Who Is Ophelia In Hamlet

Sweet, elegant, pretty…, all these words are used to describe one character in Hamlet. That character is Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius. Growing in a noble family, she has no control of her own life. In her short life in the play, she is not living for herself but mainly living for others. Always directing by others’ opinions, she is on the horns of dilemmas through out her life. Not only readers cannot comprehend her mind clearly, she even cannot find out what she is her true desire. She endeavors to be a docile daughter, a caring sister, and a loyal lover, but she is not described as a special human being that has her own special idea.
Through out her life, she complies with her father and brother’s direction all the time. Living in the time that men have more power than women, the personality of docile takes up most places of Ophelia’s heart. Even though she deeply loves Hamlet, when her father, Polonius, asks her to

Ophelia’ love toward Hamlet is so deep that even after he says sentences such as “Get thee to a nunnery, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too.” (3.1 148-152) to insults her, she could still say “Heavenly powers, restore him” (3.1 153) and keep loving him. For Hamlet, Ophelia is just a toy that he would love for a while but also could throw away as long as he does not like it anymore. He kills her father without even showing a bit of piety. Contradictory, Ophelia even keeps her love in Hamlet after her father’s death. Her madness is partly due to her struggled feeling between the love toward her father and the love toward Hamlet. However, Hamlet only shows his sadness after her death that is partially to blame on him. Ophelia has always loved him no matter what he does to her. Despite so many things happen in the play, her affection on Hamlet never