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Examples Of Ophelia's Madness In Hamlet

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In the play of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Ophelia’s death was an intentional suicide, and her madness is a result of Hamlet’s madness reflected onto her. After the death of Hamlet’s late father, King Hamlet, it is evident that Hamlet was in a state of melancholy, which led to his madness. There were frequent instances where his madness resulted in actions that hurt Ophelia. For example, he accidentally kills her father, Polonius, after he mistakes him for King Claudius. Following this incident, Ophelia appears to have gone mad, as a court gentleman claims that she has been speaking much of her father. She enters, singing “He is dead and gone, lady / He is dead and gone, / At his head a grass-green turf, / At his heels a stone” (IV.v.29-32).

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