Hamlet Ophelia

William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet is one of the most famous tragedies in all of English Literature. Part of the tragedy in this play revolves around Ophelia and her relationship with Hamlet. The lives of Ophelia and Hamlet separately seem to fit into Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. Even as a couple, because they play off of one another, Aristotle’s definition of tragedy would still qualify. To quote Lee Edwards, a scholar at The Heritage Foundation, “We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but we cannot imagine Ophelia’s story without Hamlet.” Shakespeare often intentionally left the relations and intentions that occur between his characters unknown (Madgaria 28). However, must the role of Ophelia be known in order to have a more

Before the roles of Hamlet and Ophelia can be truly understood, one must first look at Shakespeare’s possible intentions when writing the play. Despite the fact that scholars can never know what Shakespeare “meant or intended” by any of his characters or works, context clues lead to various possible opinions. A number of Shakespeare’s plays “seem to have transcended even the category of brilliance, becoming so influential as to profoundly affect the course of Western Literature and culture ever after” (Rosenburg 101). One of the primary goals for tragic plays in Elizabethan times was to arouse pity from the audience (Wagner 94). Shakespeare’s work accomplishes this goal by following the tragic downfall of such an influential figure, while also following the stories of many other characters in the play such as Ophelia, Polonius, Claudius, Laertes, and

Laertes and Polonius often caused Ophelia great distress when she was attempting to figure out her feelings towards Hamlet (Neely 320). Ophelia seems to want to express her desires for Hamlet, but the men in her life do not allow her to do so. Throughout the play, Ophelia’s sexuality starts to develop, and by the end of the play she is guilty of belonging to the sphere of complex sexuality (States 126). Her mind is considered by many to be pure and innocent, contrasting that of Hamlet himself (Newell 94). Her desire for romance allows her to be used “as a decoy to enable her father and the King to overhear the conversation” with Hamlet (Madgariga 40). However, her father taught her to repress her desires, because it would be a betrayal to her father and the family (Smith 98). Her role as “the sympathetic portrait of Hamlet” allows her to let her true innocence shine through, despite her madness (Wagner