Ophelia's Dysfunctional Society

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In his tragic play, Hamlet, Shakespeare demonstrates how corrupt the society were in Denmark. Ophelia–the leading female character–is depicted as both innocent and non-politically inclined, but the fact that she has no voice in this patriarchal society, drives her to the point that leads to her inevitable death. In act 4 scene 7, it reveals Ophelia’s burden of living a life to deal with tolerating Hamlet’s manipulation and to be obligated to honor the words of her father’s and brother’s. When reporting Ophelia’s death, Gertrude states that “there is a willow grows askant the brook” (4.7. 190). The “willow” is symbolic to Ophelia’s death because it relates the situation of her death where she is mourning the desertion of Hamlet’s love. Ophelia’s

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