The ability for a person to both follow the wishes of others or deal with challenges while preserving his or her own morals, mental wellbeing and overall health is a balance that is hard to achieve. Often times the only way that people can effectively deal with conflicts in their lives is to throw away their instinct of self-preservation. Although Hamlet and Ophelia are lovers who claim to love one another, the emphasis that they place on their own wellbeing while dealing with demands varies greatly. Ophelia always puts her own wellbeing last, whereas Hamlet was willing to use Ophelia’s mental wellbeing in order to protect himself. While some similarities exist between Hamlet and Ophelia’s sense of self-preservation, the differences are exceedingly …show more content…
Unlike the death of her father and brother Ophelia’s death is described as almost beautiful and angelic by Gertrude “Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And, mermaid-like… Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death.” (IV.vii.189-198). Ophelia accepted her death without any fight and made no attempt to protect her own life. She in no way fought for her life and simply gave into the eternal sleep. She gave up to the point where it could be argued that Ophelia committed suicide. Unlike Hamlet, the amount that Ophelia fights for her own self-preservation changes very little over the course of the play. From the beginning to end she is willing to let other people dictate her actions despite the emotional consequences that they have on her. And finally, her death is very fitting to the character, simply letting nature take control of her life and not fighting to even preserve her own life when she falls into the river. This creates a foil to Hamlet's character who died fighting for what he believed in and refused to let people go against what he thought was morally right. It also makes Hamlet’s death seem heroic and noble in comparison because he died fighting for what he believed
Her initial denial comes from the rejection of her love by Hamlet, leading to anger and confusion. She then begins to bargain with herself, trying to understand why Hamlet has treated her so coldly. As the play progresses, Ophelia's depression deepens. She becomes overwhelmed by the events around her, ultimately leading to her tragic demise. Ophelia's story shows how grief can be not only a response to loss but also to rejection and disappointment.
Her life in an instant became a disaster because it was Hamlet the one she loved, the person who had killed her father. Ophelia’s death is debated as an accident or a suicide, but I believe it was an accident that ended in a suicide since she lost her father and Hamlet killed him. Ophelia, was a dependant women from her father and her brother Laertes and she obeyed every demand she received from both. She was loyal to her family specially to his father.
Hamlet could have caused Ophelia emotional agony due to their relationship ending or from killing her beloved father, which leads her to the action of killing Ledford 4 herself. Hamlet seems to be very complex and he may not be as deranged as Shakespeare makes everyone in the play to think he is. When readers think into detail about the way he could have possibly “mentally killed,” Ophelia or directed her to this spot in her life, we realize he is actually quite smart if it is part of his use of violence to seek revenge. Shakespeare constructs Hamlet to be a character that everyone can love and feel sorry for at times because we as readers can relate to him in some aspects.
“ My lord, I have remembrance of yours, that I longed long to re-deliver; I pray you, now receive them” (Shakespeare 2. 2. 93-95). Ophelia’s decision to relinquish her love to Hamlet for her father’s sake spurred Hamlet’s decision for his feigned madness and also made it easier for him to reject Ophelia and emotionally abuse her, which in turn, spurred her own internal disappointment and hatred in herself. However,“We see Hamlet’s nobility and realise that his flippant comments to her stemmed from his antic disposition and feigned madness” (Tuohy, 2012).
Ophelia’s madness stems from the broken relationship with her father, as well as the breaking of her heart by Hamlet. After her insanity sets in, she begins to hum and sing as she’s speaking and she 's makes very little sense when she speaks and her words can be quite vulgar. Ophelia’s insanity also appears to be the cause that drove her to drowning herself, whether intentionally or not. In stark contrast, Hamlet’s show of madness is not anywhere close to Ophelia’s.
235 marks it as an accident. Ophelia might have killed herself because she could’ve been suffering through depression. Some symptoms of depression are sadness and loss of interest or pleasure in activities (“Depression” 1). Since Polonius’s death, Ophelia has been showing these symptoms, for example, when she says, “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.” (4.5.207), she is implying that everything that was once fun or pleasing no longer holds her interest.
Throughout the play Ophelia experiences many hardships. The death of her father and the rejection of Hamlets love take a toll on Ophelia mentally and emotionally. In the play Hamlet kills Polonius by stabbing him in the chest. When Ophelia found out about the death of her father she slipped into a depressive madness state of mind. The audience can see Ophelia singing about her fathers death: Ophelia: He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia’s love for Hamlet ultimately leads to her madness. In order for Ophelia to build her relationship with Hamlet, she must go against her father’s orders considering he strictly prohibited her from seeing him. Hamlet then breaks up with Ophelia saying, “I did love you once,” and then tells her to go “to a nunnery,” causing Ophelia to feel a great amount of betrayal. Ophelia is already heartbroken, and now Hamlet murders her father which was too much for her to handle.
Hamlet doesn’t look at Ophelia as a modest wife, but someone that would use her husband and turn him into a monster. (3.1.138-141) Lastly, when Hamlet kills Polonius and Ophelia finds out about the death of her father and the way he was buried, she becomes devastated and depressed. Even though Ophelia isn't aware that Hamlet is the reason behind her father’s death, she is still heartbroken that her father didn’t get a proper funeral which is why she went mad. “We must be patient.
Ophelia goes mad throughout the story. She is overwhelmed by the loss of her father and the rejection of Hamlet. Her character is seen spiraling down a dark path that also ends in death. Ophelia is depicted as not having control over her actions; speaking and acting erratically. While Hamlet is speaking erratically and behaving oddly, he still maintains control over his actions and movement throughout the story.
Ophelia’s death results from Hamlet's madness, his telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, and Polonius's death. Hamlet telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery made Ophelia feel insecure. Especially when Hamlet told Ophelia that he would marry her just so she would sleep with him. Then, Hamlet comes back to Ophelia telling her that she needs to go to a nunnery. Which is basically calling Ophelia a whore, because a nunnery is like a whorehouse. Ophelia at this point felt very insecure about herself and she questioned her relationship with Hamlet.
Hamlet has come to see his mother, Queen Gertrude, and ends up stabbing Lord Polonius, which ultimately leads to his death. Lord Polonius’ final words include “O, I am slain!” Even though this provides a slight amount of comic relief to the reader, it has a reverse effect on Ophelia’s mental state. Her father’s death seems to be the potent punch in this fight because she officially goes mad after this final event. This is apparent in Scene IV Act I, when Laertes has come back to visit his sister and check on her well being.
For the duration of the play, Ophelia was portrayed as a naïve and submissive woman. Her passivity and powerlessness reinforce the voicelessness of women during the Elizabethan era. For example, “I shall obey, my lord” (I.iii.134) shows that Ophelia concedes to her father’s will, even though she believes Hamlet’s love is genuine. She is willing and expected to obey her father despite the fact that she still loves Hamlet, which emphasizes her character’s submissive nature. Furthermore, in Act I Laertes warns Ophelia that it would be shameful of her to love Hamlet, and she responds with “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as a watchman to my heart” (I.iii.45).
Throughout the play, Ophelia acts as a very honest person in the beginning, willing to tell Laertes and Polonius anything. She then receives mistreated love from Hamlet that leads her to drowning herself in a river. The true face and actions from Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, and particularly Hamlet lead to their deaths. The end result leads to unfortunate events, including death. The love throughout the kingdom of Denmark becomes toxic, killing all who lives
Gertrude states that Ophelia fell into the water when she was trying to hang her “fantastic garlands” on a tree and one of the branches broke. However, when she was in the water, she was “one incapable of her own distress”, not acknowledging the danger she was in (4.7.177). Even though she was in the water, she did not struggle to escape the river, but instead sung “snatches of old tunes”, until finally the weight of her thick clothes pulled her under the water and she drowned (4.7.176). Therefore, Ophelia’s death was an accident to a certain extent, because her madness made her blind to the danger she was in.