Discuss 'Only You Can Control The Future In Shakespeare's Hamlet'

Dr. Seuss says “Only you can control your future.” In the play Hamlet by Shakespeare, Ophelia loses control of her own future. Ophelia’s relationships and life are all controlled by the people that are supposed to love her. Shakespeare puts focus on the character of Ophelia to show how her family and lover in the play control all aspects of her life; he uses this to suggest that love cannot flourish in a controlling relationship and that oppression will lead to self-awareness and potentially rebellion.

Laertes and Polonius control Ophelia’s sex life which doesn’t allow Ophelia to form loving relationships. Laertes gives Ophelia a graphic description of what she will be like if she loses her virginity by saying, “The canker galls the infants

While Ophelia is supposedly not making sense after her father’s death; she gives out flowers saying, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance….And there is pansies, that’s for thought….There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you….There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died” (4.5.172-179). All the flowers she gives out during this scene represent individual characters. Rosemary symbolizes remembrance; which she imagines for Hamlet in hope that he will remember her. Pansies represent thought which she gives to Laertes, so that he would think of her instead of just revenge. Ophelia gives Claudius fennel, which indicates strength and praiseworthiness; which are qualities that he desires but does not possess. Rue signifies regret which Ophelia gives to Gertrude because of her regret for remarrying Claudius. Daisies express innocence; which is what Ophelia needs since she lost her virginity. Ophelia gives violets; which illustrate faithfulness and modesty to her father’s grave because she failed to be faithful to him. All of this suggests that Ophelia still was sane since she could discern what problems each character identified with. In this part of the play, Ophelia was just overwhelmed with grief from her father’s death and the ending of her relationship with Hamlet. She

When Gertrude tells the news of Ophelia’s death to everyone, she says, “Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death” (4.7.179-181). Gertrude describes Ophelia’s death as not her fault but her clothing for dragging her to drown. This is a metaphor for the way Ophelia lives her life since Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet all drag her down and drown her in conflicts which she can’t handle. Ophelia is brave in the way that she acts rebelliously against the desires of others, even though she is aware that she is committing an act of sin. She is unlike Hamlet who is afraid of acting because he fears purgatory. Ophelia is a brave causality due to the desire of