Hamlet Speech

There are many pivotal characters in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one of the most well known being Ophelia. She does not appear in the play until Act 1, Scene 3, in which she converses with her brother, Laertes, about the prince Hamlet, and his suspected motives and intentions. It is here that we learn that Ophelia has what she believes to be a strong, lasting relationship with the Prince, and we find as the play develops that Laertes is more accurate in his feelings towards the relationship describing it as “forward, not permanent”. Ophelia is depicted as quite the opposite to Hamlet.

Theodore Lidz said that “Whereas Shakespeare is ambiguous about the reality of Hamlet’s insanity and depicts him as on the border, fluctuating between sanity and madness, he portrays Ophelia as definitely, one might even say classically, insane.”

As the story progresses, we notice Ophelia being almost tortured by Hamlet as his feelings of hatred and betrayal that he is feeling towards his mother are relayed back at the childlike, naïve, loyal and loving Ophelia. To the reader, this is what Ophelia represents, a pure-hearted young woman with all the best intentions. She is loyal to her father and brother and loving towards Hamlet as she clings to the memory of the Prince treating her with respect and tenderness.

This woman who is the epitome of goodness is lost to a state of madness, as her father is murdered by the man she loves. It is not in fact the death of her father that is the cause of her insanity, rather the fact that she is unable to transfer that attachment that she had to Polonius over to Hamlet, as she is obliged to hate him. It is interesting to find that even after she is driven to insanity, pushed around, used and deprived of basic human respect, Ophelia is still virtuous.

A.C Bradley said that "In her wanderings we hear from time to time an undertone of the deepest sorrow, but never the agonized cry of fear or horror which makes madness dreadful or shocking. And the picture of her death, if our eyes grow dim in watching it, is still purely beautiful".
But is it in this way in which Shakespeare intended an audience to view Ophelia?

In the text Ophelia has two sides to her character, a side that is calm, collected and innocent, and the other a side that is mad and dark. As a reader of the play, we see first the innocent, victimised side of her before we are exposed to her madness; therefore I believe it is the way in which most people view her. But it is unknown if that was the character that Shakespeare did intend to portray.

A modern audience would view Ophelia as a weaker character, who is timid in comparison to modern day women. She does as the male’s request and does what she believes to be her duty. A Victorian audience would view her as ideal; they would see her as a beautiful, intelligent role model type figure.

In Act 4, Scene 7, Gertrude informs Claudius and Laertes of Ophelia’s death, explaining it as an accident. Was this really the case? Shakespeare leaves the end of Ophelia’s life with a question mark hanging over it to give the reader a chance to come to their own verdict about whether it was indeed an accident, or an act of suicide driven by madness.

To conclude, Shakespeare’s addition of this character in the midst of all the chaos added depth to the play and gave the audience a way to connect to one of the characters and feel emotionally attached to the story by having Ophelia’s character exposed and vulnerable in contrast to the others.