Environmental Factors In Ophelia In William Shakespeare's Hamlet

"Motherless and completely circumscribed by the men around her, Ophelia has been shaped to conform to external demands, to reflect other 's desires." (Dane) Through both the misogyny of the time period and the overbearing males in Ophelia 's environment, Shakespeare took a character that could have had some depth and complexity through these environmental factors and flattened her character into this one dimensional, fragile damsel in distress whose sole purpose is to portray Hamlet and the rest of the men in her life as dominant and strong males. Through analyzing her dialogue and actions towards these men it becomes clear that Ophelia isn 't this innocent and naive songbird with a character flaw, and instead a woman who can 't fight against the males in her life, instead just deals with them in a quiet manner. In Ophelia 's first scene, her lack of depth is made clear by Shakespeare 's lack of dialogue for her. While her brother, Laertes, and father, Polonius, had pages devoted to their lines, Ophelia 's dialogue only consisted of two or three lines at a time. The scene in question is about Ophelia 's relationship with Hamlet. Ophelia discussed Hamlet 's

Instead of being respectful and a decent human being towards her Hamlet decides to deny them ever being together, and complains about a woman 's power in the world; how women can "paint another [face] on top of it. You dance and prance and lisp; you call God’s creations by pet names, and you excuse your sexpot ploys by pleading ignorance." (Shakespeare 197). Hamlet continues to degrade her by inferring that 's she 's a whore disguised as a pure virgin, which is also the first sign in the play that Hamlet and Ophelia had a more sexual relationship than what would be considered the norm during this time and the first sign of her nymph-like