Who Is Ophelia A Dynamic Character In Hamlet

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Of all the pivotal characters in Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static and one-dimensional. Parents could only hope for a daughter like Ophelia, she obeys her father’s commands and is a normal teenager, for most of the book at least. Her Father uses her throughout the book, but he loves her. Her father is Polonius, and when he orders her to quit seeing her abusive boyfriend Hamlet, she agrees, “I shall obey my Lord,” (1.3.145). She does exactly what she’s told, as long as she’s unmarried, she lives by her father’s rules. Basically, Ophelia has no control over her body, her relationships, or her choices. Eventually Ophelia snaps, just like any other person who has been under that control for their whole lives. Hamlet has a feeling that Ophelia …show more content…
Ophelia's lover Hamlet causes most of her emotional pain throughout the play, and when Hamlet’s hate is the reason for her father’s death she finally snaps and goes insane. But even when she goes insane, to everyone she is still beautiful and full of pure goodness. The song that she sings to Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius is about how the corrupt world has changed good pure Ophelia into a mentally broken down girl. She shows us that only in her insanity does she live up to Hamlets thoughts and expectations of her. Ophelia's state of mind is much more painful and different. Hamlet can’t get over his fathers death, but it is the hate and bitterness that he has toward his mother that keeps him preoccupied from his father’s recent death, Ophelia isn’t even on his mind. When it happens that Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, he isn’t thinking about the potential harm that he could do to Ophelia. Hamlet has sealed Ophelia’s fate, and along with that she does not have much in the way that is positive for her. Throughout the entire murder scene in Act 3, Scene 4, Hamlet does not even think about the damage he has done to Ophelia. His emotional upswing is directed entirely to his mother, and while his emotions overwhelm him, he tries to convince that he is not mad. Now, Ophelia has to mourn her own father’s death, but it is not the death that pushes her into insanity. She is forced to hate and fear her father’s murderer, but her father’s murderer is her future husband, and with her brother gone she has nowhere to turn for comfort. Hamlet then becomes more insane, and after his killing of Ophelia’s father she is forced to believe that he is truly mad. She has no options for sanity; grief and sorrow are pulling Ophelia down. Hamlet and Ophelia are confronted with deaths that are very close to them, however, it is Ophelia's dilemma that is the more horrible of the two
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