Ophelia is weak…
In my opinion I believe that Ophelia is weak in many aspects of her Character in Hamlet.
Firstly, I think she shows great weakness in the way she allows the men in her life to manipulate her throughout the play. Clearly, the main factor of manipulation is through her love and emotions towards Hamlet, which is continually used almost against her and to the men’s advantage. Her father and Claudius order Ophelia to meet with Hamlet whilst they spy on the couple to observe Hamlets actions around her and Ophelia without hesitance obeys. Frankly her ‘dependant/needy’ nature is unmistakable from the beginning. Her nasty meeting with Hamlet, which goes against her feelings for him, demonstrate her utter obedience to her father. As an example, from the start Ophelia told her father that she likes Hamlet and thinks a lot of him. Additionally linking this to Polonius, she suggests that Hamlet is a good and honourable man, and that she does have feelings for him. Ophelia's further actions sacrifice these affectionate feelings by order of her father, proving her total submission to his authority. Ophelia specifically agrees with her father not to see Hamlet again. Consequently, showing that Polonius has complete control over his daughter, with her desire to please her father as the direct cause. Ophelia has an obvious need to please others, even when it means forfeiting her own personal feelings, and her obedience apparently originates from this.
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