free will. Although not directly stated in the quote, the fate of Ophelia’s death is the Christian burial because she had no control over it and it was bound to happen anyway. As for her willfulness to seek her own salvation, seeing as suicide is a sin, Ophelia’s ghost is the deciding factor on where she will end up going. In this way, as with Hamlet, fate is presented at the beginning and is used to lead up to the ending where free will overpowers the beliefs of
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
In Act I scene v, Hamlet, the titular hero of the of William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, bemoans the vile corruption that has manifested “in this distracted globe” (Shakespeare, trans. 1986, 1.5.101-102) after discovering the heinous murder of his father. This is only the first of numerous catastrophes to transpire in Denmark. The most spiteful of these misfortunes is the death innocent Ophelia, lover of Hamlet and daughter of Polonius. Although her drowning may initially appear to be an accident, Ophelia has lost the desire the live after enduring several tribulations, most notably the sudden murder of her father. Hamlet carries partial culpability for her death, as he was the one who physically stabs the Lord Chamberlain. Polonius, despite being Ophelia’s father, bears partial accountability for her death due to his own mendacious actions. Gertrude also plays a role, doing the minimum to comfort grieving Ophelia. Their actions however, can be traced back to King Claudius, whose murder of Old Hamlet incites a chain reaction of falsehood and mistreatment within Denmark that ultimately lead to Ophelia’s drowning.
When Ophelia returns all his letters and gifts he tells her that he has never loved her and that she should “get thyself to a nunnery.” This is one example how his mood changes throughout the play. Then after all this her father, Polinous, is murdered by Hamlet. The Hamlet is sent away to England All of these actions result in her feeling such stress that she becomes insane in the end.
Ophelia is such a typical character representing for Shakespeare’s intelligence that throughout the play, she gradually becomes a smart woman. At the beginning of the play, Ophelia is an obedient daughter who always follows her family’s direction: “I shall obey, my lord” (Act 1, sc 4). However, at the end of the play, Ophelia is aware of everything that happens around her. She gives each person in the court different followers with the different meanings. Her action expresses that she is a clever woman. Moving on to the Queen Gertrude, she is also marked to show how nimble the author is in the way he builds character. As a queen of Denmark, Gertrude seems to be powerful during her dominance. However, she is a weak person that although living her whole life with a guy who killed her husband, she still does not justify his mysterious lie. Otherwise, Gertrude is always a good wife who unthinkably obeys her husband: “I shall obey you” (Act 3, sc 1). Until she realizes that Claudius is a killer, everything is too late once she drinks the poison.
Ophelia’s character went through quite a large transformation. In the play her father tells her that she is to stay away from Hamlet and she readily agrees. In the movie Ophelia doesn’t disagree with her father but she also doesn’t agree just to please him. This shows that Ophelia isn’t easily persuaded, even by her own father. Despite her father’s warning about Hamlet, Ophelia met with him in secret at her apartment until her father found out. After their secret was discovered, Hamlet rushed out of Ophelia’s apartment and Polonius stopped Ophelia from going after him, causing her to drop the letter that Hamlet had given her. After reading the letter Polonius hurries to tell Claudius and Gertrude what he’s discovered. Polonius and Ophelia find them at their private pool, where Polonius proceeds to tell them that he thinks that Hamlet’s madness has been caused by his love for Ophelia. While her father is telling Claudius and Gertrude about his theory, Ophelia continuously tries to take the letter away from him. After finally giving up in her attempts to keep her letter private, Ophelia stands near the edge of the pool and imagines jumping in, which could point to suicidal tendencies. After Polonius finishes reading the letter Claudius, Gertrude and himself decide to use Ophelia as a spy. While her father was putting a wire on her, Ophelia had tears rolling down her face. Once the wire was in place
Where hamlets actions justified? Did he really avenge is father? Well I don’t think so. Because of him Gertrude was treated very poorly and because of the got her killed, the treatment to Ophelia was not justified and it made her go crazy, he delayed the killing of the king which caused a lot of bad stuff to happen, but the killing of Claudius was justified because he avenged his father. So, the question are his actions justified?
The story of Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a story of betrayal, revenge, and intrigue. Hamlet, the title character discovers that his uncle killed his father and married his mother effectively stealing the throne. Hamlet decides he must kill his uncle Claudius as revenge for what he had done. However, as the new king, Hamlet isn't sure how to get to him, so he decides to fake madness, but his plan backfires as Claudius doesn't trust him and makes sure he is always watched. In his fumbled plan for revenge, Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, forces Polonius's son Laertes to seek revenge against him, and drives Ophelia crazy causing her to kill herself. Hamlet's insane behavior is a significant part of the story because it is supposedly part of his revenge plan, but also because of the additional problems, it creates. Some have argued that his madness was indeed an act, but rather real madness that he was trying to cover up by telling people
In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Ophelia intentionally kills herself. Ophelia, stricken to her core by the heinous murder of her Father, Polonium, began experiencing hysteria. Spiraling into despair, Ophelia quickly drifted into madness eventually unable to coherently answer questions. In her final hours, Ophelia surrounded herself with the beauty of nature. Gertrude states, “Her clothes spread out wide in the water, and buoyed her up for a while as she sang bits of old hymns, acting like someone who doesn’t realize the danger she’s in, or like someone completely accustomed to danger”. This statement shows Ophelia’s candid assumption about death, her willingness to put herself in danger. Gertrude explained to Laertes, “Climbing into the tree to hang the wreath of weeds on the hanging branches, she and her flowers fell into the gurgling brook”. What can be concluded from this is the circumstances of Ophelia's death.
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. He is disappointed to see that Ophelia is displaying irrational behavior when she begins to sing “They bore him barefac’d on the bier; Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny; And on his grave rains many a tear.” She is so mentally ill that she must be locked in a padded room during the day. At other times, she is in a straight jacket to prevent her from hurting herself. It seems as if nothing can help her mental madness. Unfortunately, her madness ultimately leads to her
Hamlet’s true feelings for Ophelia come out when he hears about her death. He confessed that, “forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum(Act 5, Scene 1, Pg.12),” meaning if you could add the love of forty brothers it still wouldn’t match his love for her. He also questioned Laertes asking him what could he possibly do for her that he couldn’t. He then went on to say that we would go as far as eating a crocodile for her, showing his madness starting to deepen. Ophelia’s significance in play is revealed after this scene showing that she was his last piece of sanity and love.
Hamlet is a story about revenge and power, due to the recent death of the King of Denmark. The following events include madness, which leads to Hamlet killing King Claudius’ advisor, Polonius. Word about the death of his father got to Laertes who was in England. Laertes returned to Denmark to find his sister distraught and drove to madness. Shortly after his return, Ophelia is found dead by the cause of drowning. Laertes believes Hamlet is to blame not only for his father’s death, but also for Ophelia’s death because the death of her father is ultimately what drove her to killing herself.
I partially agree with Camden about Ophelia’s insanity is due to her father’s death because Ophelia is a “delicate-minded young girl, obedience to her father” meaning Ophelia always obeyed her father’s commands. What I question is, has she not once have the urge to do something that will disobey him? Or even thought about disobeying him? What I believe proves her sanity is mainly based on Polonius’ death is when John Draper [Camden’s source] had quoted “because that father, whom she loved so dearly, come to a sudden shocking end,” as he is her remaining parent figure she had left who is now gone (para. 1). It seems as if she was taught throughout her life to always obey her father, who is the lord of the household or because he is the king’s
The character of Ophelia enters as an innocent young woman. She enters a world of madness. She is incapable of rational thinking, so her death may have been accidental rather than a suicide. An indicator that supports the argument that her death was accidental is that typically in Shakespeare’s plays, suicides have their own dramatic scene. In Hamlet, Ophelia’s death was not seen; she was found dead after drowning. This interpretation of her death contributes to the tragedy of the play because of the way she lost her mind and how she accidentally took her own life. On the other hand, Ophelia was undergoing a lot of stress and grief and depression that may have led her to taking her own life. This interpretation of her death contributes
The news Gertrude brings of Ophelia is that she had drowned in the river. The religious argument the gravediggers deal with as they dig Ophelia’s grave is if she should be buried in a graveyard since her death was a suicide. Once Hamlet learns that Ophelia has died, he reacts with sorrow and anger. Hamlet’s state of mind through his actions reveals that he felt guilt for how he treated Ophelia. Also, Hamlet 's state of mind revealed his feelings for Ophelia by the way he reacted. Through the conclusion of the scene, his feelings for Ophelia are revealed in a strong way. He mentions how he would cry, fight, stop eating, cut himself, drink vinegar, eat a crocodile and bury himself alive with her. Hamlet tells Horatio that Claudius had written