Shakespeare she depicts herself wholly as the
Shakespeare depicts Ophelia’s disposition as lavishly earnest; her damaged but devoted love for both Hamlet and Polonius “makes her one of the most touching of Shakespeare’s characters” (Jeff and Lynn Wood). However, through Ophelia’s submission to her father a blatant distinction is established between Ophelia and the other young woman that are depicted throughout Shakespeare’s plays as they challenge their firm fathers to chase love, whereas the “fair Ophelia” (3.1.89) is “passive almost to the point of non-existence as an independent consciousness” (Jeff and Lynn Wood), primed for manipulation. Although, her father’s fixed supervision is not wholly unsolicited as his death eventually lead to her lunacy. This is evident as Laertes observes Ophelia’s psychosis: “where (love) is fine / It sends some precious instance of itself / After the thing it loves” (4.5.
161-163). Polonius is an imbecile in his handling of virtuous Ophelia as he used her as an instrument to advance his own desires, but there is no doubt of his parental concern, even if it can be overlaid with the ulterior interests simultaneously. Ophelia’s evident anguish at his death in her ‘mad scene’ (4.5) testifies to his adequacy as a parent, even to the extent where she selected to direct herself metaphorically (and literally) after him to a world beyond life, nevertheless, the declaration is just as suitable to her love of Hamlet, emphasising her inability to maintain her innocence and virtue in the harsh world of Elsinore.However, the bond that binds Hamlet and Ophelia together is not that of a love story, as Hamlet has prohibited all love, regardless of his desires, in order to further his antic disposition and avenge his father.
Hamlets passion for Ophelia clearly existed, and traces of this love can be found towards the plays opening as Ophelia recalls his “words so sweet breath compos’d / As made the things more rich” (3.1.98-99) and highlighted further through his concession that he “loved Ophelia” (5.1.236) at her funeral.
Furthermore, there are clearly some remnants of Hamlet being sexually enticed by her, which is evident through his crude jesting, “Nothing… the hobby-horse is forgot.” (3.2.108-120) – except now the romance has been stripped away, leaving only his repulsion. Similarly, in the 1980 BBC production, Jacobi depicts an angry, bitter Hamlet, whose assault on Ophelia is presented as shocking and bewildering, embodying her sweet virtue and her distraught nature. Ophelia has become for him a stimulus for his disgust with women and sex, resulting in Hamlet perceiving that all her sense of humanity has been stripped away, leaving only a pawn is controlled and manipulated. Ophelia’s destiny is therefore a consequence of Hamlet’s emotional downfall; not only is her life lessened – and ultimately crushed – by his actions, but she is a measure of what he has lost through his misguided perception of the world, emphasising her sacrificial purpose in the play.
Although Ophelia may not be as innocent as previously perceived, which is particularly evident after the “nunnery” episode (3.1) where she depicts herself wholly as the victim of Hamlet’s coarse behaviour. There is no introspection, no sign that she feels she has behaved in any way shameful, nor does she appear to express any empathy towards Hamlet’s sufferings, which is then furthered through the description of her formally beloved as: “Blasted with ecstasy” (3.1.154). She chooses to regard everything Hamlet has said to her as madness, rather than considering whether she lies at fault.
Ophelia’s insanity is triggered as an outcome of the end of any possibility of a future with Hamlet and is then strengthened as a consequence of her father’s death due to Hamlet’s insane and rash actions. Her pathetic ravings throughout 4.5 are concerned with her loses in both love and life, the grim certainties of the world around her which have broken into her mind. She cannot engage with the conflict implicit in loving both her father, Polonius, and his murderer. Her vulgar songs imitate the desires of the outside world, of which she has no experience but that have contributed towards her plight.
She attains definitive passivity and absurdly a new form of control, established through her insanity because “Through madness, the women on stage can suddenly make a forceful assertion of their being. The lyric from and broken syntax and unbridled imagination all show ways of breaking through unbearable social restraints.” (Maurice Charney, Hamlet’s Fictions).
Although the flowers that she obsessively alludes to, themselves symbols of innocence, are poignant embalms of her own youth and inability to deal with the unforgiving world of the play.While the stylised account given by the Queen depicting Ophelia’s drowning: “There is a willow grows askant a brook… To muddy death” (4.7.166-183), permits us to view her death as accidental – a tree branch broke and fell – she also reports that the victim made no effort to save herself as well as offering “decoration in place of any attempt of psychological elaboration” (Jeff Lynn Wood). Whereas in 5.1 the Grave-Digger and the Priest perceive her death as a result of her madness, consequently resulting in a suicide rather than it being an involuntary act as Gertrude suggests. Ophelia’s insanity feels less tangible than Hamlet’s chaotic mental state due the nature of her insanity being methodical and uncomplicated.
But her madness is the consequence of the actions of others, and innocent Ophelia is unquestionably a victim of the tragic events that beset Denmark throughout the play.