Ophelia's Flaws

Ophelia's flaws are what makes her such a complex character. Her role in society is a woman who can’t survive on her own without the support of others. She is clearly a troubled person and it shows through her actions towards others. She is constantly being used against her own will. Hamlet uses her innocence in his favor to seek revenge towards King Claudius. Ophelia was always taught to be obedient and to always follow what others told her to do. Because of her innocence, she is constantly being taken advantage of because she is a woman. In Hamlet, Ophelia's insanity increases due to the fact that she loses all of the people that she was once close to. Shakespeare uses the character of Ophelia to portray women in society at a specific time.

By showing that Ophelia does not hold enough power to function on her own, it describes women of that time.
Because Ophelia lacks the strength to function on her own, she depends on those around her.

Ophelia’s brother Laertes always wants the best for her. So he suggests that she should no longer pursue the relationship with Hamlet because she doesn’t belong in the royal family. Laertes obviously loves her but also wants that power of controlling her so he advises Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet. All men during this time would act like this towards a woman. Ophelia’s relationship with her father is very normal, they loved each other and Ophelia cared for him greatly. After Laertes told Ophelia that she should stay away from Hamlet, Ophelia tells her father that Hamlet loves her. Polonius Ophelia’s father, finds it strange that Hamlet would profess his love towards her so he quickly mirrors what Laertes said earlier and he tells her to no longer be affiliated with Hamlet. Ophelia promises to obey her father's commands. Her relationship with Hamlet is anything but normal, some might call it a type of “rejected love.” Ophelia still loves Hamlet but he no longer feels the same way towards her. Both Hamlet and Ophelia share this mutual love for one another until their worlds begin to fall apart. For Ophelia, her life begins to unravel when Hamlet admits that his love

for her was never meaningful and after Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius when he meant to kill King Claudius. Their love for each other ultimately disappears. When Hamlet admits that he no longer loved her, her life begins to spiral out of control. Hamlet and Ophelia’s love falls apart when Hamlet loses all trust because he had just found out that his father was murdered by his uncle. When Hamlet’s world falls apart, so does Ophelia’s. Both Ophelia and Hamlet are distracted by their fathers deaths so their relationship was bound to fall apart. Hamlet pretended to be insane to see if he could get a reaction from King Colonius but what Ophelia didn’t know was that he was actually acting. This impacted Ophelia immensely and caused her to become mad because she realised that maybe he was never telling the truth and that their whole relationship was a lie.
Ophelia gradually loses her sanity, due to the fact that she is no longer surrounded by those she once loved.

King Claudius mentions “Poor Ophelia divided from herself and her fair judgement” (IV.V.91-92) she doesn’t know how to control herself and is losing her sanity because her emotions are getting the best of her. She is left in a tough place when Hamlet; her former lover, who killed her father Polonius. Ophelia constantly brings up her father's death by saying “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end” (IV.V.207-209). She implies that maybe dying is a better solution to her problems and will end all of her suffering. Ophelia reacts to her father's death in a passive way, as she says “He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone” (IV.V. 34-35). This is when Ophelia starts giving into the madness. Ophelia is allowing the madness to take over by isolating herself and acting strange. She believes that singing is the best way for her to freely express herself so she repeatedly sings about flowers and how pretty they are, “Larded all with sweet flowers; Which bewept the grave and did not go with true-love showers” (IV.V.43-45). When really she’s just foreshadowing her death because she is mentioning graves and how the flowers rest upon the grave. Right now, she doesn’t have a lot going for her because she just figured out that Hamlet killed her father, her brother is away in France and Hamlet has just rejected

her love. The pressures of the patriarchal society finally gets to her. She never held any power because her brother and father constantly had control over her life. She tries to hang on but the madness is just too much for her to handle. In the end, Ophelia’s madness is her downfall and ultimately leads to her death.
Ophelia is very childlike with how she doesn’t always think things through and she sometimes acts impulsively. An example of her childlike behavior in the book is when she decides to take a walk by the river. When she is at the river she climbs a tree and puts flowers on the branches. She doesn’t always think about the consequences for her actions before she does things. She unfortunately falls off the tree and into the river and drowns. She has the opportunity to save herself and try to swim out of the river but because her life has fallen apart and she doesn't want to return to reality she chooses to give up. Her death is said to have been very peaceful and poetic with the descriptions. Ophelia’s death symbolizes the loss of innocence and does more damage to those around her. Because she died so soon after her father was killed, “Her death was doubtful” (V.I.233), it can be said that she committed suicide to avoid all of her problems.
Ophelia, like so many other characters in Hamlet is constantly being used against her own will. One of her major downfalls is that she lacks strength to fight on her own, and she cannot function without her family around her. It is very evident that she cannot continue on without her friends and family’s support. Because Ophelia is very vulnerable and innocent, she constantly plays the role as the victim. Shakespeare uses Ophelia’s character to reflect how sometimes we live in a “fantasy world” but when reality hits, we are often not pleased with the end results. Ophelia’s downfall lies within her actions, she should not have reacted the way she did when things did not go her way.