Explore Shakespeare's presentation of Ophelia.

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Explore Shakespeare’s presentation of Ophelia.

        As one of only two women in the play, it is perhaps surprising that Ophelia’s character is presented as being so very unsubstantial and passive. In particular, Ophelia fails to express any points of view and her only clear emotions are fear (after Hamlet’s reported visit to her) and regret (at Hamlet’s rejection of her). Furthermore, she never demands any freedom, nor questions Polonius’ curt and misplaced instructions. Notably, Ophelia not only appears to have little understanding of Hamlet’s madness, but no curiosity into its cause. Like Gertrude, Ophelia has no soliloquy in which she can confide her true thoughts and feelings, which is a pity as it detracts from her character as a whole. Shakespeare achieves this deliberately of course; however, it raises the question as to why Hamlet should have been attracted to her, if indeed he ever was. Although there is no textual evidence to indicate that Ophelia blossoms into a captivating and intelligent woman when freed from Polonius’ scrutiny, Shakespeare is certainly highly methodical through the way in which he presents Ophelia within the play.

        Through comparing Ophelia’s madness with that of Hamlet, there is a stark contrast between Hamlet’s real or feigned madness which results in combative attacks and sly battles of wits and Ophelia’s descent ion into a harmless, literally flowery witlessness. Poor Ophelia is mad with grief, and resigns herself almost instantly to pretty nonsense. In many ways such negativity is a shame because it diminishes the tragedy of her death and the pathos of her funeral. Despite this, the audience is still moved to pity by the death of a young woman, and moreover by Gertrude’s extended lyrical account of the drowning. However, that is an evocation of a tragic scene, rather than a report of a terrible waste of young life. As a result of the way in which Shakespeare has presented Ophelia, the audience knows too little about Ophelia to weep tears at her graveside.

The very nature of Ophelia’s death is interesting, as Gertrude seems to suggest a tragic accident: suicide only because Ophelia did nothing to help herself when she got into trouble. Additionally, the coroner (Act 5, scene 1, line 4) decides that her death is accidental and that she can be buried in consecrated ground. However, doubts clearly remain: the First Gravedigger is deeply skeptical. Furthermore, the priest wants a short and hurried burial service because of the suspicions surrounding Ophelia’s death.        Due to the Queen giving a remarkably detailed account of Ophelia’s death, the audience is led to believe that she may have witnessed the event. As it is already known that Gertrude empathized with Ophelia’s suffering, perhaps she realised that the kindest action to take would be to let Ophelia decide her own fate, although it is clear that Ophelia was in no fit state of mind to do so and was barely aware of her surroundings "incapable of her own distress.".

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                   It can be argued that Ophelia’s death is romanticized, as she dies in a romantic and picturesque setting befitting her character, surrounded by her garland of flowers. However, Ophelia’s death is referred to as being ‘muddied’. Essentially, ‘muddied’ could either have been used in terms of dirty, as she dies in a brook full of flowers and weeds, or the death of Ophelia may well have been muddied in the sense of shrouded with suspicion. Vitally, the word "muddied" is also connected to the corrupted imagery in "Hamlet" where the King refers to "people muddied" ...

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