There is an Arabic saying that my dad mentioned to me. It goes something like, “If you want to die, throw yourself into the ocean. You’ll find yourself wanting to survive”. The quote pertains to the idea of a survivalist instinct and builds upon the idea that in near death experiences, instinct will take over in order to stay alive. Circling back to Ophelia, she is described as “one incapable of her own distress” (4.7). 203). The. That line itself shows that she didn’t resist, nor did she have any will to resist either. In fact, the situation that she brought herself in leads me to believe that Ophelia, having succumbed to madness thanks to the death of her father at the hands of Hamlet, finds no reason to live anymore and commits suicide by …show more content…
Ophelia copes with these facts through song. Throughout the act, Ophelia sings songs about death, flowers, and love. She suffers through grief and betrayal, knowing that her once beloved Hamlet was the reason behind her dear father’s death. Her madness concerns her brother Laertes, who now not only wants to fight to avenge his father, but to also bring pain to the man who afflicted his sister with her sense of madness. Ophelia’s strange condition has also been noticed by Claudius. His immediate reaction when Ophelia exits the scene is to assign Horatio to “Follow her close; give good watch” (4.5. 79). The 'Standard' is a 'Standard'. It’s fairly common to have concern over a person who’s gone mad. It’s human nature to care for those who need to be taken care of. Ophelia is no exception, hence why Claudius sent Horatio after her. But, his effort was all for …show more content…
Her burial in scene 5 act 1 begins with something very similar to what I speak about here. Two gravediggers arguing over whether Ophelia should be given a traditional Christian burial or not. This discussion revolves around whether Ophelia committed suicide, a grave sin, or not. She was given a Christian burial at Gertrude’s request. The law at the time was vague in determining if suicide was committed intentionally, or through insanity. The gravediggers lean towards believing that Ophelia committed suicide, however, due to her status as a noblewomen, she was given a proper burial (Peterson 4). Ophelia’s circumstances are still being dictated by the people around her. The rest of the discussion surrounding Ophelia’s death has to be taken from the words of Gertrude, who, similarly to Ophelia, doesn’t serve with much authority. Her status is undermined by Claudius’s status and his decision-making. There is a gap in the story between Ophelia’s descent into madness and her death, Gertrude reported. That gap in the play leaves room for interpretation, and Shakespere uses it to create discussion between how the gravediggers perceive her death versus how Gertrude perceives
However, it would be erroneous to assume that the nobility cannot discern that Ophelia’s death was suicide altogether. Gertrude’s admission that Ophelia appeared “As one incapable of her own distress/or like a native creature and indued/ Unto that element” (4.7.203-205) reveals her awareness of Ophelia’s despondency. Still, though,
There are a variety of factors that can contribute to one’s demise. In the context of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare many possibilities can be identified that pertain to Ophelia’s sudden death. Ophelia’s death was triggered by her mental breakdown due to the loss of her father. In the midst of her inner turmoil, her depression worsens as she learns that Hamlet, the man she loves departs to England. When she dies, Gertrude reports her death to Claudius and Laertes. Gertrude, The Queen of Denmark, is responsible for Ophelia’s death. By looking at Gertrude’s over protective relationship with Hamlet, her lack of initiative on the situations around her in a time of tragedy, as well as her vivid account of Ophelia’s death, evidence that
She decorated herself with flowers and was singing strange songs. Laertes was furious when he discovered about Ophelia’s situation, and Laertes believes Prince Hamlet was the one responsible for the death of his father and sister. The King Claudius agreed that Laertes should avenge against Hamlet, and he seems to encourage Laertes to kill Hamlet. This may
Ophelia's death is tragic but it has no one to blame. The other interpretation is the incident might have been a suicide. Ophelia died, but she was driven mad because of her undying love for Hamlet. The society was very cruel to her and her feelings. Ophelia had unrequited love for Prince Hamlet, and society stupid unreasonable expectation for women and their behavior for the subject
Not only is Ophelia's death marked much less significant than the other male deaths noted in the previously mentioned articles, but Ophelia’s death is articulated as a passive accident, one that happened to occur, to no avail. Every other death in the play is met with vigorous analysis and criticism, unphased by the death of Ophelia, inadvertently caused by men. Ophelia is also described as “mermaid-like” adding to the previously set notion that women are sexual objects- even at death. At this point of the play, Hamlet proclaims in a bipolar and seemingly fraudulent manner that he has always loved Ophelia (although he ordered her to “get thee to a nunnery” and was the root of her abrupt madness and suicide), while Laertes threatens that he loved Ophelia more. The attention and passion are still not recognized and respected with Ophelia even after her death but is used as a game between two men to satisfy their guilt and build their ego, competing for the love of Ophelia that was only disrespected when she was
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.
Since the beginning of the 17th century when William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was first performed by the crew of a ship Red Dragon, the play itself has gone on to become one of the most famous literary tales of all time, creating four centuries’ worth of legacy. Attracting lead actors of all backgrounds, the titular character’s convoluted personality and life has spawned countless variations and interpretations of the play for 400 years. In William Shakespeare’s Act 5 Scene 1 of the play particularly, the scene introduces the gravediggers who argue as to why Ophelia is being buried. Christian theology claims that because she committed suicide, she is to not be given a proper burial. However, Claudius insisted that she deserves one, even if it’s
The character, Ophelia, in William Shakespeare s play, Hamlet, plays a very interesting and important role in the elaboration of the plot. There has been quite a discussion surround the character, Ophelia, in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Some believe that she never delves in the realm of insanity. They believe that she just acts out, unhappy with her current life circumstances. However, this is not the case. After everything this woman deals within the play, she does indeed succumb to pure madness. At first, he starts in a healthy mind state. She’s in love with her boyfriend Hamlet, yet controlled by her father regarding their relationship. During the play, she encounters several troubling experiences involving Hamlet, which cause her to become distressed. Near the end, the death of her father leaves Ophelia mentally unstable and in a state of madness. Her madness will eventually lead her to death. Due to all the unfortunate events that take place, Ophelia gradually becomes mad, and in the end, passes away.
The circumstances of Ophelia’s death and burial, although not entirely certain, suggest suicide. The gravediggers introduced at the beginning of act five discuss openly the manner of Ophelia’s death, the First Clown questioning why she is “to be buried in Christian burial that willfully / seeks he own salvation” (5.1.1-2). That he phrases this inquiry in terms of a “pursuit of salvation” suggests the religious implications of suicide, in that the individual, despairing of salvation from God, acts on his own behalf. There is likewise the implication of active pursuit rather than the cultivation of Christian patience and long-suffering. Yet, despite Ophelia’s obvious display of insanity, the Second Clown speculates that “if this had not been / a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’ Christian / burial” (5.1.22-24). Seeing the approaching funeral procession, Hamlet observes the “maimed rites,” suggesting in his awareness of the implications of such a subdued funeral ceremony that he is conscious of the ramifications of committing suicide. The amount of speculation on Ophelia’s death and burial in the play, even among lowly gravediggers, points to the growing discussion surrounding suicide that emerged at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The play says that she fell from a tree overlooking a pond, and her heavy clothes weighed her down. I believe Ophelia did not intentionally plan on her killing herself there, but when that situation arose, she wasn’t going to stop what was happening. Ophelia was being very irrational. Before she drowned, Ophelia asks to speak with Queen Gertrude and sings weird songs about love and death. She says lines like, “How should I know your true-love know from another one?
Ophelia had many things that triggered her to the thought of suicide. “Even in his tirade against Ophelia, she is scarcely more than a prop...”(Intentional meaning in Hamlet: an evolutionary perspective). She was used as a toy by most of the characters in the play even her father. Ophelia was always seen as a throwaway object instead of a person who mattered to people. When Ophelia was having bad days like when she lost her father or when Hamlet rejected her, no one cared enough to check on her and see if she was okay. Ophelia started to go crazy after she had lost her father but Hamlet and her brother did not care enough, like everyone else, to find out if she was truly okay. Ophelia had been treated very poorly by many people throughout the play including her brother, father, and lover.
It is essentially words of one group against another on whether or not she committed suicide, but suicide would certainly be understandable. Up to this point in the play Ophelia had been told how to live her life by everyone around her, from real to royal family. On top of that the person who she thought she loved completely, went mad and turned his back on her in spectacular
Even in death, she displays yielding and passive behavior: Ophelia does not have the intention of committing suicide, though she fails to save herself from sinking. She is essentially a casualty of a society that enforces unreasonable expectations for its women and is never afforded the liberty of thinking for herself and making her own judgments and decisions. Her passive death represents the lack of control she has over her own person and the dependence she has developed on other people. Therefore, Ophelia is mentally unstable and not capable of realizing that her life is on the line. Ophelia is trained by the men in her life to be compliant with their demands, preventing her from practicing her autonomy and enabling her to be easily manipulated by Hamlet.
Between Act IV, Scene V and Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet, the character of Ophelia drowns, presumably by suicide. Although Gertrude phrases it to make it seem an accident, Ophelia’s appearance of madness and fatalistic attitude directly before the event, suggest that it was in fact suicide. Of the occurrences leading up to the this, the most obvious cause of her suicide would be the murder of her father, Polonius by Hamlet’s hand. Or more accurately, the mental impact of her father being killed.
With news of her father’s death by hand of the man she loved, and that same mans total rejection and disappearance, there’s no doubt. For most of Act IV Scene V she is singing about love and death while the king and queen are trying to talk to her. All of her responses are just more singing. Ophelia’s break down directly leads to her death by suicide. We can compare her mental state to hamlets and we can clearly see the difference.