Tragic Women of Shakespeare (Juliet, Portia, Ophelia, and Cordelia)

A detailed Summary of Tragic Women of Shakespeare (Juliet, Portia, Ophelia, and Cordelia)

Women in Shakespeare's plays were not of importance, compared to the male characters. Though, the women had a minor role in the plays, they played a big role in the lives of others in the play. Some of them will end tragically, or end the same way they started, as nothing.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet Capulet to me seems to be the most tragic of all Shakespeare's women characters. She fell in love with Romeo Montague, the enemy. She had to "sneak out" to the balcony late at night so she can talk to her Romeo. She has made no mention of Romeo to her parents, only the nurse that attended her. That shows us how treacherous and devious Juliet had to be to be with her Romeo. With some communication between the nurse and Friar Laurence, eventually, Juliet and Romeo got married. Then her parents announced that she was to marry County Paris. Which she does not want to marry at all for two reasons: she loves Romeo, also she is already married. To end it all, she had to kill herself to live with Romeo for the rest of her life, which is what she wanted. A plan was devised, where Juliet would appear dead, and wake up in Romeo's arms. But with bad communication problems, that was impossible. Juliet faked her death, but Romeo thought s

Each of the women in the four plays that we have read, each had a minor role, but that minor role turned out to be one of the important key factors in the conclusion of the play itself. Juliet died because she loved Romeo. Portia died because she loved Brutus. Ophelia died because she loved Hamlet, and finally Cordelia died because she loved King Lear. People should not die for love, but in Shakespeare's plays, it seems so. Therefore, for love, death is tragic. But if death is the only way to die, then death is the best way to die.

Thirdly, there is Hamlet. Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius. In the first act, Laertes has warned Ophelia about Hamlet's madness and tells her to stay away from him. Later, we meet Ophelia and she is frightened by Hamlet's actions. Then to make matters worse, Ophelia is used as a pawn in a game against Hamlet as displayed in Act Three, Scene one. At that moment, Ophelia has absorbed some of Hamlet's madness and made it into her own private abyss of madness. Singing nonsense (act four, scene 5). Soon, she is found dead in water, with garland out "Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples," (act five, scene one, line 170. There are two possible outcomes out of her death. She could be murdered, or she acted on killing herself. She is an innocent being that was trapped in Hamlet's world and was not able to get out until it was too late. I would safely say that she had a tragic flaw in herself. She was not strong enough to help herself and it ended in death. With no support from others, her brother, and father encouraged her to be a pawn to Hamlet to find out the cause of his madness, which influenced Ophelia. It could be the tragedy of human existence because she had no help, and the only thing she thought was best was to kill herself. If she did kill herself that is. She started off innocent, then ended up in water. There is nothing to be blamed on Ophelia. She did

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Approximate Word count = 1290
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English