Ophelia 1

• Hamlet and Ophelia's relationship

  Complex, in terms of their interactions, communications, and parallels in their experiences within the play
• Ophelia


  • The most static and one-dimensional out of all the characters in 'Hamlet'
  • Contains the potential to become a tragic heroine in order to overcome the adversities inflicted upon her
  • Instead she crumbles into insanity, becoming solely tragic
• Ophelia's decline


  Explores further the nature of human behaviour and illuminates complexities in the tragic hero (Hamlet)
• Ophelia can be a representation of women in society, silenced by patriarchy as was Gertrude
• Hamlet assembled his anger towards Gertrude


  And inflicted it upon Ophelia
• Hamlet's voice remains verbal rather than physical

  Ophelia's death is as much an outcome of his rage as it is an expression of grief, madness, and self-destruction
• Ophelia's suicide


  May have been the only option to escape the suffering she faced due to the men in her life (Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet)
• Ophelia's suicide may have been a point about the corrupt society and how no individual remains untouched or unscathed
• Ophelia's characterisation of madness

  • Wearing all white, garlands, singing, speeches marked with extravagant metaphors and explosive sexual imagery
• Ophelia: ''O woe is me, To see what I have seen, see what I see!''
• Ophelia's language in Act 3 scene 1

  Foreshadows her future actions and how she will eventually turn mad and lose her mind, effectively leading to her suicide in Act 4 scene 7
• David Leverenz: ''Through her impossible attempts to obey contradictory voices, Ophelia mirrors in her madness the tensions that Hamlet perceives''
• Hamlet and Ophelia


  Are externally and internally conflicted by the obligation of action, which is a sign of the corrupt environments they operate in
• Ophelia's role of denying Hamlet's love and perceived cruelty towards him


  Could drive her to madness
• Polonius: ''You do not understand yourself so clearly as it behoves my daughter and your honour''
• Ophelia: ''I shall obey my Lord''
• Shakespeare successfully portrays the destructive influence of patriarchal society on women
• Shakespeare effectively conveys the differences in the relationship of Ophelia and Hamlet, as well as the similarities of the characters leading to both of their downfalls
• Ultimately, Shakespeare effectively conveys the differences in the relationship of Ophelia and Hamlet however, alternatively the similarities of the characters leading to both of their downfalls.
• Ophelia


  • Utterly controlled and ultimately destroyed by the corrupt patriarchal world in which she lives
  • Seemingly abandoned by all the men who dominate her
  • Used by those around her and cannot survive in such a world where duplicity, manipulation and violence dominate
• Ophelia's submissiveness to her father's every wish would be considered commendable in society at the time, and kept within the patriarchal expectations of society
• Ophelia submits to her brother's instructions

  1. Laertes orders Ophelia to reject Hamlet's romantic advance

  2. Laertes compares Hamlet's love to 'a violet in the toughness of primy nature' - sweet and perfumed, but only lasting for a minute
• Ophelia follows and obeys the commands of her father and brother

  This fuels Hamlet's feelings of betrayal
• At the time, women had to obey the men in their lives and had no choice
• Ophelia ends her life


  As an escape from the corrupt world she lives in
• Shakespeare may have used Ophelia's death as a message to Elizabethan society to change how women are treated, as subjects to their husbands, fathers and even brothers
• David Leverenz: 'Laertes and Ophelia seem to exemplify in conduct the alternative courses of action considered by Hamlet in his soliloquy… Ophelia finds refuge from the heartache and existence in madness and death'
• Laertes


  • Can be said to be choked by toxic masculinity
  • Becomes the conventional tragic hero due to his mediaeval nature as he is able to conduct revenge without thought, unlike Hamlet
• Shakespeare's intentions perhaps were to end the never ending cycle of human behaviour in the futility of action and inaction
• Ophelia's sexuality


  • Portrayed as an 'admirable quality' emphasising her chastity
• Ophelia: 'Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven'
• Flowers throughout the play are emblematic, indicating different attributes of the characters
• Violets are related to faithfulness, 'Rosemary, violets, and daisies' can be related to Ophelia's strife with Hamlet and her father
• Flowers could have possibly used to indicate Ophelia's madness, as a call for help, as she did for singing, however the flowers and signing eventually stopped and she fell into the relentless fate she had coming
• Once Ophelia lost the male figures in her life, she began her decline into madness, as a true 'reaction to the events of the play'
• The only way for Ophelia to deal with her conflicting emotions and contradictory voices is for her to take back control and commit suicide
• Shakespeare illustrates Ophelia as destructed by the society she lives in, perhaps echoing a message to the audience to create the change that has to occur so this doesn't happen for any woman of the time