Ophelia Vs Hamlet

144 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shakespeare's influence on the audience

Shakespear´s revenge and madness driven play, Hamlet, presents modern day audiences with an insight into the world of love in the 1500s. The main relationship is that of Hamlet and Ophelia, whom is placed to be in her early teens while Hamlet is placed anywhere from 18-30. Ophelia´s young age juxtaposed next to Hamlet´s possibly significantly older one would cause most modern audiences to be appalled; these audiences however, are not because the majority of the time Ophelia is played by a young woman not a child. Directors choice to cast Ophelia as a young woman changes her character entirely from a child throwing a tantrum because she lost a parent to a fully grown woman becoming insane. This choice also over sexualizes Ophelia for her age

Show More
Related

  • Ophelia as a Foil to Shakespeare's Hamlet

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, the audience finds a docile, manipulated, scolded, victimized young lady named Ophelia. Ophelia is a foil to Hamlet. Plays have foils to help the audience better understand the more important characters in the play.  The character of Ophelia is necessary so that the audience will give Hamlet a chance to get over his madness and follow his heart.

    Read More

  • Comparing Maki And Ophelia In Hamlet By Shawna Maki

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Often overlooked in Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet, Shawna Maki analyzes Ophelia’s restricting role as a woman in a patriarchal society and how it essentially leads to her death being the true tragedy of the play. Maki supports this argument by stating, “Whereas Hamlet has the power and potential to change his fate, Ophelia does not and her death is tragic because the only escape she sees from her oppression is madness and death.”. The comparison between Hamlet and Ophelia is a common parallel because both characters are inevitably labeled as tragic deaths due to the quick deterioration of their state of mind.

    Read More

  • Ophelia in Shakespeare´s Hamlet

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    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)

    Read More

  • Essay on the Oppression of Ophelia in Hamlet

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Ophelia Hamlet Analysis

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's Hamlet - Comparing Ophelia and Gertrude

    1988 Words  | 4 Pages

    scene II). She is shown to be a quiet, "stand by your man" type individual who

    Read More

  • Misogyny In Hamlet Essay

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet shows much anger and disrespect to the women in his life. Ophelia’s believing her father’s words breaks Hamlets heart, being the reason for his treatment towards not just her but his mother. Ophelia

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Internal Conflict Between Hamlet And Ophelia

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the brief but powerful exchange between Hamlet and Ophelia in Act 3 scene 1, Hamlet reveals his internal crisis about Truth and his introspective, if not self-involved, nature.

    Read More

  • Hamlet and Ophelia

    1396 Words  | 3 Pages

    1. Plays have foils to help the audience understand important characters in the play. Foils are minor characters that have similarities and differences with a more important character in the play. Sometimes the minor character is just there for the character to talk to; this is the basis for being a foil. In the play "Hamlet," [Titles] by William Shakespeare, the character Ophelia is a foil to Hamlet.

    Read More

  • Female Role In Ophelia

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ophelia, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, represents a self-confident and aware female character. She analyzes the world around her and recognizes the multitude of male figures attempting to control her life. Her actions display not only this awareness, but also maturity in her non-confrontational discussions. Though she is demeaned by Laertes, Polonius, and Hamlet, Ophelia exhibits intelligence and independence and ultimately resorts to suicide in order to free herself from the power of the men around her.

    Read More

  • The Innocence of Gertrude and Ophelia in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In Hamlet

    2145 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Gertrude And Ophelia

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Hamlet and Othello: Ophelia and Desdemona

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ophelia and Desdemona play the role of the "innocent lady" in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Othello. The roles of these characters provide a sense of completeness, faithfulness, and obedience to the leading male figures. In both plays, these innocent ladies end up dying. These deaths are both due to a false rejection of love. Othello kills Desdemona because he believes her love is false, and Ophelia dies ultimately because she reads Hamlet's mask of madness as rejection. These deaths exemplify the pattern of harmony turning to chaos in both of these plays, and provide proof of the decay that is spreading to everyone in Venice and Denmark.

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Relationship Between Hamlet And Ophelia

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    Laertes, early, tells Ophelia that she must beware of a relationship with Hamlet. The heart of this warning lies in one phrase: Hamlet “may not, as unvalued persons do,/Carve for himself” (1.3 19-20). Laertes means specifically that Hamlet, as royalty, cannot cut his own meat. The suggestions, however, are more involved. Laertes is also saying Hamlet cannot choose his own wife, he is childlike, and cannot kill or fend for himself. These themes are central to the entire tragedy.

    Read More

More about Ophelia Vs Hamlet

Open Document