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Ophelia In Hamlet

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Ophelia In Hamlet
OPHELIA-
FRAILTY THY NAME IS WOMAN

Hamlet says, “Frailty thy name is woman”. Consider this statement in the light of the presentation of Ophelia;

• Identify key scenes and soliloquies for analysis
• Discuss various productions/interpretations
• State your preference of interpretation

The word frail means when a person or object has the quality of being weak, fragile, weak in health or being morally unstable, also someone who is easily manipulated and influenced by people that surround them, unable to stand on their own.
In this essay I plan to look into the character of Ophelia in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, to see whether she is a frail character and what factors contribute to this. I want to look at particular scenes …show more content…
From the beginning Ophelia is portrayed to us as a delicate, well spoken, respectful young lady but one who is being instructed and ordered by her brother to uphold the family name by not consenting to sex with Hamlet before marriage, even though she does voice her own opinions on the matter she does seem to obey and follow what her brother is firmly suggesting she does. Although I think here Ophelia shows her true collectedness and wit in that she knows that her brother is likely to be going against these rules himself and therefore being hypocritical.
“But, good my brother, Do not as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whiles, like a puff 'd and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, and recks not his own rede.”
Here she voices her point but in a very dignified way. All she wants is her brother to have a sense of fairness between them and put aside the fact that she is seen as weaker being a woman and is almost voicing a plea for …show more content…
You can almost misread the play and not notice she has in fact killed herself, after her suffering she doesn’t even get a dramatic exit like all the other deaths in the play and seems instead to sink to her death. This may be because of Ophelia’s personality and general aura that a painful slow death would not fit with her character and her back story. The description itself makes it seem as if the water did not have to fight to bring her down but that it was actually very easy and with no struggle, portraying that Ophelia is in fact frail in that she could not fight harder and get herself out of the deep, dark hole in her mind that she had retreated
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