The Role Of Ophelia

Being a female in the Elizabethan period meant that you were to be considered as property, a subspecies of human, far below the male-counterpart. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there is no one more representative of being oppressed, than the character of Ophelia. She is such a respectful, docile, young woman, that oftentimes she represses her own feelings to represent the obedient role of a female, and through a catalyst of unfortunate events in her life, her frail mentality pushes her into a deep depression. Ophelia endures a perplexing struggle with coming of age due to her absent female confidants, a pompous father, and a selfish lover. What is worse than living in a misogynistic society, is living in one as a female who is alone, and unable

Hamlet is unmistakably a young, irrational, and highly emotional person himself, as are most people of adolescent age. He is self-absorbed in his own plots, so much so that he completely dismisses Ophelia as a human with feelings, and says careless, harsh things towards her such as, “God has given you one face and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance” (3.1.142-145). He demeans women for using makeup as though it makes a woman a deceiver, speaking of a woman’s bountiful ways, and sweet character in a very belittling way. He tells Ophelia that since she has already had sex with him, she cannot claim that she is innocent. Ophelia, trying to represent the woman she is supposed to be, responds in a very polite way, and does not for a second show offence, and instead asks God to restore him to his more gentlemanly ways. Of course words of these sorts, coming from someone you believed you shared something sacred with, hurt, and yet Ophelia feels like she has to conceal that from him in order to fulfil her role of a respectful, quiet female. His arrogance, and selfishness show Ophelia that men are entitled to say any sort of disrespectful thing, and as a woman, she has to stand there and take it. It can then be said, that if Hamlet was to apologize, she would have forgiven him in an instant. The whole conversation they engage in is so atrocious, as we now know in modern-day, that this is verbal, and emotional abuse, which is identified to cause trauma to the way a person feels about their self-worth. Ophelia will learn to feel that this is the way a man treats a woman, and that she deserves it for making him upset. Hamlet has not even given a single thought about what she is going through, and the position her