Ophelia Never Had A Chance

by Andrew Michael Flynn

While taking into account that women had secondary status to men in the Elizabethan Era (and many centuries after that, mind us all), one of the key factors that leads the character of Ophelia into madness and a poor mental health state overall is that she first and foremost has a lack of true identity. While it could be construed that she exists merely as a plot device and is at most a two-dimensional character, her fate is that is tragic in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The first of her character dimensions is to to react to the men in her life, with the second dimension being her decision to eventually take her own life (at least that is the scenario that the play gives, if we are being completely on the level here). The play Hamlet serves as a social commentary toward the terrible treatment of women by men, and can absolutely be viewed accurately through a modern feminist lens by anyone who chooses to.

Near the beginning of the play, her father Polonius and brother Laertes beckon Ophelia to be done with Hamlet, chiding him as only wanting her flesh and nothing much more than this. Laertes implores Ophelia to drop Hamlet like a hot potato:

“For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,
Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute,
No more.” (Shakespeare, 1.3.6-11)

Later in the scene after Polonius chimes in with his own thoughts about the seemingly wayward Hamlet and his questionable character, Laertes captures Ophelia’s attention again, trying to espouse the best brotherly advice as only he knows how:

“Fear it, Ophelia. Fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
Virtue itself ’scapes not calumnious strokes.” (1.3.36-41)

Thus, since Ophelia is a woman, she is not intelligent enough to perceive Hamlet’s lies. She is too foolish to understand his real intentions (Samuelsson). At this juncture, the reader of the play knows Ophelia to be a character that is surrounded completely by the men in her life, and likely has not made many of her own choices in her existence. Gender roles during the Elizabethan Era dictated that Laertes (and Polonius) had sizable authority over his sister Ophelia’s life as it pertains to her relationships and what her character was to the rest of the world. It is worthy to note that that has changed when compared with today’s world, any brother who had that kind of grasp or hold of his sister’s life and livelihood would be viewed as toxic and someone to immediately get away from to seek true independence. Polonius’ short monologue near the end of Scene 3 in Act 1 encapsulates the larger world in this kind of relationship:

“Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
Even in their promise as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire. From this time
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.
Set your entreatments at a higher rate
Than a command to parley.” (1.3.120-128)

Since Hamlet is now not to have her by any true means, he displays poor and insulting behavior toward Ophelia, lambasting her like a true jerk:

“Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of
sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I
could accuse me of such things that it were better my
mother had not borne me.
I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more
offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.
What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth
and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of
us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.” (3.1.131-140)

In Act 4, Ophelia can be seen as a lost cause and further falling into her own madness. Hers is a heart that appears to be irreparably broken, so her the second dimension of her existence comes to the forefront with her fierce, raving rant against Claudius and Gertrude that involves singing and completely acting out her true frustration and madness:

“I hope all will be well. We must be patient, but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i’ th’ cold ground. My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies. Good night, good night.” (4.5.77-82)

As a result of Ophelia’s chronic depressive and sad mental state, she takes her own life by submerging herself in water and drowning. From here, Gertrude learns the news and tells those who are left in her family. Shortly after, short-minded Laertes dies at the hand of Hamlet, Hamlet having bested him in a duel after challenging him. Then, Hamlet exacts his own vengeance on Claudius, who killed his father. Gertrude also dies during the duel, but only because she consumed Claudius’ poison that is meant for Hamlet, intending to protect him. Finally, Hamlet dies from the wounds suffered from his duel with Laertes.

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Works Cited

Samuelsson, Mathilda. Shakespeare’s Representation of Women: A Feminist Reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1437875/ FULLTEXT01.pdf.

Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” The Folger SHAKESPEARE, 9 July 2021, https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/

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