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Hamlet's madness explained
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William Shakespeare's Hamlet
The tragedy of Hamlet was a very interesting play with many very interesting characters that did a great many heroic and disappointing things despite the complexity and difficulty to understand the true personality William Shakespeare intended for each. Ophelia, one of the minor characters, represents one of the two women captured between men set out for revenge. Despite the minor role this character played, her impact on the play was quite significant. However, one of the most important questions to analyze, and the question this paper will explore below is why she went mad. This paper will delve into the kind of person Shakespeare portrays her as, why she is so easily affected, the factors causing her madness and the importance each of them play.
One of the factors that may have been the initial cause of the trouble Ophelia found herself in at the end of the play may be her beauty. This is described in III, I, 6-7 when Hamlet says, “/that if you be honest and fair, / should admit no discourse to your beauty.” Her beauty is the reason Hamlet first fell in love with her, the reason her father, Polonius, was able to control her feelings toward Hamlet. Her father wanted this control over her love either for advancement within the court through gaining the favour of the king, or, if one were to think more optimistically, perhaps Polonius’ goal was only to protect her from Hamlet who, he believed, did not truly love Ophelia as she loved him. However, one is given hints as to Hamlet’s true feelings when Polonius reads the love letter from Hamlet to Ophelia. The letter begins with a very romantic, yet overly dramatic salutation reading, “To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, the/ most beautified Ophelia…” (II, ii, 117-118) giving proof of Hamlet’s obvious belief of her utmost beauty, continuing to say (II, ii, 124-127)
“Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love.”
Often overlooked in Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet, Shawna Maki analyzes Ophelia’s restricting role as a woman in a patriarchal society and how it essentially leads to her death being the true tragedy of the play. Maki supports this argument by stating, “Whereas Hamlet has the power and potential to change his fate, Ophelia does not and her death is tragic because the only escape she sees from her oppression is madness and death.”. The comparison between Hamlet and Ophelia is a common parallel because both characters are inevitably labeled as tragic deaths due to the quick deterioration of their state of mind.
The play Hamlet is known for its eccentric plot and warped sense of reality as well as its fanatical characters. Hamlet himself created all the drama in the play with his pretend “madness” and his emotional outbursts, which lead to the destruction of almost all of the characters in the play. The most notable self destruction came from Ophelia, Hamlet’s object of affection. During the play, Ophelia had undergone a lot of stress which lead her character to metamorphous.
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince Hamlet may act like he is "mad north-northwest", but it is his lover, Ophelia, who is truly mad. Both lose their fathers at the hands of others and both have loved ones that seem to have turned against them. Unlike Hamlet, who has revenge, Ophelia ends up having nothing to hold onto. Her sanity breaks and sends her into a downward spiral, while Hamlet's remains intact. In this paper, I will show that it is the manipulation by and loss of the two men Ophelia loved most-Hamlet and her father, Polonius-which leads to her madness.
William Shakespeare was a Stratford Grammar School boy, who was a member of the Church of England, similar to just about everyone else in Stratford. However, due to some events that occurred in the Shakespeare family home, there is some evidence that could prove that the family may have had some Roman Catholic connections. When William Shakespeare was 10 years old, legal issues and debt took a toll on his family’s life. Shakespeare’s father’s stopped attending alderman meetings which resulted in the removal of his name to become an alderman, and he was also forced to sell his beautiful home. The cause of this crisis is unknown, however the records can be used to throw together the idea that there were peculiar religious events going on (Fox). Due to these mishaps, William Shakespeare’s religion is a bit of a mystery. The play, Hamlet, was written by William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, which happened to be a time when religious conflicts were a big deal (Alsaif). The protagonist in the story, Hamlet, is a character who seems to make his choices through his religious beliefs. Hamlet is a very indecisive person, but his thoughts on religion tend to persuade him. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the character of Hamlet to show the flaws in all religions. Hamlet does his best to follow the rules of Christianity, but he often questions the morality involved. Although Shakespeare belonged to the Church of England, he didn’t find any particular religion to be perfect.
In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare developed the story of prince Hamlet, and the murder of his father by the king's brother, Claudius. Hamlet reacted to this event with an internal battle that harmed everyone around him. Ophelia was the character most greatly impacted by Hamlet's feigned and real madness - she first lost her father, her sanity, and then her life. Ophelia, obedient, weak-willed, and no feminist role model, deserves the most pity of any character in the play.
Hamlet’s Ophelia tragically falls victim to the prevailing and unquestioned female stereotypes of her day. Trapping her within the type of the chaste and dutiful woman, Polonius strips Ophelia of her individual identity and silences her voice. He reduces her to a mere pawn, whoring her out to serve his own selfish agendas. It is only in madness that Ophelia is offered an unexpected respite from this puppetry, one that even the finality of death is unable to offer.
Tragedies in the Greek theater when compared to tragedies in the Renaissance theater varied in similarities and differences. Greek theater encouraged the use of religious figures while Renaissance theater was supposed to be strictly pagan in its ideologies. Theater was most dominantly used to depict the social and religious constraints of the time period. For example, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex are both portrayals of deceit, murder, and revenge all of which lead to the demise of its leading characters. Hamlet is depicted as a young man who is seeking revenge for his fathers death. Oedipus is a king who means to free the people of Thebes from a disease that has been plaguing them. They share similarities in that each of their love interest are conduits of their pain and anguish, further pushing the protagonists over the precipice. The voice of reason that they share is Creon in Oedipus Rex and Horatio in Hamlet. Their tragic flaw is that they are both ultimately and utterly doomed and no amount of guidance will steer them away from what has been predestined by fate. They are ultimately doomed to be their own Achilles heel.
The loss of a parent can have a traumatic effect on one. It can lead he or she to a place of sadness, darkness and depression. In Shakespeare's revenge tragedy "Hamlet", the passing of the King stirs up the same emotions in the prince Hamlet. Although, it would be the starting point of his journey filled with deceptions, murders and conspiracy. After a visit from his dead father as a ghost, and the revelation of his uncle's betrayal, Hamlet embarks on a path to avenge the death of his father (Shakespeare). In the midst of all the lies and deceptions, before his ultimate downfall Hamlet achieves his goal of avenging the death of his father by killing Claudius, while liberating Denmark from a deceitful ruler; his uncle Claudius.
As far as we know, up until the recent events, Ophelia has had a comfortable life. Her father counsel to King Claudius has landed the family in a high part of society, shielded from the effects of poverty. She is beautiful, rich, and has the boy, well only for a little while. During the time of the passing of King Hamlet, Polonius has forbidden his daughter Ophelia to see her one and only lover, the man she believed she was going to marry, she sings, “Quoth she, “Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.” He answers, So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.”(Shakespeare IV.V) She has given herself completely to Hamlet, but on orders from her father she must sever all ties. This has her grieving, grieving over love lost, true love lost. She is still in love with Hamlet, but must obey her father despite her grief; this is putting a tremendous amount of stress on poor Ophelia. She is torn between family, ...
The causes of Ophelia's decent into madness start long before she is raving and signing rude songs. It is a madness brought of mistreatment; a mistreatment that started with her father. Upon first hearing of Hamlet's affection for her Polonius is very dismissive of it. He even tells her not to waste her time with him as a result "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet." (Shakespeare & Bevington, 2009, pp. P1105 L133-135) This is given as an order, which Ophelia says she will obey. The earlier exchange is quite dismissive of the affection between Ophelia and Hamlet, despite her defending it in terms of Hamlet having shown that love both in words and gifts and the defense of him courting her in an honorable fashion. Polonius is again quick to dismiss his daughter's view of the world saying "Affection? Pooh! you speak like a green ...
When reading the text, one can comprehend that Ophelia is caught in the middle between two opposite sides. Her family (father and brother) believe that Hamlet is a womanizer rather then the philosopher that he is. They also believe that he will use her in order to achieve his own purposes, and that he would take her precious virginity only to discard it because he would never be her husband. But, Ophelia's heart mesmerized by Hamlets cunning linguistics is set on the fact that Hamlet truly loves her or loved her, even though he swears he never did. In the eye of her father and brother, she will always be a pure, wholesome girl, an eternal virgin in a sense, (due to a parents nature to always see their offspring as a child) they want her to ascend into her stereotypical role in life as a vessel of morality whose sole purpose of existence is to be a obedient wife and a committed mother. However, to Hamlet she is simply an object used to satisfy and fulfill his sexual needs. He also seems to hold her at a distant which suggests that he may...
Ophelia, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, represents a self-confident and aware female character. She analyzes the world around her and recognizes the multitude of male figures attempting to control her life. Her actions display not only this awareness, but also maturity in her non-confrontational discussions. Though she is demeaned by Laertes, Polonius, and Hamlet, Ophelia exhibits intelligence and independence and ultimately resorts to suicide in order to free herself from the power of the men around her.
Ophelia’s madness is because of what she encounters throughout the play by everyone around her. Her character is often looked past, people really don’t give her a second thought, and her emotions and wellbeing are almost entirely forgotten about. When her father and brother are telling her to stay away from Hamlet, she tries to speak up and tell them that she knows that Hamlet truly loves her. She tells them her feelings, but they say no, she is not to speak to Hamlet again and must obey. They didn’t take a second to try and look things over from her perspective.
In a critical essay, Judith Cook[1] noted that in many of Shakespeare’s plays major women characters ‘die because of direct association with the fate of a tragic hero’. This could be seen as Shakespeare trying to convey women’s fate being a ‘by-product’ of the fate of men- men are superior. On the other hand, Ophelia is crucial in understanding Hamlet as a character and gives an insight into different motifs of the play. Some may argue that Ophelia is one of the causes of Hamlet’s ‘madness’ and his recoil from love.
Ophelia’s betrayal ends up putting Hamlet over the edge, motivating him in his quest for revenge. Ophelia is one of the two women in the play. As the daughter of Polonius, she only speaks in the company of several men, or directly to her brother or father. Since we never see her interactions with women, she suppresses her own thoughts in order to please her superiors. Yet, however weak and dependent her character is on the surface, Ophelia is a cornerstone to the play’s progression.