While not a major protagonist or agent in the play, Ophelia is nonetheless a key figure in 'Hamlet'
While not a major protagonist or agent in the play, Ophelia is nonetheless a key figure in 'Hamlet'
Although Ophelia is not a main character in the revenge tragedy 'Hamlet' her dramatic purpose is vital to the play. It emphasizes the poisoned body politic and its affects on the innocent.
The role of women in the sixteenth century is to be obedient and dutiful, the only way to accomplish this was to be passive. Women in the sixteenth century were meant to be obedient to their fathers, for they were their property until such a time came when she was married, it would then be her husband to whom her duties lied.
Denmark is in a state of chaos shown by the opening death of the true King Hamlet who was murdered by his own brother Claudius, Claudius then seduced his brothers wife and took over the thrown of Denmark. Due to this chaos innocence, loyalties and love are corrupted and all that was good and dutiful falls into darkness under the ruling of evil.
Ophelia is a women of the court her duty is to her father Polonius, and her brother Laertes. It is her fathers intentions to marry Ophelia off to a suitable and profitable match.
We first meet Ophelia whilst she is saying farewell to her active brother, Laertes, who is going with friends to university leaving Ophelia with only her father to tend to her needs. Unlike her brother, Ophelia is passive, a dutiful daughter and everything she should be for a women of the court in the sixteenth century. However this is only acceptable in a righteous Court, Denmark however is in a state of chaos and Ophelia's passivity can only lead to her destruction.
Whilst Ophelia is talking to her father once Laertes has left for university, Ophelia shows her passivity to us " I do not know, my lord, what I should think."
This shows a clear idea of how passive Ophelia is and shows her doom from the beginning, for in a disrupted and evil court the innocent are the first to suffer.
Hamlet is now believed to be mad, he knows about the murder of his father and the true corruption which rules the state of Denmark.
Claudius suspects Hamlet is aware of his treachery and ...
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Whilst Ophelia is talking to her father once Laertes has left for university, Ophelia shows her passivity to us " I do not know, my lord, what I should think."
This shows a clear idea of how passive Ophelia is and shows her doom from the beginning, for in a disrupted and evil court the innocent are the first to suffer.
Hamlet is now believed to be mad, he knows about the murder of his father and the true corruption which rules the state of Denmark.
Claudius suspects Hamlet is aware of his treachery and Polonius advises the King to use Ophelia to find the source of his madness whether it be Ophelia's refusal to Hamlet or another matter, 'Ophelia is a card that can be played to take several sorts of tricks'1. Polonius' ambitions are that he can introduce the idea of a marriage between Hamlet and Ophelia, to heighten his social status.
Ophelia' actions have been purely innocent, when Ophelia is played against Hamlet however, Hamlet can see her corruption he can see how she is beginning to become tainted and warns her "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" He is warning her to either go to a nunnery or fall into the darkness and become a harlot. Ophelia has given in to evil unknowingly and her downward trajectory is beginning.
Hamlet is summoned to his mothers chambers where she wishes to find the cause of his madness, meanwhile Polonius eavesdrops behind an arras only to be killed by Hamlet. Ophelia is now left with no-one to guide her in her rapidly changing life, her father is dead and her brother is away at university she no longer knows the difference between good and evil and is merely confused and lost in the world. Ophelia falls into madness and her appearance changes greatly, Franco Zeffirelli represented Ophelia's madness creatively through her appearance and movement in his film, Ophelia had greasy hair, no shoes and the dress she wore was a soiled pink, her eyes darted from side to side as though watching premonitions of what is yet to come from the midst of corruption which now controls Denmark.
This shows how Ophelia has trapped and surrounded by corruption and disease alone, confused and without guidance, her innocence has pulled her gradually down throughout the play leading to her madness, this shows the affect on the innocent that a poisoned body politic has, it pulls them down constantly throughout a revenge tragedy into madness and great misery, just as Ophelia has.
Ophelia is a measure of the evil corruption, what happens to her is not what she decides, it is what the world around her demands.
Disease has spread through the state of Denmark through Claudius' reign as King, making the land around him tainted.
"And curd, like eager droppings into milk, the thin and wholesome blood"
This is a metaphor for the poison which runs through the state of Denmark and of the poison that ran its course through the true King Hamlets body. This shows how the poison is running its course and is spreading rapidly starting with the weakest and most vulnerable, the innocent.
Laertes returns from university on a visit to find his father dead and his sister mad, however he can not see the true cause of the chaos.
Ophelia's downward trajectory does not end in madness, Queen Gertrude joins Laertes and Claudius to tell Laertes of his sisters death.
"One woe doth tread upon another's heel, so fast the follow. Your sister's drowned Laertes."
Gertrude then tells us of Ophelia's murky death in great description that some believe that Gertrude stood and watched or perhaps even pushed Ophelia to her death however this is a great misconception, Gertrude tells her death in great detail to give imagery on Ophelia's passing.
Some believe that "Ophelia went mad for love and killed herself."2 This is also a great misconception the purpose of Ophelia's death is to show the effects of a poisoned body politic has on the innocent, Ophelia's downward trajectory is a measure of the diseased land of Denmark that Claudius has caused.
Ophelia drowned under the weight of her soiled garments, this is a metaphor for the corruption which has caused a downward trajectory for Ophelia.
"as one incapable of her own distress,"
"Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death"
The garments are a metaphor for the poisoned body politic and how it has overwhelmed Ophelia and how everything has come too heavy for her to cope, she was trapped into madness and surrounded by cold heartless stone (represented well by Zeffirelli's film of 'Hamlet' in the Hamlet ad Ophelia scene) and eventually her madness caused her death for she was too innocent and weak to cope under the weight of her surroundings.
Ophelia's death is not the end of her downward trajectory, Ophelia is then buried in unholy land, with no proper funeral, no proper farewell and buried amongst the lowest of status' this shows how truly corrupted the state of Denmark is, Ophelia was a women of the court and instead of being buried in her rightful grounds she was buried amongst the foulest dirt. Ophelia fell from an innocent young women of the court with a positive future into madness into a muddy death and into uneven, unholy mud. Her downward trajectory has pulled Ophelia down into the ground.
Ophelia dies early in the play to measure the corruption, she is a catalyst for the revenge tragedy, for without her death we would not be able to understand to true corruption and evil that runs it course through Denmark like poison. Ophelia may not be a main character or agent in the play but her dramatic purpose is vital to the plays understanding and interpretation.
To conclude Ophelia is vital to the play and its understanding even though she is not a protagonist, without her innocent and passive character it would be hard to understand the true destructive nature of the mislead court.
312 Words exactly
Rebecca West " The Nature Of Will" in Hamlet : Norton critical edition p.230
2 Rebecca West " The Nature Of Will " in Hamlet: Norton critical edition p.231
Terri-Ann Sayle 6LRe
