Ophelia Character Analysis

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set in the late middle ages, in Denmark. A time in history when women were not respected and thought of as the inferior sex. There are two women characters in Hamlet; Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest. Magda Romanska the writer of “Ontology and Eroticism: Two Bodies Of Ophelia”, argues that Ophelia represents the typical idea of women in the nineteenth century. I agree with this, but argue that it is not the only aspect of Ophelia’s character. Ophelia becomes the bearer of Hamlet’s hatred toward the world, and is also the character of lowest status because she is an average women. Ophelia surrenders herself to the cruelty of those around her, and sacrifices her sanctity to please and conform

He tells Ophelia that no matter how good she is as a wife she will always be perceived as a harlot, and that if she was to marry she needed to marry a fool because no one else would believe her loyalty. This quotation is filled with rage towards the female sex. Polonius and Laertes also attack Ophelia many times during the play for being a women. Warning her that men (Hamlet) only want her for body and chastity. Gabrielle Dane in his paper, “Reading Ophelia’s Madness” relates the way they treat her as an incestous stranglehold. They have made themselves Ophelia’s decision makers in every matter. Polonius makes remarks such as, “You do not understand yourself so clearly” and “Think yourself a baby” (1. 3. 96, 105) to Ophelia. These show that even her own family treat Ophelia with no respect or dignity

Choosing to ‘not to be’ the only route to autonomy in an otherwise tragic life. It is debated if Ophelia’s death is a suicide, but with the help of the grave diggers words, “If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he nill he, he goes. Mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.” (5.1. 228-32) readers can make the assumption that her death was deliberate (Dane