The Weakness of Ophelia

Ophelia's madness was brought on by a multitude of medical and social factors. Cultural restrictions always determined a woman’s behavior. Her lack of a mother, even that of a mother figure left Ophelia without any source of a female advisor. On top of the lack of a major female figure, her father was overbearing and selfish. However, his sudden death at the hands of Hamlet truly left her alone. Madness is usually brought on by depression, medically speaking, and Ophelia suffered a broken heart. She loved Hamlet, but she was forced to obey her father as in that society considered women not as people, they were objects to be owned. There also is a theory where Ophelia is pregnant and the sudden change of hormones plus the social stigma of being pregnant while unmarried can cause such an overload of stress, her psyche cracks beyond repair. Hamlet's ruse of madness and eventual obsession with revenge possibly furthered her confusion. How could one be able to conceive the reasoning behind courting a woman for several months, and then suddenly rejecting said woman in a near violent manner? Ophelia tried to understand, but there was so much against her socially and medically that it was damn near impossible to not go mad.

During Shakespeare's time, society had rather dim views on women. They were expected to obey any order given to them by a man, practically worshiping the ground he walked on. Women were viewed to be weak willed and weak minded, so they obviously needed to be protected by men. Shakespeare seemed to be "sympathetic to the plight of women," this is unsure, but the female characters of his play were created to be how he viewed women: intelligent, romantic, mysterious and sometimes naïve (Traub, 129). Despite what Shakes...

... middle of paper ...

..., to show her the kindness she was denied, her very life fell forfeit to fate. Ophelia was a young woman who died due to a broken heart and eroded self-esteem.

Works Cited

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy. Reprint. New York: St. Martin's Press Inc., 1964. 103,112,119,150,157-9,204,403,420-1. Print.

Epstein, Alex. "By The Way, Ophelia Is Pregnant."Crafty Screenwriting. N.p., 2005. Web. 29 Jan 2012. .

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Introduction to Literature: Tenth Edition. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010. 1701-1794. Print.

Traub, Valerie. "Gender and Sexuality in Shakespeare." The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. Margreta de Grazia and Stanley Wells. United Kingdom: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 2001. 129-146. Print.