How Does Rebecca West View Ophelia

West’s interpretation of Ophelia’s character is not a consensus feeling among critics, so her innocence is challenged but not overturned. After Laertes’ departure, Polonius inquires of Ophelia concerning the “private time” which Hamlet spends with her. He dismisses Hamlet’s overtures as “Affection, puh!” Polonius considers Ophelia a “green girl,” incapable of recognizing true love: “These blazes . . . you must not take for fire.” He gets her assurance that she will not talk with Hamlet anymore.

The story of Hamlet is a morbid tale of tragedy, commitment, and manipulation; this is especially evident within the character of Ophelia. Throughout the play, Ophelia is torn between obeying and following the different commitments that she has to men in her life. She is constantly torn between the choice of obeying the decisions and wishes of her family or that of Hamlet. She is a constant subject of manipulation and brain washing from both her father and brother. Ophelia is not only subject to the torture of others using her for their intentions but she is also susceptible to abuse from Hamlet. Both her father and her brother believe that Hamlet is using her to achieve his own personal goals.

Ophelia, ever since her introduction, has been introduced to be a sweet and sympathetic person, providing the play with emotional moments, but her death was used as a bait and switch by Shakespeare towards audience members who had expected her to change the play’s somber mood to more hopeful one, which in turn makes the play even more tragic. After she had been visited by an apparently crazed Hamlet, she tells Polonius about the visit, prompting him to believe that the young prince is crazy in love, and goes out to tell the king. After it was explained to Claudius, and Hamlet’s former friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern failed to find the underlying cause of his madness, Polonius makes Ophelia approach Hamlet while he and the king hide and monitor his behavior.

This passage conveys the first and only sparks of defiance from Ophelia. When her father gave her similar advice, she caved in and agreed to his wishes. She was playing the role of the typical Elizabethan female, women who were expected to be submissive and weak. Ophelia simply wanted to make the men in her life happy, however, and those sparks of rebellion were soon extinguished.

The lack of women in Ophelia’s life deprives her from any influence in her life to help guide her. Gabrielle Dane says, “Motherless and completely circumscribed by the men around her, Ophelia has been shaped to conform to external demands, to reflect others’ desires” (qtd. in Brown 1). Since Ophelia has no woman influence in her life, Polonius is left as the dominant role in her life (Brown 1). She is an obedient daughter and abides by the rules her father gives her with no protest. She is seen as her father’s property (Maki 2). Her

This is the woman she might have become – warm, tolerant and imaginative. Instead she becomes jagged, benighted and imaginative. . . .Ophelia is made mad not only by circumstance but by something in herself. A personality forced into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfully open to impressions that they now usurp her reflexes and take possession of her. She has loved, or been prepared to love, the wrong man; her father has brought disaster on himself, and she has no mother: she is terribly lonely. (73-74)

In Act III scene i, Polonius and the King hide behind Ophelia's curtains and eavesdrop on the conversation between Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet goes on to scold Ophelia and accuse her of not being chaste "Ha, ha! Are you honest?" ... "Are you fair?" ... "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be / a breeder of sinners?" Hamlet goes on to say "...This was sometime a paradox, but now / the time gives it proof. I did love you once." Ophelia replies with "Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so." Her heart must have torn in two when Hamlet came back with "You should not have believed me, for virtue / cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish / of it. I loved you not." Hamlet admits that he was deceiving her the whole time. This was likely a major factor in Ophelia's descent into madness and eventually, death. Again, Ophelia is the victim.

Shakespeare places many interesting characters in his plays. Claudius, Polonius, Marcellus, and Reynaldo are a few from his play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. However, Ophelia appears to be the most innocent all throughout the play. This character has either indirectly or directly affected the lives of every main characters in the script. Ophelia’s character is portrayed as obedient, maidenly, and a mad young girl.

Overwhelmed by outside forces and her repressed love for Hamlet, Ophelia is truly a sad and remorseful character in this play, an innocent victim with little essence or depth. An evident victimized woman, ruled by her Renaissance sense of romantic love, it can further be argued that Ophelia was extremely ambiguous. She was too incompetent to decide what she really desired in life. Because she falls in love with Hamlet at a very young age she cannot truly comprehend what love is all about, even though there is strong evidence that Ophelia had sexual relations with Hamlet. Hamlet emphasizes the hypocrisy of his words

Ophelia serves as a collection of socially preferred “feminine” traits that existed in gentlewomen; because of this, she is perpetually subjugated and taken advantage of by the people she trusts. When first introduced to Ophelia, the audience is drawn to her docile and obedient demeanor; after Laertes’ departure, Polonius confronts Ophelia about her relationship with Hamlet, saying “I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth / Have you so slander any moments leisure / As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet” (1.3.131-133).

Ophelia was such an innocent character. She was young and naïve. Ophelia was faced with many dilemmas. She was in a relationship with Prince Hamlet, who was very distracted and eventually went mad himself. Ophelia’s madness started with an overbearing, over protective father. He controlled Ophelia and used her with out thinking of her feelings, “I must tell you, you do not understand yourself so clearly…What is

Ophelia is another one of Shakespeare’s tragic victims. Throughout the years, her character has been analyzed in a multitude of ways. Arguably being one of the main characters in Hamlet, Ophelia is known for being one of the least developed. In her literary criticism piece, Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism, Elaine Showalter goes through countless interpretations of Ophelia’s character.

In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, the character Ophelia is very controversial due to the fact that Shakespeare places her as the focus inside the minds of all the men in her life such as Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet. Although Ophelia may appear to just be a beautiful, weak girl, she has the ability to gain power and attention over all of the men in her life. Throughout the play, Ophelia does not have much of a voice while also being mistreated and emotionally abused by her boyfriend Hamlet. Although Ophelia does not express her opinions and emotions publicly, she propels the plot along by influencing major events. Ophelia’s weak, indecisive, and obedient personality allows her to progress the plot by Shakespeare making her the focus of the men in

“The observed and I, of ladies most deject and wretched, that sucked the honey of his music vows, now see that noble and most sovereign reason, like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; that unmatched form and feature of blown youth blasted with ecstasy; o woe is me, to have seen what I have seen, see what I see!” (2671-2672). The general love and relationship that was administered between Prince Hamlet and Ophelia were not only complicated but problematic. Throughout the play, the reader gains a deeper insight into their overall involvement and what lead to the total turmoil of their love. Arguably, it might be perceived by the reader if Prince Hamlet even loved Ophelia or if she was only a part of his mind games. Furthermore, the heightened debate of their relationship can be strengthened either way by numerous opinions, but I believe far in Prince Hamlet’s twisted mind he cherished and loved Ophelia.

In Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, Ophelia is a young woman raised in a society which doesn’t value the voices and opinions of young woman and in her household this is especially true. She is raised by an overbearing father who wishes her to be the perfect daughter while is also asked to be a romantic interest for young Hamlet. Ophelia is left in a repressive household causing her to lose any way of self expression. Ophelia, an obiediant niave young girl, is taught to repress her feelings and thoughts while held to insanely high standards placed upon from male judgment and from her role as a woman in her society.