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Ophelia's Death Essay

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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. Gertrude states, “Her clothes spread out wide in the water, and buoyed her up for a while as she sang bits of old hymns, acting like someone who doesn’t realize the danger she’s in, or like someone completely accustomed to danger”. This statement shows Ophelia’s candid assumption about death, her willingness to put herself in danger. Gertrude explained to Laertes, “Climbing into the tree to hang the wreath of weeds on the hanging branches, she and her flowers fell into the gurgling brook”. What can be concluded from this is the circumstances of Ophelia's death. Two symbols appear on Ophelia's tombstone. These symbols, a wild wreath, and a willow tree was chosen because they represented her innocence. Gertrude states,“There’s a willow that leans over the …show more content…

To me, this song really resonated with the circumstances of Ophelia's death. Ophelia ultimately chose to drown when she refused help. The song starts, “Lay me down on a bed of roses. Sink me in the river at dawn. Send me away with the words of a love song.” This quote could be compared to Ophelia’s need to be surrounded by nature, her decision to drown, and how she longs for love. Those around Ophelia were astonished by her untimely death. As suggested by the songs title, Ophelia, died a young adolescent. Gertrude states, “I once hoped you’d be my Hamlet’s wife. I thought I’d be tossing flowers on your wedding bed, my sweet girl, not on your grave.” This statement shows the people closest to Ophelia never dreamed her life would end in such a

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Within the painting “Ophelia” by Sir John Everett Millais, the inherent tranquility of Ophelia in the water accurately parallels Edna’s own feelings towards the motif of the sea, and the detailed elements of nature in the image exhibits the concept of a women’s inherent relationship with nature that is further perceived in “The Awakening.” Consequently, this painting best accompanies Chopin’s message in her novel, which conveys that the significant relationship between women and nature intrinsically restrains women from truly ever having freedom and independence, and therefore pushes women to continuously search for a place to have individuality. Throughout the entire novel, the sea was a representation of individuality and freedom. It was

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In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia’s love for Hamlet ultimately leads to her madness. In order for Ophelia to build her relationship with Hamlet, she must go against her father’s orders considering he strictly prohibited her from seeing him. Hamlet then breaks up with Ophelia saying, “I did love you once,” and then tells her to go “to a nunnery,” causing Ophelia to feel a great amount of betrayal. Ophelia is already heartbroken, and now Hamlet murders her father which was too much for her to handle.

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As the innocent victim of Hamlet’s feigned madness, Ophelia’s insanity is a product of her inability to cope with Hamlet and her father’s death. Her songs show hidden grief and sorrow; her flowers represent the fact that beneath the innocent exterior, there is a weakness or flaw in everyone. Hamlet was able to look past his grief for his father’s death, but he caused someone he loves to be in pain. Whether it is the frailty of women, sorrow, or death, anything, including love, can appear to be pleasant, but can be the ultimate cause of a person’s

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Her use of scenic imagery helps to contrast Ophelia’s actions with the beauty around her while also distracting the reader from the somber events taking place. The “willow [that] grows askaunt the brook,/ That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream” portrays an almost dream-like reality, tinting everything with a touch of fantasy while minimizing the harsh pain of the real world (166-167). The willows drooping branches creates an image of demure sadness and, paired with the glassy stream, helps to create the physical embodiment of Ophelia’s sorrow. Gertrude’s use of excessive detail and imagery depicts Ophelia in a positive light despite her madness. This continues as Gertrude describes the flowers Ophelia picked for the “fantastic garlands” she made for her father’s funeral (168).

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Hamlet has come to see his mother, Queen Gertrude, and ends up stabbing Lord Polonius, which ultimately leads to his death. Lord Polonius’ final words include “O, I am slain!” Even though this provides a slight amount of comic relief to the reader, it has a reverse effect on Ophelia’s mental state. Her father’s death seems to be the potent punch in this fight because she officially goes mad after this final event. This is apparent in Scene IV Act I, when Laertes has come back to visit his sister and check on her well being.

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Her life in an instant became a disaster because it was Hamlet the one she loved, the person who had killed her father. Ophelia’s death is debated as an accident or a suicide, but I believe it was an accident that ended in a suicide since she lost her father and Hamlet killed him. Ophelia, was a dependant women from her father and her brother Laertes and she obeyed every demand she received from both. She was loyal to her family specially to his father.

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I believe that Ophelia’s death was an accident. Ophelia’s death is most likely an accident because Gertrude never implied anything about suicide. Also, in the description of her death it is obviously displaying Ophelia 's madness. Her madness affects her death because she is oblivious to the danger which surrounds her. Ophelia was incapable of her own distress that she did not even realize that she was drowning.

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After their secret was discovered, Hamlet rushed out of Ophelia’s apartment and Polonius stopped Ophelia from going after him, causing her to drop the letter that Hamlet had given her. After reading the letter Polonius hurries to tell Claudius and Gertrude what he’s discovered. Polonius and Ophelia find them at their private pool, where Polonius proceeds to tell them that he thinks that Hamlet’s madness has been caused by his love for Ophelia. While her father is telling Claudius and Gertrude about his theory, Ophelia continuously tries to take the letter away from him. After finally giving up in her attempts to keep her letter private, Ophelia stands near the edge of the pool and imagines jumping in, which could point to suicidal tendencies.

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In the final scene Hamlet dies, but before he does he leaves some important words, “As thou 'rt a man, Give me the cup! Let go! By heaven, I 'll ha 't. Things standin thus unknow, shall I leave behind me! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from

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Ophelia goes mad throughout the story. She is overwhelmed by the loss of her father and the rejection of Hamlet. Her character is seen spiraling down a dark path that also ends in death. Ophelia is depicted as not having control over her actions; speaking and acting erratically. While Hamlet is speaking erratically and behaving oddly, he still maintains control over his actions and movement throughout the story.

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During this scene, we see Ophelia literally melting into Larates arms, this helps show the intent by showing how truly upset she is about her fathers death, and that she's not crazy she just needs time to grief. A version that did not do as well of showing this is the Branagh version. In the Branagh version Ophelia was talking about the flowers, but there was nothing there making her seem delusional, this did not fit well because the setting and context just don't fit with the character

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This is where we first see Ophelia deteriorating a person. The next thing that drove her off a cliff was her father being murdered. Claudius said “O, this is the poison of deep grief;

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Her death was doubtful” (5.1.234). Queen Gertrude says this to Laertes to let him know of the news about Ophelia. Ophelia ends up going insane and committing suicide from the way Hamlet uses her and the harmful love he provides

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745 Words | 3 Pages

Ophelia’s death results from Hamlet's madness, his telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, and Polonius's death. Hamlet telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery made Ophelia feel insecure. Especially when Hamlet told Ophelia that he would marry her just so she would sleep with him. Then, Hamlet comes back to Ophelia telling her that she needs to go to a nunnery. Which is basically calling Ophelia a whore, because a nunnery is like a whorehouse. Ophelia at this point felt very insecure about herself and she questioned her relationship with Hamlet.

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1427 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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