“All things truly wicked start from innocence” (brainyquote.com). William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a complex and well written play. The characters in this play are unique and abstract. One of these characters is Ophelia. What makes Ophelia so unique is her innocence: for life, for love of Hamlet, in naivete in all aspects, insanity, and in her suicidal tendencies. Ophelia’s love for Hamlet truly is strong in this play. This is the first time Ophelia has experienced true love before. Ophelia tells her father, Polonius,“my lord, he hath importun’d me with love in honorable fashion”(1.3.119-120). Ophelia believes Hamlet’s love is true and honorable. In the rest of the scene Polonius and Laertes are telling Ophelia not to trust what Hamlet says …show more content…
Ophelia has not experienced love outside of her father and brother, she does not know how men can take advantage of her. Laertes, her brother, tries to warn Ophelia not to trust Hamlet’s claims of love, “For Hamlet and the trifling of his favor, hold it a fashion and toy in blood, a violet in the youth of primary nature, forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute. No more”(1.3.6-11). Laertes tells Ophelia that Hamlet’s young love may seem affectionate, but it is not true and will not last. Laerates knows Ophelia does not know that men will take advantage of her and he does not want to see his sister get hurt. Later in the play the audience finds out that Ophelia did not listen to Laertes and that Hamlet’s love was not true. Hamlet tells Ophelia, “you should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not”(3.1.127-129). Ophelia finally sees Hamlet’s true intentions and his careless behaviors. Ophelia was naive and did not see Hamlet’s true intentions before. Hamlet tells Ophelia that she should have been in a position to see his love was not true, but because Ophelia is naive, has not experienced betrayal before, and did not listen to her brother or dad she did not suspect a …show more content…
Claudius explained “this is the poison of deep grief. It springs from her father’s death… they come not single spies but in battalions”(4.5.80-84). claudius explains the reason for Ophelia’s insanity is the grief she is experiencing. Because she is innocent has never experienced this type of tragedy before she feels it like a giant army attacking her. Ophelia’s innocence is broken when her father dies because she now sees the world differently than she did before. Because of this she gets her feeling out is a different way, by singing.During this scene Ophelia sings about her father’s death.“(sings) He is dead and gone”(4.5.35). She is singing this because this is how she getting out her emotions and she is trying to cope with her father being gone. Ophelia also sings about Hamlet, “(sings) young men will do’t, if they come t’ ort. By cock, they are to blame… He answers, so would I ha’ done, by yonder sun, an thou hadst not come to my bed”(4.5.64-71). She is upset about this because if she did not get in bed with Hamlet he said he would have married her. If Ophelia were to marry Hamlet it would have been easier for her to cope with these tragedies because she has a companion to be with and take care of her. Ophelia in this scene sings about all of the tragedies that have happened to her in the recent past. This is hard on Ophelia
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.
In act one scene three Laertes is giving Ophelia advice about Hamlet, Laertes states, “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more” (1.3.6).
In conclusion, it can be proven that Hamlet truly does love Ophelia. He pretends he isn’t in love with her kind of like in real life. Sometimes people pretend they not care for the people they really care for the most, just like Hamlet did to
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
This is detrimental, however, for Ophelia's as her one sided feelings for Hamlet allow her to be used as a pawn by both Claudius and Polonius as well as Hamlet. It is not clear whether Ophelia understand if she is pawn or not, however, this does not stop her from fulfilling the wishes of both
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
Ophelia goes mad throughout the story. She is overwhelmed by the loss of her father and the rejection of Hamlet. Her character is seen spiraling down a dark path that also ends in death. Ophelia is depicted as not having control over her actions; speaking and acting erratically. While Hamlet is speaking erratically and behaving oddly, he still maintains control over his actions and movement throughout the story.
Ophelia’s death results from Hamlet's madness, his telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, and Polonius's death. Hamlet telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery made Ophelia feel insecure. Especially when Hamlet told Ophelia that he would marry her just so she would sleep with him. Then, Hamlet comes back to Ophelia telling her that she needs to go to a nunnery. Which is basically calling Ophelia a whore, because a nunnery is like a whorehouse. Ophelia at this point felt very insecure about herself and she questioned her relationship with Hamlet.
Emily Dickinson once said “Much madness is divinest Sense— To a discerning Eye—“. This type of madness can be found in the play “Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Though many characters show madness throughout the play, Ophelia’s madness is the most prevalent. Ophelia has good reason for this irrational behavior because of the trauma she has gone through. First, her boyfriend dumps her, then he calls her vulgar names, and lastly, he kills her father.
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).
Hamlet has not only become distraught from his conniving and lying stepfather but also his mother, Queen Gertrude as well. The unfaithfulness that Gertrude shows to Hamlet’s father and Hamlet has a toll on him and plays a part in his insanity. The facade that Hamlet displays slowly leads to his insanity, causing him to show mistreated love towards Ophelia. In the beginning of the play, Ophelia displays a very honest
In Act III, scene i of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, readers will come upon Ophelia’s soliloquy. After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have failed to find a reason as to why Hamlet is acting in a peculiar and mad way, Claudius is persuaded by Polonius that the reason for Hamlet’s madness is the broken romance between Hamlet and Ophelia. To prove this, Claudius and Polonius plan to spy on Ophelia’s meeting with Hamlet. During their conversation, Hamlet denies ever having loved her and curses her. Ophelia is left fretting over his sanity.
Saying this, Hamlet’s behavior towards Ophelia is crude, rough, and full of anger. Despite Hamlet’s harsh treatment towards Ophelia, he really did love her, but because she was not his main focus, the
Hamlet does not value Ophelia 's feelings he belittles her. In Hamlets defense this is the way he was brought up to treat women, during that time this was a common way to treat a women. Even though in today 's society it is not at all ok to treat women with such disrespect. He also likes for everything to go as planned and this may result in why he can not have a stable relationship with a woman. This also causes him to have many stumbling blocks in his life that causes some emotional pain
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. Throughout the play it is implied that Hamlet and Ophelia were involved with one another, but never showed the details of their "love."