Act four was a dark time for Ophelia. She truly lost all of her sanity, and her hope in the world. There are many aspects as to the cause of Ophelia’s madness, the obvious one of course being her father’s death. However looking past her fathers death, and deeper into the mind of Ophelia we can get a better understanding of her. Her father’s death came as a surprise to her, and she was devastated. Although it was not only the fact that her fathers death was devastating, but the fact that no one was there to support her. Her brother was miles away in France , and her lover hamlet denied her of his love. So she had no one to turn to , and  no one to lean on for moral support. I don’t know about you but if I was in her shoes , I myself would go insane without being able to properly remorse about my father death. Since she is not able to remorse over her father’s death she is keeping all of her feeling bottled up inside, which results in her overthinking herself into madness. In act Iv Ophelia says and sings some strange things, and I believe there is meaning towards these. For example when she sings, “… And he will not come again? No. No he is dead, go to thy death bed, he will never come again (4.5.205). Ophelia sings this before she dies, and at first many readers may be wondering why she sings this song before she passes. Well I believe that by closely examining her, she is telling everyone the root cause to her insanity, her father death. Unfortunately at the end of act IV Ophelia dies, however it was not a normal death. Ophelia was collecting flowers on a tree above a river , and accidently slipped and fell into the river. What happens next is what is truly shocking is, Ophelia did not try to save her self she instead drowned her self. This can be a symbol of her mind, because the only way she can find relief is by ending her life. This takes us to a very big theme in the play, which is suicide. Lastly Ophelia’s madness and death symbolizes just how fragile the kingdom is. This is because the death of Ophelia causes everything in the kingdom to get all discombobulated. Since the kingdom is suffering from chaos it resulting in a lot of death, which shows that the kingdom is fragile because one little glitch can ruin the whole kingdom. My readers I hope you have gained some knowledge on the often-misunderstood character Ophelia.

Polonius is one shady character, but I have to say his true shadiness was seen in the opening of act II scene I. I mean he doesn’t even have faith in his own son; he needs to learn how to trust his children. Why does he have to tell Reynaldo to do all of his dirty work, why make the poor man go through all this trouble just so he can know how his son is doing? I’ll tell you why he is a conniving old man. Who tricks others into thinking that he cares for his children but in reality he is, a strict old man that needs to know what his kids are up all the time. This brings us to the theme of appearance versus reality. Polonius may seem like he is a caring father to Reynaldo, and Reynaldo may believe it but I certainly don’t. I mean all he has to do is just write to him and ask how he is doing, any father would. However instead he gets Reynaldo to go all the way to France to check up on his son. Also he tells him to tell others horrible lies about him just so he can figure out if his son is actually acting badly. Not only does he want Reynaldo to check up on his son but he wants him to check out the people in the neighborhood and find out their ways as wel. He literally says “”.. and how and who , what means, and where they keep.” (Act II, scene I, line 10). This to me seems a bit creepy. He not only wants to control his son , but he wants to control the people around him. Polonius is a very overbearing and need to let his children breath; his kids are now adults and are capable of caring for themselves. This is something he fails to realize. Considering this his intentions can be very questionable. Many questions can arise such as does he really love his kids or is it all just an act? I know if your reading this right now you might be a little confused. So let me explain. Polonius does want to know how his son is doing, which can mean he is caring, but the way in which he tries to find out how his son is doing seems a little peculiar. A true father would trust their children and write to them to ask. So my readers I leave you with this question is Polonius a caring father?