Ophelia one of the main character in the play Hamlet authored by William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare authored this play when the English Renaissance was occurring, and he wrote the play using Elizabethan English. In Shakespeare play, Hamlet who is the primary character must deal with the truth that his mother got married by his uncle, who killed his father to take over the sovereignty of Denmark and become the king. When a reader is introduced to the character Ophelia, you get presented to the theme of her being somehow mad and that all the patriarchal around seems to oppress her (Shakespeare, 20)

Ophelia is a beautiful woman, the daughter of Polonius and the blood sister to Laertes. She is a young girl full of naivety, who could be irrelevant without a man in his life. Ophelia is a feminist, and it’s well depicted in the entire play. Ophelia at the start of the play, she is at a healthy state of mind, and deeply in love with Hamlet, even though Hamlet controls most of her life. Ophelia possesses a very significant character, but she is somehow stagnant and lacks the ability and power to influence change in her life (Chapman, 115).

Her death is one of the most arguably tragic incidents in the whole play.  Her death came from Ophelia drowning herself in the river which is very disastrous and saddening incident; she drowns while, “chanting snatches of old loud/ as one incapable of her own distress” (Shakespeare, 177). The cause of her death is tragic, but it’s also somehow symbolic. Her death depicts a misused life through being controlled by those close to her and the lack of self-responsibility. Ophelia’s unworried reaction to her drowning gives an insight to the audience that she never had control over life and held low dignity for herself. Ophelia letting a large volume of water cover her face indicates that her husband Hamlet treated her as a tool her rather than as a human being. She somehow had still life, before she never tried to save herself from the being mistreatment but eventually thought committing suicide would help to overcome life miseries. When Ophelia realized that she is about to die, she went back to what she knew and that that is complimenting.

Another character trait possessed by Ophelia is madness. Ophelia father failed to understand why her daughter married Hamlet and even her love towards him since Hamlet was incapable of helping her daughter as well as meeting her needs. After the death of her father Polonius, Ophelia began to go crazy. Her craziness was noted when she sang a song about a certain maiden who was enticed to lose her maidenhood with a deceiving assurance of marriage, “Before you leave me, you promised to marry me.” (Shakespeare, 65) people thought that Ophelia suffered madness because she experienced a lot of abuse and pressure from all the men around her life.

Three men dominated Ophelia life, and they included Laertes, Polonius, and Hamlet. Hamlet contributes mostly to Ophelia going crazy; he treats her as an inferior person who is not in a position to make her own decisions; also her marriage crisis contributed to her mental suffering. It also seems that both avenues of female community and marriage didn’t support feminism but rather supported women suffering; however, Ophelia seems to fall into madness by default.

The play highlights that that Ophelia life would be nothing without men in her life, all the men in her life tell her what to do and how to act.  The patriarchal men control her entire life, and she sees nothing wrong with this fact. Ophelia in seems to be “dead but yet sexually available for Hamlet” this quote suggests that Ophelia at this situation she has no feeling and cannot control anything or make her decision at any time, but still allows Hamlet to please himself using her body.

Ophelia innocent pearl, of possessing the qualities of an ideal woman who was young innocent and virgin were not appreciated, but because of her craziness, she was perceived as a physically, morally and psychologically pathetic young woman, who again they termed as just a typical feminine. This case brings to attention what women have been going through, for example how women can’t be perfect to a man no matter how hard she gives her all while trying to please a man.

Hamlet refers to Ophelia as “the kind Ophelia-Nymph, in thy orison, is all my iniquities reminisced,” (Shakespeare, 89).   By helmet talking this to Ophelia and calling her as a “Nymph” suggests that Ophelia is feeble and weak. Hamlet never treated Ophelia in the best way a woman needs to be taken care off but regularly abused her whenever he felt like.

The language used by hamlets suggests that men oppress Ophelia, and it is evident that Ophelia is stuck. She is stuck when deciding her sexual life, if she refuses to have sex with Hamlet, he threatens to leave her, but when she allows Hamlet to her sex with her, Hamlet considers her as a tramp (Chapman, 110). It’s hard for the leader to study the words of Ophelia because Hamlet always put words in her mouth and choose for her what to speak. The audience can imagine Hamlet life would be okay without Ophelia, but Ophelia life could be wholly nothing and useless without Hamlet.

All in all, Ophelia makes the play interesting; she doesn’t make changes in her life since she lack cannot make a decision and men control her. Apart from her suffering, she provides the role of a good woman in the plays and also to society. She is very overwhelmed by the deeds of patriarchal to the point that Ophelia goes mad toward the end of the play. The personality Ophelia throughout the whole play she persisted to being a good innocent woman, but her life is short-lived through a tragic drowning incident. Across the entire play, Ophelia never decided for herself but allowed men to do everything for her. She respected and obeyed men command without questioning them.

Work Cited

Chapman, Alison A. “Ophelia’s ‘Old Lauds’: Madness and Hagiography in Hamlet.” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 20, Jan. 2007, pp. 111–135.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia 13th ed. Pearson, 2016, 1354-1464