How Does Shakespeare Present Ophelia In Act 2 Of Hamlet

He is Hamlet’s love interest’s brother who implicates Hamlet’s success through conflict. Hamlet sparks the rivalry between the two families by killing some of the family members. By executing Laertes father and Polonius, this causes Polonius’ son, Laertes, to seek vengeance for his father. Consequently, Hamlet’s family goes against him and his love, Ophelia, kills herself. This demonstrates that family ties, even if not blood related, have serious impacts on Hamlet’s life which causes misery to overwhelm his life; this misery prohibits his success. During Ophelia’s funeral, the drama between Hamlet and Laertes magnifies which causes more hate between their families. Laertes provokes Hamlet into fighting him by Ophelia’s grave, with their families there to witness, by saying “[t]he devil take thy soul” (V, i, 243). Following this mishap, Laertes is informed by Claudius of a strategy to end Hamlet’s life in the near future. This immoral conflict being conducted in a place that already is commemorating death displays that they are inclined to cause more people to die. This plot to kill Hamlet is not beneficial to Hamlet’s success and only weakens his personal plot to kill Claudius. Then, Laertes chooses to become a participant in the killing of Hamlet. As aforementioned, this plan for death is a success, but causes many other deaths along with Hamlet to fail.

Ophelia was a modern day good girl gone bad. She obeyed her father, Polonius, and brother, Laertes’, wishes to stay away from Prince Hamlet while trying to fight for her love for Hamlet and being herself. In the end her battle to please the men in her life, along with the constant betrayals and deaths, led to her own madness and death. Ophelia had become a fallen angel trying to please herself and those around her.

This passage is from Act 4, scene 7, lines 163-183 of Hamlet. Laertes, hearing of his father’s death, storms the palace seeking revenge. Claudius, in an effort to calm Laertes’ rage, conspires with him on how to effectively kill Hamlet shortly before Gertrude interrupts with the news of poor Ophelia’s death. Laertes, heartbroken after hearing that his sister has died, seeks to mourn in peace, but Claudius insists that he and Gertrude follow him so that he can keep an eye on his temper. This passage highlights how man’s incessant need for power and retribution leads him to neglect the weak, ultimately leading to their downfall.

Sometimes in life people do not portray things how the really mean to. Sometimes people treat the people they truly love harshly. Sort of like how in the play of Hamlet, Hamlet acts like he does not really love Ophelia. But, in the tragedy of Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet, really did love Ophelia. This can be seen through his actions toward her before he found out about his father’s death being a murder, pretending to be crazy simply to prove to the king and Polonius, and by his actions after Ophelia 's death.

Laertes uses his Patriarchal authority over Ophelia to use her as his own mock-daughter to prepare himself for his future Patriarchal duties. As Laertes and Ophelia enter their first scene together, Laertes does not call Ophelia by her name, but refers to her by, “And sister” (Shakespeare, 1.3.2). By doing this Laertes refers to her more as an object, than a person. Laertes goes on to say, “do not sleep/But let me hear from you”, (Shakespeare, 1.3.3-4) He shows authority over Ophelia by telling her to stop from what she is doing, to tell him about Hamlet. After she has done so, Laertes warns her about Hamlet, “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour/Hold it a fashion, and a toy in

The type of love felt by Hamlet and Laertes is quite different. Ophelia is the sister of Laertes and therefore he has brotherly love for her. Before leaving Denmark, Laertes advises against relations with Hamlet. He remarks on the love Hamlet has for Ophelia as being “The perfume and suppliance of a minute,/ No more.” (I, iii, 9-10) This is evidence of tension between Laertes and Hamlet and foreshadows the later confrontation between them. On the contrary, Hamlet feels romantic love for Ophelia. His love is supposedly so passionate that “Forty thousand brothers/ Could not with all their quantity of love” (V, i, 275-276) care for her as much as he does. Both Laertes and Hamlet carry their love to Ophelia’s grave. While at the grave, Laertes shows his brotherly love for Ophelia once more when he stands inside her grave and exclaims “Hold off the earth awhile,/ Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.” (V, i, 253-254) Laertes and Hamlet confront one another in a grapple. In this instance, Hamlet does not think about the consequences, instead he defends himself and fights Laertes. It is evident that Laertes and Hamlet are connected by their love for Ophelia, however the obvious opposition reveals Hamlet’s ability to take real action when

Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the sister of Laertes who both tell her to stop seeing Hamlet. To Polonius, Ophelia is an eternal virgin who is going to be a dutiful

In Act IV, scene v, Laertes has just come back from France and he went to the throne room to question the King about the whereabouts of his father. The King tells Laertes that his father is dead. As Laertes and King Claudius discuss who could’ve killed Polonius, Ophelia prances in covered in flowers while she singing random ballads. Laertes exclaims that his sister has gone mad, but little does he know that Hamlet is the cause of Ophelia’ current state of mind. In Act IV, scene v, Ophelia’s madness was caused by the death of her father. Indirectly, Hamlet caused Ophelia to go to her lowest self by killing her father. The flowers on Ophelia’s body symbolize her state of mind and show the extent of her grief in this scene.

Polonius gives good advice that he does not take himself, showing his bad decision making. Before Laertes leaves for France, Polonius gives him sound fatherly advice saying: “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; / Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement” (1.3.68-69). Polonius is telling his son to listen to many different opinions, but not to give his own. This is hypocritical of him because throughout the play he is constantly giving his own opinion. In 2.2, he tells Claudius that he believes Hamlet is mad due to his love for Ophelia. He also tells Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet because he believes Hamlet’s feelings for her are fleeting. Polonius ignoring his own good advice not only shows that he does not care about his daughter’s feelings, but also that he cannot make good

Hamlet was not acting normal when he jumped into Ophelia’s grave. Ophelia’s death was making him act irrationally and charged at Laertes. Afraid of Laertes he did not understand how much he love her and said crazy things so Hamlet cared more for Ophelia more than Laertes. In addition when Hamlet was at the funeral Hamlet would miss being with Ophelia and he should have never betrayed her. As a result Hamlet’s reaction to his love for Ophelia shows he cares also he reacts her to her death.

Ophelia is grieving the loss of her father after Hamlet kills him. Ophelia doesn't know that Hamlet killed her father. But Ophelia has gone mad from learning about her father's death. Also, after Hamlet telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, Ophelia is a little bit discouraged. She is discouraged because Hamlet had told her before that if Ophelia would sleep with him that they would get married. They did sleep together, and then Hamlet told Ophelia that she needed to go to a nunnery and that he would never marry a girl who slept around. Ophelia's feelings turned around and she felt very disrespected by

When they are aware of Hamlet’s feelings towards Ophelia they are convinced that he would just use her for her virginity then break her heart. Ophelia is torn because she is sure in her heart that Hamlet loves her, even though she could never be his wife. Being raised with just men in her life she has no idea how to go about dealing with Hamlet and his mixed feelings. Ophelia starts to go mad dealing with the problem of choosing between her father’s wishes and her true

Laertes is the son of Polonius and Ophelia’s brother, plays a very important role in the play even though he does not appear often. He is an impulsive person who does not think before he acts and is willing to kill to avenge his father’s death. Laertes is ready to get revenge for his father’s death but does not seem very emotional about the fact that his father is dead. Laertes is violent and ready to avenge his father’s death and is willing to do whatever it takes, because of this, Claudius is able to use him to help him get rid of Hamlet by manipulating him to duel with Hamlet. After Ophelia’s burial, when Laertes is dueling with Hamlet he is wounded. There he informs Hamlet that Claudius was out to kill him and he begs Hamlet for forgiveness, he also forgives Hamlet for what he did to his father.

In Hamlet, there are 7 deadly sins noted throughout the play. Pride, gluttony, lust, wrath, greed, sloth all play a particular part in the play but envy is the most prominent sin. Envy is the desire for others traits, status, abilities, or situation. Claudius really brought out the envy towards other characters like Hamlet and Laertes.

In the Branagh adaptation, more emphasis is placed on feelings of betrayal due to Hamlet and Ophelia’s secret relationship. Most of the scene is focused on Ophelia’s father conversing with King Claudius, rather than focusing on Hamlet’s plotting. This takes the attention away from Hamlet focusing on avenging his father, instead making the conflict between Laertes and Hamlet for significant. In opposition, the Zeffirelli version fails to even include the important conversation between Claudius, Gertrude and Ophelia’s father. Instead, the emphasis was placed on Hamlet discussing with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about how he could go about killing Claudius. Zeffirelli jumps right into the revenge for his father, more efficiently leading Hamlet to the idea of using the play as a method for revenge. In Shakespeare's original, Polonius reads the letter to Ophelia from Hamlet, saying “‘That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase’” and expressing his hatred for the relationship between the two (2.2.112-113). Since he is so opposed to the exchange between the two, the readers can make the jump to say his son, and Ophelia’s brother, Laertes would feel the same. This establishes Laertes’ resentment for Hamlet and is very important later in the plot when Laertes and Hamlet have the fencing match. Without those feelings being evident, the audience may get