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The element of tragedy in hamlet
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Innocent Ophelia In 1600, William Shakespeare wrote one of his most famous plays, Hamlet. The tragedy follows the downfall of Prince Hamlet due to his fatal flaw of procrastination. Hamlet’s tragic flaw also hurt and caused death to others. While there are many victims within the play, the significant, and most innocent was Ophelia. Actions such as manipulation, scheming, abuse, and murder by those she trusted lead to her insanity and eventually, her death. Beginning in Act I, Ophelia is written as a submissive, naïve girl. Qualities she possesses are what allows her father and Hamlet to belittle her. The actions of Polonius and Hamlet towards her are the very elements leading her to become emotionally compromised. Ophelia was publically humiliated in front of the king and queen when forced to read a letter from Hamlet about their love: O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans. But that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. ‘Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst This machine is to him, Hamlet (II, ii, 127 – 131).
Along with the personal letter being read to the leaders of Denmark, Ophelia was heartbroken by her lover Hamlet. During their breakup, Hamlet insults her by saying “get thee to a nunnery” (III, i, 131) and “marry a
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Her insanity was instigated by the death of her father, although other factors such as abuse and heartbreak contributed. The saddest part of Ophelia’s madness is her songs of death, flowers, and love. The nature of the songs sung by Ophelia suggests that her insanity, in part, was caused by her unrequited for Hamlet. Her songs describe her father as “dead and gone” (IV, v, 30) and her love for Hamlet: “All in the morning betime/ And I a maid at your window/ to be your Valentine” (IV, v, 48-50) Ultimately, Ophelia’s death was brought upon her by the madness she suffered
Since everyone is unaware of Hamlet’s true feelings of his mother’s new marriage and knowledge of Claudius poisoning his father, Polonius convinces Claudius and Gertrude that Hamlet is driven mad by love for Ophelia. So once again, Ophelia follows the orders of her father and the king to meet with Hamlet in a place where they can test this theory and watch the two young lovers in secret. Maki then quotes a scholar, “ ‘Polonius [and Claudius] snoop behind the arras, and she becomes the bait to catch the conscience of the Prince’ (Hunt 15)”, this sets up the scene that Polonius and Claudius quickly learn that a lot of Hamlet’s nonsense does in fact have truth and meaning. An example of this is when he crushes any of Ophelia’s hope of Hamlet still loving her with this reply, “If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery” (3.1.135-37). This is the second time that Ophelia is told she will have no value if she has any pre-marital sexual relations and during the time period of Hamlet, a woman who does not follow tradition could potentially be ostracised by her family and remain a maiden the rest of their life. So in the end, Maki draws the conclusion that, “Hamlet then rejects
The play Hamlet is known for its eccentric plot and warped sense of reality as well as its fanatical characters. Hamlet himself created all the drama in the play with his pretend “madness” and his emotional outbursts, which lead to the destruction of almost all of the characters in the play. The most notable self destruction came from Ophelia, Hamlet’s object of affection. During the play, Ophelia had undergone a lot of stress which lead her character to metamorphous.
While Ophelia crumbles under depression, taking her own life, Hamlet overcomes his troubled mind and faces reality. “Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!” (Ham. 1. 2. 129-32). Where Ophelia turns her feelings of anger inward, Hamlet turns his anger outward, lashing out at others. “There are overtones here of the slang meaning of “nunnery” as “whorehouse,” but primarily Hamlet consigns Ophelia to a life of pious chastity. Yet in effect, he is murdering Ophelia, and starting her on the path to suicide” (Bloom 41).
Ophelia was driven mad by the death of her father Polonius and how Hamlet betrayed her love with his own wave of madness which was just an act. In her madness, Ophelia talks about her father and his death and about the “Tricks in the world” (terrible things that happen to people). Ophelia’s madness was also the extent of her being used by her father so he could spy on Hamlet to see if he was truly crazy and then by Hamlet when he claimed he no longer loved her and that he didn’t send her any letters (remembrances). Ophelia’s speech and her fragments of songs are unsensible. Her song was about her father’s death “He is gone, He is gone” (4.5.220), and a maiden who is tricked into losing her virginity with a false promise of love and the possibility of marriage. “To be your valentine, then up he rose and donned his clothes and duped the chamber door” (4.5.56-58)
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.
However, the way Hamlet treats Ophelias contributes to her insanity and is arguably the most recognizable cause of her misfortune “Get thee to a nunnery,/... Or, if thou wilt needs marry,/ marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what/ monsters you make of them” (Hamlet: III.i.138). Hamlet telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery is clearly an awful and cruel thing to say to someone he loves. This event proves Hamlet’s actual insanity.
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.
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 reader is left guessing on Hamlet’s true feelings for Ophelia through his various insults, sexual innuendos, and admitted desire. Hamlet’s claim, “God hath given you one face, and you / Make yourselves another.” (3.1.155-156) is laced with irony and hypocrisy given Hamlet’s own deception regarding true feelings. This proclamation comes at the end of a lengthy tirade against Ophelia and womankind in general for their conniving deceit leading men astray. The fact that Hamlet cannot see this duplicity in his very own actions shows the double standard he holds for females. Ophelia’s immediate reaction is one of shock and defense due to the aggressive nature of Hamlet’s attack. She calls out “O, woe is me!” (3.1.174) in distress to the ferocity of Hamlet and is unable to form a particularly coherent response akin to the ones seen against Laertes and Polonius. She does show her intelligence and rebellion from this assumption of power by Hamlet in her songs while Hamlet is gone. While many attribute her madness to the death of her father, a large portion of her instability should be attributed to Hamlet and his earlier actions. In her first introduction as insane she sings, “And I a maid at your window, / To be your Valentine. / Then up he rose and donned his clothes / And dropped the chamber door, / Let in the maid, that out a maid / Never departed more.” (4.5.55-60). Due to her references to sexuality and deceit the
“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.
With the men’s constant abuse, they each start telling her different things. Unsure of whom to listen to, she starts to get confused and starts losing herself. When finally there was no one there to tell her anymore she goes mad, and on the brink of her madness she ends up killing herself. Throughout all these events, no one stops to think of her as an actual person, but instead like a rag doll they could just toss around. The play Hamlet itself was discussed without any bother of Ophelia for nearly four hundred years before scholars started to think of her and read the play with a Feminist viewpoint.
It is evident that Hamlet defines Ophelia by her sexuality. Hamlet does not value her as the woman she is. Instead, Hamlet views her as a mere object. Hamlet makes various sexual innuendos towards Ophelia. For example, this is apparent in 2.3, when Hamlet is speaking to Ophelia. Hamlet says, “It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge” (3.2.250). Hamlet is making this regard to her in public and Ophelia lets him continue. Ophelia because of her gender continues to let Hamlet exploit and oppress her. Ophelia embodies a mutual assessment of femininity. Author Pragati Das writes, “Ophelia, it would seem, wholly at the mercy of the male figures throughout her life, is certainly a victim character” (Das 38). Ophelia does not have any alternative thoughts; she only responds with a simple sentence, “Still better and worse” (3.2.251). Ophelia is not standing up for herself, instead of she “…expresses acquiescence, uncertainty, and obeisance; she utters half lines” (Fischer 2). The power of Hamlet is manipulating Ophelia and it this shown through from her dull reaction of such crudities. Hamlet sums his vulgar and suggestive speech with, “For, oh, for, oh, the hobby-horse is forgot” (3.2.23–24). After Hamlet’s pressures of sexual suggestions, Ophelia is found to be under the absolute dominance of Hamlet’s demands, and as a result, her sanity diminishes. Ophelia’s song reflects on Hamlet, her father, and life
Ophelia loves Hamlet; her emotions drive her to perform her actions. Some would say that Ophelia’s emotions could have actually been what ended her young
Two of Ophelia’s difficulties arise from her father and brother. They believe that Hamlet is using her to take her virginity and throw it away because Ophelia will never be his wife. Her heart believes that Hamlet loves her although he promises he never has (“Hamlet” 1). Hamlet: “Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but not the time gives it proof. I did love you once.” Ophelia: “Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.” Hamlet: “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock ...
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.