Hamlet Essay On Ophelia

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Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was written in the years 1601 and 1602, and then published by the year 1603. The play takes place in a less than sturdy Denmark, it’s king having just been murdered and his brother being put in his place, as well as the threat of invasion from Norway making it so. The play has many complex, enigmatic, and perplexing characters, a few in fact, that have been debated about for years since the tragedy’s inception. One of these characters is the beautiful and young Ophelia, whose fatal flaw was, tragically, the overbearing love of her father. Throughout the course of the play, the audience is able to see how sheltered and submissive to her father (and frankly every other character) she is. After her father dies and with her brother being gone, Ophelia gives into insanity and eventually drowns near the end of the play. Obviously, Ophelia was not just born naturally as submissive as she was, her passive demeanor is a learned behavior. Like so many children learn from their parents, Ophelia likely learned this behavior from her father Polonius. Ophelia learned to rely on her father by doing everything he told her to, it is this passive trust that caused her to be driven crazy after his death. With no one to make her decisions for her, Ophelia is…show more content…
Though Ophelia protests that Hamlet’s proclamations of love are plenty and his vows to her holy, “My lord, he hath importuned me with love/In honorable fashion.” (I.iii.110-11) and “...hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,/With almost all the holy vows of heaven.” (I.iii.113-14). Polonius tells her that only stupid little birds would believe such trifles, that Hamlet is likely just infatuated, and to guard herself. At the end of the conversation Ophelia submits to her father and says “I shall obey, my lord.”

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