Was Hamlet Responsible For Ophelia's Death

Hamlet essay

The death of Ophelia in Shakespeare's play ‘Hamlet’ has been a matter of debate amongst the audience as to who caused Ophelia to kill herself. There are a few people who are argued by the reader to be the cause of her death, these few people are Hamlet as his poor mental health and insanity are reflecting on to Ophelia, also Laertes, and Polonius as they were too overprotective and harsh, and would not let her do the things she wants to do. Throughout the whole play, Ophelia's mental health was declining until she eventually killed herself, as the prominent people in her life are affecting her in a bad way. Ophelia being only young and not having a big social life as she only stays in the castle she has not learned how to control

Hamlet’s father died and this affected how he acts towards everyone, especially Ophelia. Throughout the play, Hamlet has shown that he has treated Ophelia poorly and is very harsh and dismissive with her, and his rejection of Ophelia’s love left her to be confused and upset. As said by Ophelia in ACT 1 SCENE 3 ‘He has made many tenders of affection to me lately’ (Sparknotes, 2008, pg.29). This leads Ophelia to be confused about his opinion on her as one moment Hamlet loves her the other he does not love her, as he says ‘ No not I, I never gave you anything’ (Sparknotes,2008, pg 83) After all of the things Hamlet has said Ophelia’s mental health starts to decline and Ophelia ends up in a bad headspace and ends up killing herself. In the play after Hamlet rejected her Ophelia starts showing signs of her being crazy and not being normal as she starts to sing in the halls and being mad. However, while Hamlet was one of the main characters that impacted Ophelia’s mental health, it is good to note that Hamlet was not the only one who contributed to her mental

It can be argued that Polonius is the cause of her death as he was a manipulative and controlling character. ‘Believe yourself a foolish little baby for taking these tenders for something real. “Tender” yourself some more respect’ (Sparknotes, 2008, pg.29). It says that Polonius thinks that Ophelia is stupid and Hamlet would not love her for being her and that he would only use her. This proves that Polonius does not let Ophelia do what she thinks and what she believes. Polonius prohibits Ophelia to talk to her love Hamlet and that she needs to end her relationship with Hamlet and does not think Ophelia is ever right because she is just a young girl, Polonius only thinks he is right and can not say he is wrong. Also when Hamlet killed Polonius that would of affected her as Ophelia would of relied on him even if he was very strict and did not let her do the things she wanted to, losing a family member is very sad and would of made her mental health even worse. Ophelia’s family is not the best as her brother is another person that contributed to her killing