet. Laertes voices his concern of Hamlet's true intentions towards Ophelia and advises her to be wary of Hamlet's love. Laertes impresses upon Ophelia that Hamlet is a prince who, most likely, will have an arranged marriage. Hamlet's strong love for Ophelia withers after she rejects his affinity. Hamlet's extensive love for Ophelia resulted in grave suffering for Hamlet once his affection was rejected. Hamlet's appearance decays due to the rejection of his love for Ophelia: "Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other" (II, i, 82). The loss of Ophelia's love for Hamlet causes Polonius to believe it has caused Hamlet to revert…
Having been lectured on the dangers of Hamlet by Polonius, Ophelia responds, “I shall obey my Lord” (1.4.145). Considering she is his daughter, her response seems peculiar, and almost servant like. Polonius and Laertes, Ophelia’s father and brother, order her to refrain from relations with Hamlet, because they believe that due to his nobility, he is incapable of loving her properly. Ophelia, Hamlet’s love, is interpreted as more of a puppet than a strong female lead, even though the love, of which Hamlet and Ophelia had prior to the bombardment of interferences, was undeniable.…
At the end of the Act 3, Polonius was killed by Hamlet. Ophelia heard the news about her father’s death in the Act 4. After she heard the news, the became insane. She lost her dignity as a noble lady and continued to sing in front of people. The song she sang seemed meaningless to others; however, there was a meaning to those.…
Hamlet, himself, exhibits faults in his personality, often acting volatile and reckless in situations beyond his control. In Act 1, Scene 3, Ophelia describes Hamlet as an admirer who had ‘made many tenders of his affection’ to her but later on, in Act 3, Scene 1, when they confront each other about their feelings, Hamlet angrily shouts ‘Get thee to a nunnery’, insulting her and not realising the possible consequences of his actions. Ophelia isn’t without flaws, herself, as shown by her tendency to be influenced by the men around her. Whilst it was common for the women during Shakespeare’s time to be obedient to their men, Ophelia’s submissiveness eventually drives her to insanity and leads to her suicide. Furthermore, Ophelia’s father, Polonius, is also a fatally flawed character, with his peripeteia being his nosiness and propensity to pry, which then leads to his death. Shakespeare uses the weaknesses of each character to emphasise that human beings are flawed to warn his audience that if these flaws are not recognised, they may, and often will, bring…
Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a revenge tragedy play that primarily focuses on Hamlet’s quest to avenge his father’s death. The tragedy of Hamlet, while mostly revolving around Hamlet himself, also concerns the character of Ophelia, and Hamlet’s relationship with her throughout the play. Despite of her absence from all but five scenes, Ophelia manages to receive a considerable amount of attention, as her character becomes truly tragic with her realization that she is powerless politically, socially, and psychologically amongst the men in her life, and without them. As a woman with limited options in a patriarchal society, this realization drives her mad, ultimately resulting in her death.…
Ophelia’s insanity overtook her as she committed suicide. The Queen says “Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,/ As one incapable of her own distress/Or like a creature native and endured/ Unto that element” (IV.vii.202-205). Hamlet has contemplated suicide since the beginning of the play. Ophelia’s character progresses much faster than Hamlet’s. Although they are on different tracks, they are both feeling the same ways about life and death. Ophelia decided there was enough hope in the afterlife to commit suicide. The Queen says “Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay/ To muddy death” (IV.vii.207-208). In Ophelia’s death, she is equal to Polonius, Guildenstern, Rosencratz, Polonius, the Queen, Claudius, and Hamlet. Their journeys are parallel even to the point of…
In the scene 1 of Act 3, Claudius and Gertrude are worried about madness shown by the Hamlet. The King and queen uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to watch the activities of Hamlet and find out why he is showing such kind of madness. To figure out this Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia plot a plan and revel the truth about the Hamlet recent behaviors. Ophelia play a key role in this scene to figure out why Hamlet is doing this kind of behaviors by saying she wants that love which she used to get from Hamlet before, while her father and King Claudius are hiding and watching all this. Instead of reveling the truth Hamlet knew that it’s the trap of his uncle and Polonius.…