Hamlet: The Character of Ophelia

Hamlet: The Character of Ophelia

Ophelia is gentle, loving and beautiful. She is also obedient to her father and loyal to her family and it is this which draws her into the circle of disaster and leads to her "untimely death". She is deeply in love with Hamlet and believes his "tenders" to be sincere, but her obedience to both her father and her brother must come first. Laertes tells her to beware of Hamlet's interest as it is driven by lust, not love. He also points out the difference in their background and rightly concludes that Hamlet is not in a position, as heir to the throne to choose freely who he will marry.

Polonius is also scornful of Hamlet's motives and concerned that he will be discredited by Ophelia's conduct. His command to her not to see Hamlet again is brutal, as is his decision to use her as a decoy to sound out the reason for Hamlet's eccentric behaviour. The fact that she obeys would be quite understandable to Shakespeare's audience, if not to a present day one, since filial obedience was a fundamental part of the life of the time. Note also how differently Laertes is treated by his father, compared to the lack of regard shown to Ophelia by Polonius. Women had little status, and Ophelia's wishes are not considered at any time. Torn apart as she is by divided loyalty it is no wonder that the strain on her eventually leads to her madness and subsequent death.

That she loves Hamlet is without question. She is distraught when she observes his behaviour before the nunnery scene, and after his savage rejection of her in that scene she laments his "noble mind..here o'erthrown" She also grieves for herself, "Oh woe is me, t'have seen what I have seen, see what I see." She is sophisticated enough to understand the ways of the world, too, as we see in her dialogue with Hamlet before the mousetrap play, when she obviously understands the meaning of his bawdy remarks, and also in her quick understanding of her brother's likely conduct when he is away at school.

Her madness is triggered by loss of her father, murdered by Hamlet, whom she also believes to be mad. The pathos of the mad scene is emphasised by the language of loss in some of the songs she sings and the overt sexuality of others. In fact the sentiments of Ophelia for Hamlet in the nunnery scene, are, ironically applicable to herself later in the play.

Her story parallels Hamlet's. They think they have both been deserted by one they love; both lose a father through murder and both go to an untimely death; both are sensitive, caring souls whose innocence is exploited by others. No character has anything evil to say about Ophelia at any time and of all the deaths which occur in the play as a result of Claudius's original murder, hers is perhaps the most pathetic.

Imagery is word pictures. Hamlet deals with the imagery of poison, disease and decay. This imagery adds a sense of reality and depth to how characters in the play take revenge on other characters. These word pictures make the reader more sympathetic towards Hamlet. I have chosen five examples in the play to help describe the imagery of poison, disease and decay. Two of these examples are of decay, one of disease, and a following two examples of poison.

The imagery of decay in the play Hamlet is quite detailed and puts a very distinct picture in your head. I have chosen two examples of decay.My first example is located in act iv, scene iii on line 20. The play quotes;"Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are eaten at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fatus, and we fat ourselves for maggots." The quote describes where Polonius has gone. Where he is eaten tells us that he is no longer alive but has been put to be eaten by worms and will eventually decay. My second example for decay quotes " O heat dry up my brains; fear seven times salt burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!"

Disease plays a great part in the play Hamlet. It gives you sense of description and realism. In Hamlet disease is found in act iv, scene I, line 21.It quotes "But, like the owner of a foul disease, to keep it from divulging, let it feed even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?" This quote is once again explaining Polonius’s death. Gertrude is telling the reader that this horrible deed must not be considered as to be left as a rotting body, but as a human living off nature’s finest food.

As you can see in the play Hamlet, poison is the most used for death. At the beginning and the end of the play has poison. So to help the deaths of poison, Shakespeare