The Insanity Of Ophelia In Shakespeare's Hamlet

Shakespeare has been known to create many gruesome and tragic plays throughout his career. This fact is no different in Hamlet, a story of insanity and betrayal. Unfortunately, the innocent are not left out of the contest. The loss of a poor girl's father and the one behind the killing are too much for her to handle. Some people would say her insanity is feigned while others describe it as a genuine descent into madness. However, after examining the text, her madness appears to be real. Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, is a naive girl who is eager to fall in love. Luckily, she has a prince willing to give her that “love” whose name is Hamlet. Ophelia is treated as an innocent girl even though she is a grown woman. An example of this is when her brother Laertes is lecturing her about Hamlet or when her dad said, “you speak like a green girl, unsifted in such perilous circumstances” (1.3 105-106). Ophelia cannot be her person with her own choices because she has people who would like to control her. Because of the manipulation, she has to go through, Ophelia becomes dependent on others. This is why I believe that Ophelia is not feigning her insanity because she had too much love and dependency on her father.

Her displays of madness have become more and more prevalent by now in the book. She speaks in rhymes prances around the castle, and hands out “flowers” that are just weeds. In addition, she sings songs that make you question whether she is all there. She sings “He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone, At his head a green-grass tuft; At his heels a stone” (4.4 30-33). Ophelia’s descent into madness is a gradual but sure