In “Hamlet” a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, the death of a character is an occurring event. William Shakespeare uses imagery and allusion to demonstrate the result of manipulation from other characters upon Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, and leading up to her death. Her death was not the consequence of disgraceful actions of her own, but rather by the involvement of others and their influence on her life. Hamlet’s apparent rejection of her love and her father’s personal vindictive leads up to her simple-minded state, entering a world of madness. She has now gone mad, singings nonsense songs and giving people flowers that she has picked from the garden. The cause of Ophelia’s death has been debated over the years, was it a suicide …show more content…
Gertrude states that Ophelia fell into the water when she was trying to hang her “fantastic garlands” on a tree and one of the branches broke. However, when she was in the water, she was “one incapable of her own distress”, not acknowledging the danger she was in (4.7.177). Even though she was in the water, she did not struggle to escape the river, but instead sung “snatches of old tunes”, until finally the weight of her thick clothes pulled her under the water and she drowned (4.7.176). Therefore, Ophelia’s death was an accident to a certain extent, because her madness made her blind to the danger she was in. Although her death initially seems to be like a suicide, yet it was an accident. Suicide may have crossed Ophelia’s mind, because of the state she was in and everything that has happened with the men in her life. The pain and grief she went through is something she would probably like to get rid of, and perhaps once the tree branch broke, she just gave up and didn’t decide to fight the river currents. She was likely aware that she was drowning, and didn’t fight it because it is ironically a solution to her problems; but she did not consciously think of committing
In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Ophelia intentionally kills herself. Ophelia, stricken to her core by the heinous murder of her Father, Polonium, began experiencing hysteria. Spiraling into despair, Ophelia quickly drifted into madness eventually unable to coherently answer questions. In her final hours, Ophelia surrounded herself with the beauty of nature.
All people die, yet not all meet such a graceful end. Ophelia had not been blessed with such an end. When she regained her consciousness, she was bound and gagged upon the duvet in his basement, as some are wont to awaken to. There was panic in her eyes as she set her sight upon Virgil. Her eyes widened and her feminine frame began to tremble.
Ophelia's father, brother, and her lover have controlled every aspect of her short life and even treated Ophelia with no respect. Although it may have seemed that Ophelia committed suicide over the loss of her loved ones, she actually committed suicide over the loss of her newly gained freedom. Exploring deeply into the play, one would uncover that in every instant that Ophelia had lost a loved one she does not show sadness. Only after her brother returns, does Ophelia truly lose her mind.
I partially agree with Camden about Ophelia’s insanity is due to her father’s death because Ophelia is a “delicate-minded young girl, obedience to her father” meaning Ophelia always obeyed her father’s commands. What I question is, has she not once have the urge to do something that will disobey him? Or even thought about disobeying him? What I believe proves her sanity is mainly based on Polonius’ death is when John Draper [Camden’s source] had quoted “because that father, whom she loved so dearly, come to a sudden shocking end,” as he is her remaining parent figure she had left who is now gone (para. 1). It seems as if she was taught throughout her life to always obey her father, who is the lord of the household or because he is the king’s
Ophelia’s madness is caused by the actions of others in the story. “Madness becomes Ophelia’s last resort, her unconscious revolt. Indeed what else is left for her to do? Offering her an escape, madness provides her with the ability to finally speak her anger and desire” (Dane,412).Her father tells her to stay away from Hamlet, who she has fallen in love with. Hamlet has warned her earlier that whatever he tells her in the future will not be true but, when he tells her he does not intent to be with her it starts the beginning of her madness.
She was killed by the poison her brother-in-law gave her. In lines 50 through 55, the text states: “He seduced my seemingly virtuous queen, persuading her to give in to his lust.” (Hamlet by William Shakespeare). During this era, women were thought to not be very smart and this quote demonstrates that Hamlet didn’t think his mother was smart enough to see through what his uncle did. In the article “Discovering Feminism through Gertrude and Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet”, it says in paragraph 7, page 247 “Her silence is meant to show her weakness.”
The character of Ophelia enters as an innocent young woman. She enters a world of madness. She is incapable of rational thinking, so her death may have been accidental rather than a suicide. An indicator that supports the argument that her death was accidental is that typically in Shakespeare’s plays, suicides have their own dramatic scene. In Hamlet, Ophelia’s death was not seen; she was found dead after drowning.
The whole ending of the play can be narrowed down to the fact that Ophelia happened to die. She climbed out onto a branch that reached over the water and simply drowned. There was no explanation of why Ophelia died since in the play she is a very minor character, most of her character lies in the fact that
This is again shown when one of the gravediggers hypothesizes, “If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’ Christian burial” (5.1.24-26). From these gravediggers’ perspective, or even the more broad lower class view they are meant to represent, suicide is a sin, and makes her undeserving of the honors of a Christian burial. This theme of being unworthy or lesser in the eyes of religion due to suicide continues into the funeral scene, the priest describing Ophelia’s death as “doubtful,” and refusing to give her all the Christian burial rights (5.1.234). Still, at the funeral, it is never directly stated that Ophelia killed herself, just as Gertrude first tells the Claudius and Laertes of Ophelia’s death in euphemisms, sterilizing what had happened (4.7.190-208). Suicide is seen as taboo and not something to speak about openly, especially by the upper
Throughout the play, Prince Hamlet is so in love with a girl named Ophelia. In act III scene iv Polonius is accidentally murdered by Prince Hamlet. The murder of Ophelia’s father send her into a state of madness. Ophelia begins to act very strange due to her madness. Ophelia’s madness transpired into a depression that eventually led her to killing herself.
Throughout the play, Ophelia acts as a very honest person in the beginning, willing to tell Laertes and Polonius anything. She then receives mistreated love from Hamlet that leads her to drowning herself in a river. The true face and actions from Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, and particularly Hamlet lead to their deaths. The end result leads to unfortunate events, including death. The love throughout the kingdom of Denmark becomes toxic, killing all who lives
The news Gertrude brings of Ophelia is that she had drowned in the river. The religious argument the gravediggers deal with as they dig Ophelia’s grave is if she should be buried in a graveyard since her death was a suicide. Once Hamlet learns that Ophelia has died, he reacts with sorrow and anger. Hamlet’s state of mind through his actions reveals that he felt guilt for how he treated Ophelia. Also, Hamlet 's state of mind revealed his feelings for Ophelia by the way he reacted.
The image of Ophelia suicidally “going to the water” compliments Hamlet’s soliloquy of “to be or not to be.” Suicide and dying is a large part of what makes Hamlet a tragedy and is seen multiple times in the play foreshadowing his actual death at the
King Claudius tells Horatio to keep an eye on Ophelia. Two scenes later, Queen Gertrude comes and reports to everyone that Ophelia has drowned. The uncertainty of her death is how do we know she drowned? How do we know that she didn’t kill herself because of the amount of grief she was dealing with? One conspiracy about her death is that Gertrude killed Ophelia.
Ophelia agrees to be a decoy to lure the Hamlet so that the king and Polonius can see his madness. At the time of the “chance” meeting, Hamlet is already feeling quite low, and perhaps even battling the idea of suicide. As said in theses lines descride: To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd (3.1). Hamlet feeling pretty bateraterd and acts like any awsome sane person by going