Hamlet and Ophelia

Hamlet and Ophelia

Melancholy, grief, and madness have pervaded the works of a great many

playwrights, and Shakespeare is not an exception. The mechanical

regularities of such emotional maladies as they are presented within

Hamlet, not only allow his audience to sympathize with the tragic

prince Hamlet, but to provide the very complexities necessary in

understanding the tragedy of his lady Ophelia as well. It is the poor

Ophelia who suffers at her lover's discretion because of decisions she

was obligated to make on behalf of her weak societal position. Hamlet

provides his own self-torture and does fall victim to melancholia and

grief, however, his madness is feigned. They each share a common

connection: the loss of a parental figure. Hamlet loses his father as

a result of a horrible murder, as does Ophelia. In her situation is

more severe because it is her lover who murders her father and all of

her hopes for her future as well. Ultimately, it is also more

detrimental to her c! haracter and causes her melancholy and grief to

quickly turn to irretrievable madness. Critics argue that Hamlet has

the first reason to be hurt by Ophelia because she follows her father's

admonitions regarding Hamlet's true intentions for their beginning

love. In Act 3, scene 1, line 91 Hamlet begins with his malicious

sarcasm toward her. "I humbly thank you, well, well, well," he says

to her regarding her initial pleasantries (Johnson 1208). Before this

scene, he has heard the King and Polonius establishing a plan to deduce

his unusual and grief-stricken behavior. Hamlet is well aware that

this plan merely uses Ophelia as a tool, and as such, she does not have

much option of refusing without angering not only her busybody father

but the conniving King as well. Hamlet readily refuses that he cared

for her. He tells her and all of his uninvited listeners, "No, not I, I

never gave you aught" (lines 94-95). Some critics stress, as does J.

Dover Wilson, that Hamlet has a right to direct his anger to Ophelia

because even though many critics "in their sy! mpathy with Ophelia

they have forgotten that it is not Hamlet who has 'repelled' her, but

she him" (Wilson 159). It is possible that Wilson does not see the

potential harm to Ophelia should she disobey her authority figures

(i.e. her father and her king). Furthermore, Ophelia cannot know "that

Hamlet's attitude toward her reflects his disillusionment in his mother

. . . to her, Hamlet's inconstancy can only mean deceitfulness or

madness" (Lidz 158). She is undeniably caught in a trap that has been

layed, in part, but her lover whom she does love and idealize. Her

shock is genuine when Hamlet demands "get thee to a nunnery" (line

120). The connotations of the dual meaning of "nunnery" is enough in

and of itself to make her run estranged from her once sweet prince, and

it is the beginning or her sanity's unraveling as well. Hamlet's

melancholy permits him the flexibility of character to convey

manic-depressive actions while Ophelia's is much more overwhelming and

painful. "Shakespeare is ambiguous about the reality of Hamlet's

insanity and depicts him as on the border, fluctuating