Ophelia Hamlet Analysis

Ophelia in the fourth act of Hamlet is demonstrably insane, but the direct cause of her slipped sanity is something that remains debatable, Shakespeare uses the character Ophelia to demonstrate how women during this time were unable to break away from social norms. While it is evident that Ophelia is grieving over the death of her father, Polonius, as Horatio says of her “She speaks much of her father, says she hears / There’s tricks in the world, and hems, and beats her heart” (4.5.4-5), as lines from one of her many “songs” points towards grieving over an aged relative, “His beard as white as snow / All flaxen was his poll” with flaxen indicating a white or grayed head of hair (4.5.190-191).

Further explicit references to Ophelia’s father, such as “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say a made a good end.” give more credibility to Ophelia’s disintegrated mental state. Ophelia’s madness is perhaps overtaking her so much so that she does not even recognize whom she is talking to in this instance–her brother Laertes. In lines such as “Young men will do’t if they come to’t / By Cock, they are to blame” signifies a strange and perhaps oblique reference to a promiscuous or

simply flighty man who promises love (or sex here with the word “cock”) but backs out after a brief time (4.5.59-60).
While the following line, “You promised me to wed, / So would I ‘a’ done, by yonder sun, / An thou hadst not come to my bed.” this is a part of Ophelia’s song that signifies that Hamlet is a cause of her mental fracturing (4.5.62-64). Ophelia knows that Hamlet loves her yet decides to keep her distance because her brother tells her to. Ophelia is used as a tactic by her father to test Hamlet’s madness. Ophelia is forced to give up the one she loves due to what others are telling her to do so, and because of her father’s prying he ultimately dies. Ophelia’s madness is believed to be caused by her loss of her loved ones.
Ophelia is only present in 5 of the 20 scenes in the play and that very little is known about her background. With her relative absence, Ophelia still holds much of the readers, and playgoers, attention. She gains this attention because her character’s circumstances are so tragic. An argument that is often made is that Ophelia’s death is the true tragedy of Hamlet. She experiences the reversal of fortune,in her madness, Ophelia eventually does make this realization and she accepts death. Ophelia would not be bound by the societal restrictions of women; she could voice herself; however, even in madness she is not free. Unlike Hamlet, who can act according to his own will and speak his mind as he wants, Ophelia must find an alternative to express herself. The only out that she sees is in madness and eventually death. This is where her perplexing songs come into play and thus is when most readers and playgoers pick up that she is going insane. Thus, her limited options in a patriarchal society and her realization of those limitations are what make Ophelia's death the true tragedy of Hamlet.
Ophelia was the property of her father.

With her father’s word being law and with that what he says she must follow, if she refuses Polonius, she risks social exclusion and grave insult to the man who controls her future. Her real attitude is clear when she has a conversation about chastity, first with Laertes, her brother, then with Polonius, her father. After Laertes rather explicitly warns Ophelia to fear losing her virginity, she replies by telling him not to lecture her, “Whiles, a puff'd and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, / And recks not his own rede” (1.3.48-50). When polonius gives her the same lecture and tells her not to accept Hamlet’s propositions, she simply replies, “I shall obey, my lord”

(1.3.135).
Given that Ophelia wants to believe Hamlet is true to her and “Hath given countenance to his speech… / With almost all the holy vows of heaven” (1.3.112-13), she obeys her father and continues on. The issue of Ophelia’s chastity concerns Polonius as a parent and a politician—a virginal Ophelia has a better chance of attaining Hamlet’s hand in marriage” (401). As such, Ophelia’s feelings and desires are suppressed by her inability to freely voice herself in a strict patriarchal society that views her as a sexual object for trade.