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Ophelia's Plights in 'Hamlet'

Everyone discusses Hamlet himself, but what about Ophelia?

By Leo MisislyanPublished 7 years ago 5 min read
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There is no doubt that one’s external environmental situation has a considerable sway on one’s emotional and mental health. This is all too true for Ophelia, who unfortunately was negatively affected by her situation. In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the readers are exposed to love, loss, revenge, and insanity in this devastating tragedy. Ophelia is a particularly sorry character; she is ensnared in Hamlet’s plans of feigning insanity, and therefore has her love ripped away from her after stating he never loved her at all and belittling her character. In addition to this, Ophelia’s already battered mental state is pushed over the precipice when Hamlet kills her father, Polonius. Ophelia is therefore driven to a woeful, inconsolable insanity. Through Ophelia’s journey of relationships and loss, Shakespeare demonstrates how the corrosive power of love and demise leads to insanity, and, in Ophelia’s case, her suicide.

Ophelia’s mental decline begins when Polonius and Claudius try to gauge if Hamlet is truly insane, or if he is merely love-struck by his former relationship with Ophelia. This is shown when Claudius plots, “For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, that he, as ‘twere by accident may affront Ophelia… and gather by him, as he is behaved if ‘t be the affliction of his love or no that thus he suffers for” (Act 3, Scene 1, Page 2). This is stating that Polonius and Claudius will be spying on Ophelia and Hamlet’s conversation to see if he is genuinely insane or simply in love. In this scene, Ophelia’s father, Polonius, forces her to return Hamlet’s love letters. This begins the road to Ophelia’s tragic fate. She must surely already feel used as a pawn by her father, as if she is only a game piece to capture Hamlet. Unfortunately, things progressively worsen. When Ophelia confronts Hamlet with the letters and says that she has fallen out of love with him, Hamlet says they aren’t his, and that he never wrote them. Ophelia insists, saying that he most definitely did write them. Hamlet erupts, and goes on a despicable rant, claiming, “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not” (Act 3, Scene 1, Page 5). Here, Hamlet is saying that Ophelia should never have believed his sweet words, because everyone is inherently rotten. He says that he never loved Ophelia. The pain Ophelia must be feeling here is potent; Hamlet is somehow insinuating that Ophelia is actually to blame for thinking he loved her, and that it’s her fault that she’d fallen for his lies. The tension thickens, when Hamlet continues his harsh conversation with her. He says next, on the same page, “Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? … Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.” This quote is particularly impactful. Here, Hamlet is telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery, which, in Shakespearean English, is a brothel, or a “whore house.” He is telling Ophelia to basically live as a prostitute, and that she should not have a right to be married and have children, because all children will inevitably be corrupted, and she will cheat on any husband she may have. Ophelia once loved Hamlet, and to have her former lover utterly destroy her entire character and personality was surely heart-breaking for her. She essentially lost her lover in a matter of seconds.

Throughout Hamlet, Ophelia’s mental state slowly deteriorates because of Hamlet’s harsh words. This is enhanced infinitely when, in Act 3, Hamlet sees someone behind his curtain, and mistakenly thinking it to be Claudius, he stabs the culprit through the tapestry. Evidently, it was Polonius behind the curtain, not Claudius. This is depicted when Hamlet says, “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead (stabs his sword through the arras and kills Polonius)” (Act 3, Scene 4, Page 2)! With her former beloved, Hamlet, betraying her trust and leaving her side, and her father being killed by the very man she once loved, Ophelia is understandably pushed over the edge. The pain in her heart must be unimaginable, and she is left alone. The recent trauma she endured results in her mental decline, until she becomes insane. When explaining her situation to King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, a gentleman explains, “Indeed distract. Her mood will needs be pitied… she speaks much of her father, says she hears there’s tricks i’ th’ world, and hems, and beats her heart, spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt that carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, yet the unshaped use of it doth move the hearers to collection” (Act 4, Scene 5). This quote illustrates that Ophelia speaks nonsense about her father, and has no grasp on the concept of time, as she speaks about her father sometimes like he’s still alive. She is paranoid, confused, and sick. Her movements are erratic and her words make no sense. This is chilling for a plethora of reasons, the most prominent being how quickly Ophelia has descended into madness and insanity. Her grief has proved too much to handle. From this quote, we realize that Ophelia is viewed as insane and a woman to be pitied. Tragically, Ophelia soon after escapes her crude prison for her safety, and drowns herself (Act 5, Scene 7). Her agonizing grief wore away at her mind until she spiraled into insanity, and she simply could not handle the pain of the loss of her former lover and father so close together.

To surmise, Ophelia was driven to madness through her trek through love and loss, as masterfully depicted by Shakespeare in Hamlet. Because of the loss of her lover and her father, she lost her mind, and committed suicide to end her suffering. Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, states this best, “Oh, her grief has poisoned her mind. Her father died and now look at her! Oh, Gertrude, Gertrude, when bad things happen, they don’t come one at a time, like enemy spies, but all at once like an army” (Act 4, Scene 5, Page 4). For unfortunate Ophelia, her struggles in life were not staggered, and came all at once. She was inconsolable; her plights proved to be too much to bear, and she ended her life to put an end to her grief. If anything is to be inferred from Hamlet’s Ophelia, it is that the weight of the world does not have to fall gradually; it can come all at once, in a great, horrible sluice, and it is each person’s responsibility how they will handle their struggles and anguish.

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About the Creator

Leo Misislyan

Hi! I'm a Creative Writing and Psychology Double Major at Purchase College. I'm currently a freelance writer who loves to explore the obscure!

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