Madness In Ophilia Analysis

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The story of Hamlet, a play written by William Shakespeare, is a story filled with betrayal, loss and secrecy. Many people interpret the tale differently to find its meaning. The themes I will be discussing from this play is melancholy, madness, and sanity. I will explore these three things in the character Hamlet and also in Ophilia. Though their experiences are different, they share similar feelings but deal with them in different ways. In the beginning, we find out that Hamlet 's father is dead. Hamlet is deeply saddened by this. It had been two months and he still mourned of him speaking of the heaviness he feels (Act 1 Scene 1 pg. 1052). He was in a deep depressive state, and the fact that his mother moved on and married his …show more content…

His father was murdered, HIs mother becomes Queen to his murderous uncle, who is now King, his friends are spying on him, and Ophilia, his love, dies. He has a lot on his plate and there were many times where Hamlet questioned whether his life was even worth living anymore. One example of that is in his famous 'To be, not not to be" speech he gives while thinking to himself (Act 3 Scene 1 pg. 1090). Another time where he thought loosely of his life was when he was preparing to fight Laertes. Even though he knew the odds weren 't fair, he didn 't care (Act 5 Scene 1 pg. 1144). Hamlet 's regards towards his life on many occasions have been a result of the crazy life he was …show more content…

In this case, when Ophilia hears of her father’s death, she goes in to a deep depression. She begins acting strange and many people, like the Queen, she is mad with grief. She would sing of her father’s death and how he was gone forever and never coming back. (Act 4 Scene 5 pg. 1119). While singing, she comes and goes in and out of the different rooms of the castle until eventually she comes only wearing straws and flowers. She would pass them out saying that they brought luck or what the represented, and then she would continue to sing even after. The death of Polonius, Ophilia 's father, had taken a huge toll on her. The sadness she was feeling had overtaken her, which lead to her drowning. (Act Scene 7 pg 1130). His death shocked everyone. Not having her father around drove her to such a state of mind that made her question her own life. Maybe out of grief and a fuzzy, distraught train of thought, Ophilia went to her death thinking she 'd be with her father again in Heaven. The comparison of these two characters, Hamlet and Ohpilia, showed the sadness, craziness, and mental state of them both and how they handled it. The two played an important role in showing the audience how grief, deceit, and the strain of everyday life can really effect the mind. Either way, Hamlet is an untimely play that continues to inspire and raise questions to this day, and that is what makes it one of the

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