Christian Thompkins

Professor Mary Chapman Cook

Enghlish 110
November 15, 2004

One of the major concepts that run through William Shakespeare’s

play Hamlet is madness. Prince Hamlet acts as though he is mad to find the

true nature of his father’s death. Ophelia, on the other hand, truly becomes

mad near the end of the play. In the play Hamlet, the combination of being

manipulated by the men in her life, reflecting their needs and their wants

with no regards to her own, as well as the loss of her father by the hand of

her lover, is what resulted in Ophelia’s madness.

Ophelia is a woman in this play who is subject to the demands of all

the men in her life. There is no women figure to pose as a mother for her in

the play of Hamlet, so all that her father, brother, and Hamlet tells her to

do, she does because it is what she feels is appropriate. In act i scene iii

Laretes is cautioning Ophelia to be wise and cautious against the

advancements of Hamlet. He says, “Fear it, Ophelia, fear it my dear sister,

and keep within the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of

desire” (Ham.1.3.36-38). So regardless of Ophelia’s feeling, she is to take

the advise of her father and brother. Poloinus also tells her “I must tell you,

you do not understand yourself so clearly as it behoves my daughter and

your honor” (Ham.1.3.100-103). Dane states, “Scoffed at, ignored,

suspected, disbelieved, commanded to distrust her own feelings, thoughts

and desires, Ophelia is fragmented by contradictory messages” (Dane 406).

Christian Thompkins
Professor Mary Chapman Cook
Enghlish 110
November 15, 2004

Basically telling Ophelia, she does not understand her own feelings and

emotions. Polonius then goes on to say “Affection! Pooh! You speak like a

green girl, ungifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his

tenders, as you call them?” When Ophelia answers Polonius, you gain an

understanding of just how much influence over her thoughts Polonius has.

“I don’t know my Lord, what should I think” (Ham.1.3.106-109).

Dane’s insight on Ophelia’s madness is somewhat similar, as well as

quit interesting. Dane states “Motherless and completely circumscribed by

the men around her, Ophelia has been shaped to conform to external

demands, to reflect others’ desires” (Dane 406). By the orders of her father

in act II scene ii lines 142-151, Ophelia tries to break the relationship with

Hamlet, but Hamlet denies her love. Polonius, in his demands, did not take

into account the affect his demand has on Ophelia. All that he is concerned

with is finding out the cause of Hamlets true madness, not taking into

account that his non-acknowledgment of his daughters feelings would drive

her to her own madness. When carrying out her fathers orders Hamlet

rejected her, making her think that he never did love or care for her. “You

should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock

but we shall relish of it: I loved you not” (Ham.3.1.124-125). So, with this

Ophelia is left confused, not knowing what to think.

Christian Thompkins
Professor Mary Chapman Cook
Enghlish 110
November 15, 2004

When Ophelia’s father dies, she is left with nothing. Not only is her

brother away for school, but also her one true love is denying her his

affection. In addition to this, her one true love is also the one who killed her

father. Theodore Lidz put Ophelia’s’ emotions and thoughts into

perspective when he said, “Ophelia, mourns for her father, but his death, is

not sufficient reason for her to lose her sanity. She, too, is in the intolerable

predicament of having to turn away from the person she loves and idealizes

because that person is responsible for her father’s murder. Her father is

dead, and Hamlet, as his slayer, is barred to her affections. She can no

longer transfer her attachment from her father to Hamlet. Her entire

orientation to the future has suddenly been destroyed” (Lutz 91). Dane

states, “Male voices fill her head guiding her very thoughts. When the

voices’ directions become increasingly muddied, she grows more and more

confused, more sundered from any sense of personal identity, until she

finally admits to Hamlet ‘I think nothing my lord’ (3.2.116). Then suddenly

with her brother in France, and her lover banished to England for the

murder of her father; the voices stop. Confronted with such a thunderous

silence, Ophelia becomes mad” (Dane 411).

Ophelia found her release through madness, allowing others to hear

how she felt through the songs that she sang. Ophelia sings:
Christian Thompkins
Professor Mary Chapman Cook
Enghlish 110
November 15, 2004

How should I your true love know

From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
And his sandal shoon.
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone,
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.
White his shroud as the mountain snow,
Larded with sweet flowers
Which bewept to the grave did not go
With true-love showers. Ham.4.5.23-40

This allows the reader to see just how Ophelia is mourning for her father,

which she is directing towards Gertrude when she sang it. Ophelia then

sings:

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,

All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn’d his clo’es,
And dupp’d the chamber door,
Let in the maid that out a maid
Never departed more.
By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack and fie for shame,
Young men will do’t if they come to’t
By Cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she, “Before you tumbled me,
You promis’d me to wed.”
“So would I a done, by yonder sun,
And thou hadst not come to my bed.”

Ham.4.5.48-66
Christian Thompkins
Professor Mary Chapman Cook
Enghlish 110
November 15, 2004

With these two songs, Ophelia is telling her story of her love for her father,

and her loss of a love in Hamlet. It is the only way Ophelia is able to tell her

true feelings, which are made up of the mixed emotions of anger and desire

for both her father and Hamlet. “All men merge in her mad imagination– all

the controlling voices of her life, her conscience, he psyche– all the outside

forces determined to manipulate her for their own ends. Madness releases

Ophelia from the enforced repressions of obedience, chastity, patience,

liberates her from the prescribed roles of daughter, sister, lover, subject”

(Dane 412).

In the end we find that Hamlet was acting as if he was mad, and

Ophelia really ended up being mad, as a result of being manipulated by the

men around her. Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, is a very complex play, which

takes continuous analysis to understand. After reading and analyzing the

whole play, gaining a better understanding of all the characters in this play,

the character of Ophelia is a character that stood out the most, was very

interesting.