Ophelia's Alienation In Hamlet

While creating the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare was able to incorporate different literary words and have them reflected into the characters personalities. Alienation takes four different forms; commodity, others, self, and identity. All four of these forms reflect different ways in which people become alienated by something, whether it be from other people, intended tasks or thoughts. Alienation specifically was evident in the character Ophelia. Her inability to be taken seriously at any point in her life and having no control over the decisions in her life shows how she is alienated in multiple forms. Alienation as a whole is being alone while surrounded by others. This is shown in Ophelia and causes her to go crazy and eventually commit suicide. Though she is surrounded by a lot of people she feels as though she has no one. Never having a mother figure in her life causes her to be incapable of having any control on her life so when the men that have always been in her life whom she once relied on so heavily abandon her, she feels alone and incapable.

Polonius has always had a large impact on the decisions that Ophelia makes, and when he uses her in order to help Claudius prove that Hamlet is crazy, rather than just confronting her about it. Gertrude eventually blames Ophelia for her son's change in character in order to avoid

When she becomes insane and mentally ill, the connection and acceptance of her feelings is no longer there. In losing her father, the man who had always told her what to do, she had no sense of how to control her life. This inability to determine what to do in situations causes her to feel lost and completely alone even though she is surrounded by people which leads her to feel as though the only way she will stop feeling alone is by committing