Essay On Ophelia The Innocent

Victim In Shakespeare's Hamlet

Poor Ophelia, she lost her lover, her father, her mind, and,
posthumously, her brother. Ophelia is the only truly innocent victim
in Hamlet. This essay will examine Ophelia's downward spiral from a
chaste maiden to nervous wreck.

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. Laertes says
"Perhaps he loves you now, ...... His greatness weighed, his will is
not his own." He is telling Ophelia that she is likely to have her heart
broken because of Hamlet's high birth. He may not be able to choose
who he marries, so although he may love Ophelia, he can never
marry her because of the difference in their social classes. This
cannot have a good effect on Ophelia, her brother telling her that the
her relationship with the one she loves is doomed from the start!
Polonius tells her "Affection pooh! You speak like a green girl, /
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. / Do you believe his tenders,
as you call them?" He means that although Lord Hamlet has been
showing many signs of affection to Ophelia, it cannot be real. He is
saying that Ophelia is blinded by Hamlet's charm and is
inexperienced (Unsifted) in this sort of situation. He goes on later to
say that these affections are merely "...springes to catch the
woodcocks" (traps to catch stupid little birds.) Why does Ophelia's
family find it necessary to bring down her spirits about her
relationship with Hamlet? Can't they let her figure it out for herself?
This, in my opinion, is a good example of how Ophelia is victimized in
this play.

Later in the play, when Hamlet becomes (or pretends to become)

mad, he turns his back on Ophelia either because it is all part of his
act, or because his genuine madness is causing him to do so. In Act
III scene i, Polonius and the King hide behind Ophelia's curtains and
eavesdrop on the conversation between Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet
goes on to scold Ophelia and accuse her of not being chaste "Ha, ha!
Are you honest?" ... "Are you fair?" ... "Get thee to a nunnery. Why
wouldst thou be / a breeder of sinners?" Hamlet goes on to say
"...This was sometime a paradox, but now / the time gives it proof. I
did love you once." Ophelia replies with "Indeed, my lord, you made
me believe so." Her heart must have torn in two when Hamlet came
back with "You should not have believed me, for virtue / cannot so
inoculate our old stock but we shall relish / of it. I loved you not."
Hamlet admits that he was deceiving her the whole time. This was
likely a major factor in Ophelia's descent into madness and
eventually, death. Again, Ophelia is the victim.

Ophelia's downfall continues throughout the play, and her final

plunge into the waters of madness and suicide culminate around her
father's death. Hamlet, while talking threateningly to his mother,
accidentally slays Polonius who was hiding behind the curtain in his
mother's room. Hamlet thought it was Claudius he heard coming to
his mother's aid when she cried for help and lunged at the curtain
with his sword, killing Polonius. "O, I am slain!" were his final words.
After Ophelia learns of her father's death at the hands of her
estranged lover, she goes completely mad. She starts singing vulgar
songs about Hamlet and sex. Showing concern, albeit too little too
late, Claudius tells Horatio "Follow her close; give her good watch, I
pray you." Laertes, upon hearing about his father's death, returns to
Denmark to find his sister mad. She gives out imaginary flowers
(each type symbolic of different things) to everyone in the room, and
her last lines spoken in the play are "... And of all Christian souls, I
pray God. God bye you."

Ophelia's twisting downward spiral from a chaste maiden in love

with the Melancholy Prince of Denmark to an emotionally beaten,
insane, nervous wreck, finally ends in her suicidal drowning in a lake
near Castle Elsinore. This truly shows how Ophelia is the real victim
in Hamlet. Everybody else who was killed in the play had done at
least something evil to warrant their deaths, but what did Ophelia
do? Did Shakespeare intend for Ophelia to be an innocent victim?
Was it his way of adding to the feeling of loss or waste that one is
supposed to have after seeing the play performed? I believe this to
be true, but we may only speculate as to his reasons for doing this.