Ophelia's Significance In Hamlet

In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, we constantly see Hamlet’s negative view of women and harsh treatment towards them. Hamlet’s relationship with his mother, Queen Gertrude, is rocky after she marries her dead husband’s killer and brother, causing tension between her and Hamlet. Hamlet’s view of women is changed at this point in time because of his mother’s actions. This affects the way he treats Ophelia, the woman that he is in love with and that also reciprocates his love towards her. While he wants to continue his relationship with her, he knows it is not best and is afraid of the outcome. He puts his own wants and needs above his mother’s and Ophelia’s because he does not trust them and he wants to be selfish.

Does Hamlet Really Love Ophelia? Love what most people view as a physical affection or attachment towards someone. Is there really a pacific way to show someone that you're in love with them. When it comes to love most people are afraid of showing someone that they love them because they're afraid of getting hurt or for the other person getting hurt. Hamlet does indeed truly love Ophelia, It could be that Hamlet was afraid of getting hurt all along.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia’s love for Hamlet ultimately leads to her madness. In order for Ophelia to build her relationship with Hamlet, she must go against her father’s orders considering he strictly prohibited her from seeing him. Hamlet then breaks up with Ophelia saying, “I did love you once,” and then tells her to go “to a nunnery,” causing Ophelia to feel a great amount of betrayal. Ophelia is already heartbroken, and now Hamlet murders her father which was too much for her to handle.

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.

All of Hamlet’s comments towards Ophelia suggest that he feels betrayed. Hamlet and Ophelia showed each other true love but both were mad after their fathers’ deaths. Hamlet was acting mad to have revenge while Ophelia was truly mad. During Ophelia’s funeral, Hamlet stated “I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum”, expressing his true feelings towards her. Ophelia’s betrayal and lies to Hamlet in Act 3 deeply hurt his feelings causing Hamlet to hate

Hamlet once again fails to understand that Ophelia much like himself is only trying to stay loyal to her father, much like what he is doing himself. In addition, Hamlet blames woman for giving birth to such evil and deceiving men like Claudius and himself. When he was talking to Ophelia he told her "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better

“ My lord, I have remembrance of yours, that I longed long to re-deliver; I pray you, now receive them” (Shakespeare 2. 2. 93-95). Ophelia’s decision to relinquish her love to Hamlet for her father’s sake spurred Hamlet’s decision for his feigned madness and also made it easier for him to reject Ophelia and emotionally abuse her, which in turn, spurred her own internal disappointment and hatred in herself. However,“We see Hamlet’s nobility and realise that his flippant comments to her stemmed from his antic disposition and feigned madness” (Tuohy, 2012).

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 The Tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet has a unique relationship with Ophelia. Throughout the beginning of the play you learn very little about their relationship. Their relationship was referenced however. In the beginning of the play, Laertes warns Ophelia about Hamlet, claiming he does not actually love Ophelia.

For the duration of the play, Ophelia was portrayed as a naïve and submissive woman. Her passivity and powerlessness reinforce the voicelessness of women during the Elizabethan era. For example, “I shall obey, my lord” (I.iii.134) shows that Ophelia concedes to her father’s will, even though she believes Hamlet’s love is genuine. She is willing and expected to obey her father despite the fact that she still loves Hamlet, which emphasizes her character’s submissive nature. Furthermore, in Act I Laertes warns Ophelia that it would be shameful of her to love Hamlet, and she responds with “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as a watchman to my heart” (I.iii.45). She is assuring Laertes that she will remain obedient and follow his advice.

Throughout the play, Ophelia acts as a very honest person in the beginning, willing to tell Laertes and Polonius anything. She then receives mistreated love from Hamlet that leads her to drowning herself in a river. The true face and actions from Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, and particularly Hamlet lead to their deaths. The end result leads to unfortunate events, including death. The love throughout the kingdom of Denmark becomes toxic, killing all who lives

According to researchers, every 16.2 minutes, at least one person attempts suicide. Suicide is never the answer, but there are multiple characters in today’s literature that show the impact of the events leading up to the ultimate decision. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia takes her life because of the actions the individuals around her did. But, that is not the argument. The argument is that the people around Ophelia are not to blame for her committing suicide, it is Ophelia’s own fault, prompted by the madness surrounding her.

Though any character in Shakespeare's Hamlet could easily be the epitome of lunacy, there is no character more obviously unsound that Ophelia, whose personality is the embodiment of codependency. Every time Ophelia speaks the symptoms are apparent as she can not seem to converse about anything but men. This is stereotypical of women at the time,in society as much as in literature. One can not fully blame Ophelia however as she is a product of her time period and used by the other characters. Ophelia’s character not only confirms Hamlet's suspicions about women but serves as pawn in the metaphorical chess game between Claudius and Hamlet.

Hamlet surely thought that his mother Gertrude dearly loved his father Old King Hamlet, now he may feel like his mother never loved his father. This may result in why he feels like he may not love Ophelia. We are also aware that Hamlet has trouble with his own happiness and this probably reflects on the way we feels towards people mostly women. Hamlet thinks that the reason real love does not exist is because of the female gender. Hamlet blames both his mother Gertrude and Ophelia for portraying men as monsters.

Love is a very strong feeling and it 's portrayed in many ways. In Hamlet, Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, has fallen for The young Prince Hamlet. In the play, Hamlet confuses us in the beginning because we think he’s just using her for pleasure, and not that he actually has feelings for her. But at the end of the story, we see a whole other side to the story. We see how much he actually loves her and not that he was using her for his own needs.