Shakespeare, through numerous accounts of symbolism and allusions introduces a whole definition of insanity through the character Ophelia in Hamlet. He presents Ophelia as a lover who only has eyes for the lord Hamlet but is barraged with complications when her father forbids her to be with him contrasting her feelings for him and her father whom she loves both greatly. The murder of her father and the utter rage from Hamlet ultimately leads Ophelia to insanity in which she then makes indirect threats and pokes to the king and queen of Denmark. Ophelia’s madness was slowly being fed ever since her father had intervened with her love life. Ophelia, being the most obedient daughter in the world, listens and heeds to all her father’s warnings and directions when it …show more content…
comes to love. When she was told to no longer see Hamlet, she agreed with no retaliation - "I shall obey my Lord" (Shakespeare). Not long after, she is requested by Polonius to speak to Hamlet only for the purpose of being spied on by the king and her father and she agrees with no disagreement. It becomes evident to the readers that as long as Ophelia is unwedded, she must heed to her father’s commands. Then again if she did marry, she would have to heed to her spouse’s commands. “Essentially, Ophelia has no control over her body, her relationships, or her choices” (Schmoop). Later, when Polonius uses her as bait to spy on Hamlet for King Claudius, she does exactly what she is told. Hamlet however, knows Ophelia has been helping father spy on him and he accuses her a “breeder of sinners and orders her to a “nunnery” which is another word for brothel but Opehlia is a lady and of nobility so she cannot admit she knows of the word (Shakespeare). Hamlet continues and says if Ophelia ever did wed, then her spouse would have horns because she would cheat on him. Her realization of how dependent she is on men and how hopeless she is without them ultimately leaves her in heartbreak and the start of madness. Ophelia’s madness is first evident when she starts speaking in puns and allusions which some might consider to be coincidental threats but the readers know better. As Ophelia is presented before the queen in the midst of her sanity, she exclaims "Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark." It is unknown if she is referring to the Queen at this point or her banished lover Hamlet. The Queen standing before her perhaps brings memories of her lover in which she loses herself in and begins to sing old ballads that had probably been sang to her in nursery. The song is about a maiden who questions a traveler about her lost lover. At first the song appears just to be about “Ophelia's preoccupation with Polonius's death” in which she laments for her father’s quick and inappropriate burial. (Ausgustine) Although the song does obviously refer to her father, it also has another meaning in which it is directed to the Queen who stands before her. She accuses the Queen of not being able differ “true love from another one, who has not appropriately mourned her first husband with true-love showers, before taking a second” (whohill). Ophelia accuses the Queen of marrying to quick and not having good judgement of people since she was already in process of re-marrying before her mourning was ever over. The third reason for Ophelia singing this ballad is probably to reference her banished lover, Hamlet. The “pilgrimage” reference in the ballad most likely refers to Hamlet’s banishment and the “death” often times in Elizabethen Era referred to “sexual climax” (whohill). Then again, the death and pilgrimage could also make a reference to the maybe incestuous yearning for her absent brother Laertes.
“Ophelia reveals a deeper understanding of worldly issues than an aristocratic virgin should ever admit” (Mckendree). It is soon obvious that Ophelia is not just speaking at random but at a pattern and with intention. She is also fully aware of the fact that she would not be punished for her words because she had been declared mad and mad people are not in control of their words or actions apparently. She continues to use this tactic for the duration of the play. In addition to ballads, Ophelia also starts to convey messages in symbolism and allusions. She tells the story of the bakers daughter which was turned into an owl. A beggar, who is later revealed to be Jesus in disguise asks the bakers daughter for a loaf of bread and she denies him the bread. The beggar turns her into an owl as punishment. Ophelia says to the queen “They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be” (Shakespeare). “This may be a question about identity” (Mckendree). By refercign the bakers daughter, Ophelia starts contemplating about identity and how everyone is subject to transformation. For example, Hamlets uncle killed his father and became not only his father
but the king as well. Another one is that Ophelia was loved by her father and Hamlet but then one killed the other and no longer loves her. Shortly after, Ophelia sings a song about St. Valentine’s day, and it starts out delicately romantic but it turns dark very quickly. The song potrays how “she has internalized both Hamlet's uncouth treatment of her as a whore” (whohill). “Let in the maid, that out a maid / Never departed more” is essentially a pun that can be translated to a girl was a virgin when she walks into the room with the man but not when she exits (Shakespeare). She then naively laments that her lover promised to marry if they had sexual intercourse, but he did not live to his words which is supposed to surprise whoever the girl is speaking to. She perhaps sings this song to reference her brothers warning about Hamlets intentions for pleasure and not marriage. If so, Ophelia ironically understands the word better through insanity. Although, she is fully aware of her situation she can’t help to weep over her tragic love life.
“Pretty Ophelia,” as Claudius calls her, is the most innocent victim of Hamlet’s revenge in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Hamlet has fallen in love with Ophelia after the death of his father. Ophelia “sucked the honey of his music vows” and returned Hamlet’s affection. But when her father had challenged Hamlet’s true intentions, Ophelia could only say: “I do not know, my lord, what I should think.” Ophelia was used to relying on her father’s directions and she was also brought up to be obedient. This allowed her to only accept her father’s views that Hamlet’s attention towards her was only to take advantage of her and to obey her father’s orders not to permit Hamlet to see her again.
Maki states, “Women of Ophelia’s time had little autonomy and their lives were reduced to the will of their father or husband.”, which applies directly to Ophelia’s state of mind. Maki also goes on to say that some symptoms of hysteria include, “choking and muteness”. For these symptoms to apply to Ophelia’s symptoms, they can be interpreted as muteness of her own opinions and and choking as in being smothered by all the men in her life. Her father and brother are pulling her in one direction and Hamlet is pulling her in another. Ophelia struggles with her instinct to remain as a respectable “good daughter” or to follow her sexul desires and chose to remain with
Loyal. Betrayed. Insane. Ophelia, a character from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, goes through emotional pain and suffering, that drives her into madness. Torn between her father’s word and her love for Hamlet, she chooses to listen to her father, which spells her own demise. Hamlet betrays Ophelia, telling her that he never loved her and that she meant nothing to him. Ophelia feels abandoned, but when her father dies she is pushed over the edge. She is no longer able to move on so she takes her own life.
Ophelia is a character in Hamlet that is chronically faithful to everyone else but herself. Ophelia is deeply in love with Hamlet, and she is certain that he loves her as well. This is clear from the assertions she makes in Hamlet’s defense: “My lord, he hath importuned me with love in honest fashion. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, with almost all the holy vows of heaven” (1795). Ophelia’s downfall emerges when she doubts her own feelings and beliefs about Hamlet, upon instruction and advice from her brother and father. Ophelia, a confident and intelligent woman, begins to rely on others to tell her what to think and how to act. “I do not know, my lord, what I should think” (1795). Upon Polonius request, and going against her own hearts desires, she starts to avoid Hamlet. “No, my good lord, but, as you did command, I did repel his letters and denied his access to me” (1806). By doing what her father advises and wishes Ophelia is no longer capable of making decisions for herself. The loss of Hamlet’s love and the death of her father leave her with confusion and doubts about her future. “Well, Go...
Ophelia’s obedience towards her untrusting father is indescribable ( I; iii; 101-103. "Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl, unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them"?). Why a grown woman would listen to her father and not help the man of her dreams in his time of need is disheartening. A man’s girlfriend should be there for him when a family member passes away, no matter what. If she had been with him on the plan to kill Claudius and knew about his fathers ghost who told Hamlet that Claudius was the one that murdered him, than neither one of them would have went crazy.
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).
In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare developed the story of prince Hamlet, and the murder of his father by the king's brother, Claudius. Hamlet reacted to this event with an internal battle that harmed everyone around him. Ophelia was the character most greatly impacted by Hamlet's feigned and real madness - she first lost her father, her sanity, and then her life. Ophelia, obedient, weak-willed, and no feminist role model, deserves the most pity of any character in the play.
Hamlet: The Cause of Ophelia's Insanity. Shakespeare, through his intricate uses of symbolism and dramatic. irony, arranges a brilliantly detailed account of how Hamlet's mental. upheaval served as the driving force of Ophelia's swelling insanity and imminent suicide.
Culturally, women have been expected to be soft spoken, gentle, delicate flowers. They should not question a man's opinion or go against their will. Ophelia, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is an example of a young naive girl who faces the dangers that come from only following what others want, and not thinking for herself. The men in this play use her for their own benefit and she suffers the repercussions, which leads her to madness and “accidental” death.
The story of Hamlet is a morbid tale of tragedy, commitment, and manipulation; this is especially evident within the character of Ophelia. Throughout the play, Ophelia is torn between obeying and following the different commitments that she has to men in her life. She is constantly torn between the choice of obeying the decisions and wishes of her family or that of Hamlet. She is a constant subject of manipulation and brain washing from both her father and brother. Ophelia is not only subject to the torture of others using her for their intentions but she is also susceptible to abuse from Hamlet. Both her father and her brother believe that Hamlet is using her to achieve his own personal goals.
The volume of works that Shakespeare wrote over the course of his lifetime was extensive. In that volume are stories that have influenced so many stories written later, stories that have influenced how many define things like love. Romeo and Juliet is perhaps his best-known work and defined western civilization's concept of love for generations. While slightly lesser known, Hamlet has had much the same degree of impact. This revenge tragedy truly defines the genre and opens up dialogues to many things, like madness. It is often the madness of Hamlet that is delved into but Ophelia too went mad in the end. While her father's murder at the hands of Hamlet undeniably contributed to her suicide, it was not the sole cause. Ophelia was driven to suicide by the way the men in her life treated her.
Ophelia trusts the advise given and her obedience is very evident in this matter as she avoids contact with Hamlet until she is told by her father, with the King and Queens approval, to meet up with him by 'accident' in the lobby. Deceit not being in her nature, believing that her father, the king and queen are right and true; that Hamlet is mad; and probably curious to know if Hamlet is "mad in love" with her the young, obedient, powerless Ophelia does her part to search out the truth. But tragically this one forced step outside of her true character begins her downfall. In a precarious predicament, loyalty to her father compelled Ophelia to lie to Hamlet when he asked about her father?s location at that moment saying he was at home instead of behind a tapestry right the...
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static character in the play. Instead of changing through the course of the play, she remains suffering in the misfortunes perpetrated upon her. She falls into insanity and dies a tragic death. Ophelia has issues surviving without a male influence, and her downfall is when all the men in her life abandon her. Hamlet’s Ophelia, is a tragic, insane character that cannot exist on her own.
Ophelia’s betrayal ends up putting Hamlet over the edge, motivating him in his quest for revenge. Ophelia is one of the two women in the play. As the daughter of Polonius, she only speaks in the company of several men, or directly to her brother or father. Since we never see her interactions with women, she suppresses her own thoughts in order to please her superiors. Yet, however weak and dependent her character is on the surface, Ophelia is a cornerstone to the play’s progression.
Madness is a key theme in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Throughout the play Shakespeare displays madness in many different forms. It is also shown in a variety of characters in the play. Some of the main characters that display madness include Hamlet and Ophelia. These characters displays their madness in different ways, and in different amounts. Shakespeare shows Hamlet’s madness as a more debatable form, making audiences question if he really does end up going mad or not. This differs from Ophelia’s madness, as she actually appears to have gone insane. There are also many different interactions with the other characters caused by the character’s madness. This make those other characters do things they may not have otherwise done.Madness