Ophelia: In living color
Women throughout history have constantly been analyzed more than men. Their every move can be used to stereotype a sub-culture of people. This is especially true for women in literature. It is here that a woman becomes more than a solitary being. No longer distinguishable from other women she becomes a symbol of the motivations and desires behind the female mind. It is interesting then to take a gander at William Shakespeare's timeless plays. While it is clear that Shakespeare alluded to the influential qualities of the female persuasion, the attributes that he instilled in his irrational heroines are less than flattering. In Hamlet, Shakespeare creates a seemingly insignificant female whose only worth and literary merit stem from her questionable relationship with Hamlet. Ophelia is purposely portrayed ambiguously to allow the reader to focus their attention on the Price of Denmark's motivations. Despite Ophelia's apparent lack of stage time, her dubious relationship with Hamlet, and her symbolic portrayal of female insanity, Ophelia remains a prominent woman in literature. One thing is certain Shakespeare did not intend for the play to be centered around a love affair. Thus Ophelia and Ha
Ophelia is first understood to be a young girl without a mother and utterly dependent on her father and brother. Although Ophelia immediately strikes the reader as witty she is by no means self-sufficient. "As one medical historian has observed, we could provide a manual of female insanity by chronicling the illustrations of Ophelia; This is so because the illustrations of Ophelia have played a major role in theoretical construction of female insanity." (Persoon) Ophelia like other women in her time was forced to be what was considered a dutiful daughter. Thus it is not surprised that she ends her relationship with Hamlet without a word of protest against her father. Forced to play the pawn in her father's venture into espionage Ophelia is placed face to face with Hamlet. It is here that he confronts her with reminders of her indescretion and then claiming that he "loved [her] not." (Monsell 73) Ophelia burdened heavily with this is looking for someone to lean on but her father is killed and Hamlet is sent to England. Therefore if Ophelia's madness comes from the fact that her father was murdered, then her madness becomes one that makes her a victim. Rather than dismiss Ophelia as some lovesick girl who has driven herself mad over a man, Ophelia becomes a woman who loved her father so dearly that in his being murdered, someone else created Ophelia the madwoman. The pressure becomes unbearable, and she must tell all. "Sane she cannot speak: insane she must become."(Holland 69) It is at this point that Ophelia deteriorates. Breaking out into song the reader becomes aware of that which Ophelia has been hiding. In a song about Saint Valentine's day Ophelia sings of how a young man "Let in the maid, that out a maid never departed more." (Monsell 105) Her secret out, Ophelia wishes everyone well and exits the room. It is the next scene that the female icon of insanity is portrayed in all its glory. Ophelia enters hair tattered, dressed in white with flowers for everyone. "Her flowers suggest the discordant double images of female sexuality as both innocent blossoming and whorish contamination, who in giving away her flowers and herbs, is symbolically deflowering herself."(Burton 81) It is clear that Ophelia is never meant to be the pure maid that some make her out to be. "Shakespeare's description of Ophelia's flowers would have had sexual overtones for a contemporary audien
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Approximate Word count = 1622
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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