While the argument could be made that, in deceiving Ophelia, he can easily get to Polonius, I would assert that other methods could have been used without sacrificing his relationship with her. Ophealia suffers from PTSD and Major depressive episode brought on by the fact she has zero agency, and those closest to her betray her and abuse her, perhaps sexually as well is alluded in places. 20 May 2016. Throughout the play, Hamlet displays pessimistic thoughts and negativity. Hamlet manages to confuse Ophelia, Claudius and Polonius with his madness acts. In particular, Ophelia fails to express any points of view Ophelia is used by two men in the play – her father and Hamlet – as a pawn for them to enact their deceptions. His madness and melancholy has driven him to the point wanting to commit suicide. According to Alison A. Chapman, Ophelia’s “ravings display a complex awareness of England's medieval Catholic past.” As she descends into grief after losing the men in her life, she begins to make many “allusions to medieval Catholic forms of piety: St. James, St. Charity, ‘old lauds,’ pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, and other pre-Reformation religious folklore (Chapman).” Religious ideas regarding the role of women may have contributed to Ophelia’s reliance on her father and other men for her sense of self. According to Brown, “The context of her disease, like that of hysteria later, is sexual frustration, social helplessness, and enforced control over women's bodies.” natural phenomenons. This is for all: I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, have you slander any moment leisure, as to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. OPHELIA: Pray let's have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you this. Hamlet seems to know that Ophelia is helping her dad spy on him, and he accuses her (and all women) of being a "breeder of sinners" and orders Ophelia to a "nunnery" (3.1.131; 132), i.e. Hamlet had a chance to kill Claudius early in the play while Claudius was praying, but decided that, if he were killed while praying, that Claudius’s soul would go to Heaven. However, Laertes is often credited with being Hamlet's superior in his instant and decisive reaction to his father's death, even though the circumstances of Polonius' death were entirely different from those of Hamlet… dispelling each argument and come to my own conclusion. and her only clear emotions are fear (after Hamlet's reported visit to As one of only two women in the play, it is perhaps surprising that Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship is very complicated, and many critics have questioned whether Hamlet genuinely loved Ophelia. Her withdrawal provokes an intense, misogynistic reaction from Hamlet, and ultimately Ophelia goes mad and dies tragically without the misunderstanding coming to light. Polonius uses Ophelia as bait to spy on Hamlet and orders “ Ophelia, walk you here…Read on this book that show of such an exercise may color your loneliness. Ophelia listens to her kinsmen’s advice and withdraws from him. Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows how men treated and thought of women during the 1500s. The significance of Ophelia’s madness is to signify her losing two of the most important men in her life, Polonius and Hamlet. In her sad reaction to Hamlet’s madness “O what a noble mind is here o’erthrown! Get an answer for 'In act 3, scene 1 of Hamlet, Hamlet has a conversation with Ophelia while Claudius and Polonius listen in to try to figure out the source of his madness. Ophelia obeys her father's demands because it was expected during that time of women to comply with men's wishes. This causes him to display erratic behavior, indicating that he has become mad with his desire to avenge his father’s death. (Image: John Everett Millais/Public domain) She addresses Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes with her words about death, burial, and mourning, and also of young girls betrayed by unfaithful lovers. a brothel. Hamlet’s madness is fueled by his father’s death and his desire to seek revenge on the man who killed him. Through a series of scenes, the play displays the sorts of distinctions between all the characters actions, natural and supernatural, distraction and feigned madness that were being demanded at other cultural sites. Web. Hamlet’s madness likely stems from an actual mental illness, most likely a depressive illness. Seeing a ghost could indicate that he is already mad. It is through those scenes of madness that we get to know the real Ophelia, and it is through those scenes that we get to know the opinion of Hamlet and what he thinks of the king, the courtiers and Polonius. The both have experienced the death of a father and they both have some how the same reaction to this death. A watercolor of Hamlet, Act III, Scene iv: Hamlet makes a pass through the arras. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). The final difficulty of reading madness […] is that in the act of doing so, one dissociates oneself from it or associates oneself with it, and in either case becomes disqualified as an interpreter. Web. In the middle of all the drama that seems to be flooding Hamlet’s life and Denmark, the audience is presented with a tragic love story, and of course I’m talking about the forbidden love of Hamlet and Ophelia. . Jennifer Wilber works as an ESL instructor, substitute teacher, and freelance writer. Hamlet fools Ophelia into believing that he is mad by killing Polonium behind a curtain in the Gertrude's room. This indicates that she is too weak-willed to have an identity of her own, which could indicate some type of mental illness or “madness.” Her father’s identity is her identity and this loss of identity propelled her further into madness. Another character that can be construed as mad in Hamlet is Ophelia. Are you looking for more information about Hamlet? passive. "Gender and Identity in Hamlet: A Modern Interpretation of Ophelia." Ophelia's madness, brought on by her frustrated love and the bizarre way her father was killed by her loved one, seems less ambiguous than Hamlet's for her language and behaviour are clearly irrational. Ophelia here is viewed as all other Come your ways. The facade that Hamlet adopts is used for his benefit in all instances but one: his deception over his love. Feigned or not, both Hamlet and Ophelia apply madness to survive the oppression from Claudius and Polonius. They order Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet, referencing his erratic behaviour. And I am made at your window to be your valentine. Medieval & Renaissance Drama In England 20.    Poor Ophelia, she lost her lover, her father, her mind, and, posthumously, her brother. The defective effect of Ophelia's madness to come has the same cause; Polonius' prescripts have their effect on Ophelia too. Pleading with Hamlet not to follow the Ghost, Horatio asks him to think about what might happen if the Ghost "assume some other horrible form, / Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason / And draw you into madness" (1.4.72-74) Horatio believes that the Ghost is not Hamlet's father in the form of a ghost, but a spirit in the form of Hamlet's father. by Coke Smyth. The Myriad. "Depressive Illness Delayed Hamlet’s Revenge." It is clear that Ophelia is grieving over the death of her father, Polonius, when Horatio says “She speaks much of her father, says she hears…” (Shakespeare IV 4-5), but a secondary cause of Ophelia’s madness may be due to her failed relationship with Hamlet as well. What interests me more though are Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s varying degrees of madness. during Ophelia’s short time of madness. Ophelia's Descent to Madness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Essay. Web. Ophelia's character is presented as being so very unsubstantial and Previously in the play where Hamlet gives his soliloquy on life and death, Ophelia has been ordered to break off her relationship with Hamlet while Polonius eavesdrops to prove, characters’ affection for Hamlet. Ophelia is the only truly innocent victim in Hamlet. In Hamlet, Ophelia disregards her own feelings towards Hamlet. The mad scenes in Hamlet show Ophelia as a complimentary character of Hamlet. He writes, "Though Hamlet has been courting her, Ophelia willingly obeys her father when he tells her to discourage the prince's advances" (Corum 26). It is evident in Hamlet, Ophelia, Polonius and Laertes. The play commences after Claudius killed King Hamlet, leaving him in purgatory. The Renaissance Hamlet : Issues And Responses In 1600. The body and Mind are two major elements in Madness. Furthermore, Ophelia encourages sympathy by giving insight into how different Hamlet’s nature was, prior to his father’s death. However, he is very mad, … Laertes’s expectation for her to be chaste, as well as Hamlet’s rejection further propel Ophelia into a state of madness fueled by sexual frustration. Throughout the play, indeed, the appearance of Hamlet's pretended madness is contrasted with the reality of Ophelia's madness. As a mere Hamlet & Ophelia Differences Between Hamlet and Ophelia's Madness Hamlet's Madness is Feigned while Ophelia's is real Ophelia's true madness is presented in her suicide Hamlet demonstrates his madness by acting aggressively and impetuously; and through his different play of From the beginning of the play, in Act I Scene iii, Laertes and Polonius are trying to convince her that Hamlet does not love her and only is interested in her so he can sleep with her. I shall obey, my lord (1.3.131-36), Macro Analysis of the Coca Cola Company Essay, Mary Rowlandson and Benjamin Franklin's Storied of Captivity Essay example, Beer and Wine: A Development of Community in Our World Essay, Essay about Sophocles' Antigone: A Great Tragedy. Hamlet genuinely loved her before his father’s death, and this is shown by the love letters they have from before. But is her madness merely pretty and pathetic (as she is sometimes played)? Conclusion. It is my conclusion that Hamlet uses a façade of insanity to hide his attempts to kill Claudius and, In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, is seen as a fair maiden who wants her love with Hamlet to be eternal. Laertes, The literary language of madness drawn from Classical drama came to the English stage through Old French and the literature of fools. Madness is one of the main themes of Hamlet. During the Middle Ages and Elizabethan, Shakespeare's Presentation of Ophelia Project Gutenberg, Nov. 1998. This makes Hamlet confused as to what he should actually do in response to seeing the ghost and drives him further into madness. The madness displayed by each of these characters is driven, in part, by the deaths of their fathers, however they each portray madness in different ways even though their madness is driven by similar origins. This incident drives Ophelia into becoming insane and leads to her taking her own life. Ophelia’s madness stems from her lack of identity and her feelings of helplessness regarding her own life. Hamlet and Ophelia both display symptoms of madness, but each become mad for different reasons. As stated by Brown, because of Ophelia’s lack of a distinct identity, her “identity disappears along with the disappearance of male dominance.” As a result of her madness, she is unable to recognize herself as an independent person without these dominant male figures (Brown). This along with several other attempts of spying on and murdering Hamlet eventually lead to the, general public, the character of Ophelia in “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” offers the reader a tantalizing mystery - did Ophelia truly commit suicide? in Creative Writing and English. When discussing Ophelia’s character, her madness is almost always at the centre of controversy. For Hamlet and Ophelia, their madness similarly reveals their helplessness toward paternal manipulation and intimidation. This madness, in the end, led Ophelia to commit suicide as she had nothing to live for without the men in her life who bestowed her sense of identity upon her. Religious ideals may also contribute to Ophelia’s madness. Hamlet's Madness is a Crafty Plan: Hamlet at the beginning of the play informs Horatio 'I perchance hereafter shall think meet/ To put an antic disposition on'- in other words, he is warning them that, having been set the task of avenging his father, he must necessarily act mad to avoid suspicion. . A prime example of Hamlet’s melancholic state is his famous “To be, or not to be” monologue in Act 3, Scene 1. With madness, Hamlet and Ophelia faithfully express their inner struggles. I was the more deceived. Hamlet spends much of his time pretending to be mad, that he starts to believe that he really is insane. While innocent characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern believe their duty is to simply diagnose the reason for Hamlet’s madness, Claudius uses their care for Hamlet and blind loyalty to plot Hamlet’s death. 20 May 2016. Mad with grief over the death of her father, Ophelia drowned herself in a river. B. The Character of Hamlet Born a prince, parented by a jester, haunted by a ghost, destined to kill a king rather than become one, and remembered as the title character of a play he did not want to madnesss in. 858 Words4 Pages. (2007): 111-135. the novel, with the death of his father and his, Ophelia's Descent to Madness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Essay, People have mostly seen women inferior to men because women have been thought of as simple-minded and could not take care of themselves. His need for revenge against the man who murdered his father ended in the further destruction of his own family. The death of his father only worsened a preexisting condition.   He keeps going, too. Ophelia is also used to bring out the foe theme. He also becomes quite melancholic over the death and murder of his father and begins to question life as a result. From Lady Macbeth hallucination of a bloody spot leading to her suicide, to Hamlet’s faked illness and Ophelia’s very real illness, afflictions of the mind are featured prominently in the Bard of Avalon’s many works. Several of the characters in Hamlet could be considered mad. To stay in control, the men in, In Hamlet, Polonius says, "Read on this book, that show of such an exercise may colour your loneliness" (3.1.46-49). the debate in 2000 words, but I can look at the evidence supporting or Early in the play Ophelia says to her father, Polonius, “I do not know, my lord, what I should think” (Shakespeare). According to Heather Brown, Ophelia “is Polonius' pawn, Laertes' chaste sister, and Hamlet's lover. Shaw, A. Nevertheless there is a mystery about her mental condition. Web. her) and regret (at Hamlet's rejection of her). What follows is one of the most explosive scenes of the play. Ophelia in the fourth act of Hamlet is demonstrably insane, but the direct cause of her slipped sanity is something that remains debatable. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet and Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1866. Or, perhaps, was Ophelia’s death an accident, or a murder? student of advanced-level English Literature, I doubt I can add anything new to According to Brown, “The context of her disease, like that of hysteria later, is sexual frustration, social helplessness, and enforced control over women's bodies.” Because she has no agency over her own life and body, she is driven further into madness (Brown). Ophelia wants to act as she thinks but is always restricted with the men around her, and Hamlet’s behavior leads her to madness and suicide in the end. Academic Search Complete. —Carol Thomas Neely Polonius instructs Ophelia to read the book so Hamlet would approach her, and Polonius and Claudius could find out why Hamlet went mad. "Ophelia's "Old Lauds": Madness And Hagiography In Hamlet." Project Gutenberg. Polonius uses Ophelia to try to determine what the cause of Hamlet’s madness is (although Polonius, arrogantly, already assumes he knows that Hamlet is ‘mad for [her] love’). While these deaths both sparked madness in these characters, they each dealt with their madness in different ways. This essay will examine Ophelia's downward spiral from a chaste maiden to nervous wreck. I did a 20 page paper, cited and reference with both currant DSM standards as well as utilizing the play for quotes. Still, in the Elizabethan era, understanding of mental illness was rudimentary at best, as were the methods of treating it. The longer Hamlet waits to exact his revenge, the further he descends into madness and melancholy. Shakespeare presents water imagery relating to Hamlet’s character in the very first act of the play, both explicitly and implicitly.The atmosphere of the platform, before the appearance of the ghost, is quiet and calm, almost too calm in the way that the world is before a heavy rainstorm, an example of Shakespeare’s use of implied and explicit examples, Throughout Shakespeare’s many works, mental illnesses have played an undeniable part in many of them, especially his tragedies. 20 May 2016. —We are oft to blame in this, 'tis too much proved, that with devotion’s visage and pious action we do sugar o … She holds a B.A. 20 May 2016. Ophelia does as she is told: POL. WOCHLEY: Ophelia, the mad scene in handing out the herbs is Ophelia … Laertes’s expectation for her to be chaste, as well as Hamlet’s rejection further propel Ophelia into a state of madness fueled by sexual frustration. To the mere observer the drama that unfolds between Hamlet and Ophelia may just look like the struggle an average couple might, Crazy as a Hamlet? Furthermore, she never All in the morning betime. Madness in Hamlet The theme of madness in Hamlet has been a widely popular topic in the discussion of the play by both critics and readers alike. In her madness, Ophelia sings snatches of songs, most of which sound like popular songs of Shakespeare’s day. 11 December 2015 The Madness of Hamlet and Ophelia Psychotic behavior is prevalent in Shakespeare’s Hamlet as two of his characters, Hamlet and Ophelia, exhibit madness during the play. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the motif of water to symbolize madness and the unknown in the characters Hamlet and Ophelia. There was an order most did not interfere with; however, some did. Nellie Melba as Ophelia in the opera Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas. Unlike Hamlet’s madness, Ophelia’s madness is unquestionably genuine. My final diagnosis was in fact borderline personality disorder with a side of schizo effective disorder brought on by the death of his father. Throughout the play, Hamlet displays many characteristics indicative of madness. Brown, Heather. Ihe next shock to the tender sensibilities of Ophelia is the get-thee-to-a-nunnery scene. ” we see Hamlet as observed by her before he changed. Paired with Hamlet’s apparent madness, he easily sways them into doing his bidding by feeding them incorrect information, thus influencing their decisions and actions. While I agree with your method, I don’t agree with your outcome. Westminster College, n.d. The most important difference between Ophelia and Hamlet 's madness in Act 4 is the fact that Ophelia is, in fact, gone crazy, while Hamlet is merely continuing to put his "antic disposition on. Hamlet’s madness and his quest for revenge ultimately resulted in his death. Hamlet admits to suffering from melancholy. Madness is a theme evident throughout the entire text. Ophelia. In the beginning of the play, Ophelia was like any other obedient young woman during the time. For the Elizabethans, Hamlet was the prototype of melancholy male madness, associated with intellectual and imaginative genius; but Ophelia’s affliction was erotomania, or love-madness. Hamlet's madness — the direct cause of the tragety through out the play Hamlet killed a lot of people which cause many destruction, however Ophelia did not directly caused the death of others Hamlet influences Ophelia which cause her madness You must not take for fire. Polonius. Hamlet has come to distrust all females because of his mother and her unfaithfulness to her dead husband. Throughout the play, Ophelia first obeyed her father and brother’s wishes, ignored the social norms later, and then went mad, which caused her to never gain her own identity. Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day. The madness of each of these characters ultimately ends in tragedy. Depressive Illness Delayed Hamlet’s Revenge, Feb. 2002. Chapman, Alison A. Web. In short, he wouldn’t hear his father had he not gone through the death but he always would have been boarderline. Home Hamlet Q & A Act 3, Sc. —Hamlet 4.5.7–9. In Understanding Hamlet, Richard Corum shows that Ophelia is obedient. Check out the below videos to help you to better understand the play. However, after Hamlet’s father’s death, he develops trust issues and resentment especially towards women after his mother’s haste… Her choice of songs seems to reveal two obsessions. Perhaps the world's most famous mental patient, Hamlet's sanity has been "Hamlet." argued over by countless learned scholars for hundreds of years. Medical Humanities. OPH. But she can't call him out on his language, because, as a good girl, she can't admit that she knows what it means. 2, lines 100-123: Describe Hamlet's "madness" with Polonius and explain how and why it changes when he is with Ophelia. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father. Due to the many warnings from her father Polonius and her brother Laertes, she succumbs to her father’s wishes and plays the role of a good daughter, thus betraying Hamlet. demands any freedom, nor questions Polonius' curt and misplaced, Ophelia - The Innocent Victim in Shakespeare's Hamlet   20 May 2016. Ophelia is portrayed as a weak character who is unable to think clearly for herself or to have any sense of individuality. In this monologue, Hamlet seems to be having an existential crisis as he contemplates the meaning of life and death and whether or not he would be better off to take his own life. Hamlet is obviously experiencing grief and despair right from the beginning of To read madness sanely is to miss the point; to read madness madly is to have one's point be missed. In the 1500s, women were supposed to conform to men’s wishes. . Ophelia develops a different variation of madness created by her love and hate towards everyone in her life, which she develops after the death of her father. While it is evident that Ophelia is grieving over the death of her father, Polonius, as Horatio says of her “She speaks much of her father, says she hears / There’s tricks in the world, and hems, and beats her heart” (4.5.4-5), a secondary cause of Ophelia’s madness may be in fact about her failed relationship with Hamlet … Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows how men treated and thought of women during the 1500s. Madness is one of the most pervasive themes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. While the death of Hamlet’s father made him angry enough to want revenge, Ophelia internalized the death of her father as a loss of personal identity. This becomes a very famous scene in the play because Hamlet denies that he ever loved Ophelia, thus causing her mental stability to begin to waver. After the tragic death of her father, Polonius, who was killed by Hamlet, Ophelia is devastated. There was an order most did not interfere with; however, some did. Ophelia’s madness is driven by the loss of the male influences in her life. He is unable to cope with his perceived responsibility to his father and is driven further into a state of depression (Shaw). Hamlet suffers from Borderline Personality disorder, as there are three places where he “plays“ mad to great affect. 2, lines 100-123: Des... Hamlet Act 3, Sc. People have mostly seen women inferior to men because women have been thought of as simple-minded and could not take care of themselves. This quest for revenge resulted in not only his own death, but in the deaths of many other characters in the play as well, including his mother, Gertrude, who drinks the poison that was meant for him. Hamlet decided that a better revenge would be to wait until some other time to kill him to prevent his soul from going to Heaven. While Hamlet feels the need to avenge his father’s death, he also worries that the ghost may actually “be a devil who will betray his soul,” rather than the actual ghost of his father (Frye, 12). Prior to this moment, Ophelia is taken aside by King Claudius and her father, Polonius. His father’s ghost tells him that he was murdered by Claudius, which drives Hamlet to want to seek revenge. While there is, Shakespeare's “Hamlet” explores many literary devices and themes, and it’s plotted around revenge, the fight for political power and Hamlet’s descent into madness. Frye, Roland Mushat. Prince Hamlet, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is not mad, in terms of sanity. Look to't, I charge you. King Cladius and Polonius then hide nearby to watch Hamlet’s reaction to being broken up with. Bear in mind that in the deeply religious culture that was the basis for the inception of Hamlet, suicide was a mortal sin, bearing with it the consequence of eternal punishment and damnation, burial in unconsecrated ground and shame to be forever associated with the deceased. Most notably, Hamlet and Ophelia characterize the idea of madness in this play. Once these male influences are removed and these descriptions no longer define Ophelia, she loses her identity and becomes mad.” Once her father is dead, she loses a major part of herself. So Hamlet would approach her, and Polonius and Claudius could find out why went. Own feelings towards Hamlet ophelia's reaction to hamlet's madness Claudius could find out why Hamlet went mad Ophelia! 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