The Mental State of Ophelia 

12/17/2013

5 Comments

 
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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.

5 Comments
Abdullahi
12/17/2013 10:39:16 pm

Hello Sukhpreet,
After reading blog, I completely agree with your assertion that Ophelia lost her sanity and yes you are right that important causes of her madness is because of her father’s death, Hamlet denying his love for her, and no family members in Denmark supporting her while she copes with her grief. Thus, being said Ophelia basically had no one to turn for support, since her father died, her brother is in France and Hamlet cuts all ties with her in the Act 2. The pain she feels is real and is caused by her experiencing somewhat of unfortunate tragedy? When I say unfortunate tragedy, I am referring to her father’s death. I also agree with you in the sense that Ophelia’s madness causes her to disconnect from reality and she loses all hope in the world. Ophelia faces hardship after hardship and with further examination text, you are completely right that “the root cause of her insanity is from her father’s death”. Possibly, suicide did seem to be logical choice in her case, since her life completely went into a downward spiral. Honestly, what does Ophelia have left? Hamlet her “supposed” lover dies, Laertes dies, and the Kingdom is overtaken by the Prince of Norway. All in all, I enjoyed your blog and I have learned important insight on Ophelia’s misunderstood character.
—Abdullahi

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Nahilli Badaso
12/19/2013 04:31:41 pm

Hey Sukhpreet! I agree that Ophelia's mental break down is more than just her father dying. It has to do with her dealing with her father's death alone, Hamlet not talking her, and possibly the feeling she may get of feeling used. I think if her brother was in Denmark she would not have gone mad, but rather dealt with the death much differently. I think that the songs she sang as she conversed was weird, but they were all paradoxes. The Queen, Claudius and Laertes only took the songs as evidence of her insanisty, but not necessarily listening to what she was singing, She foreshadowed Denmark's future as a dark one. And by the end of the play, Fortinbras occupied Denmark. Ophelia may have gone "mad" but her riddles and songs made sense if the characters paid attention more to them rather than her sanity.

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Taranpreet link
12/20/2013 03:02:03 am

Hey Sukhpreet! I agree with your opinion, Ophelia does go mad because of the fact that she has to deal with her father’s death alone. It was an extremely devastating time for her and not having the support of a loved one added more stress for her. I also agree that she felt the suicide was the only way to deal with her problems, which is why she did not try to save herself. However, I also think that Hamlet had a more prominent role in the process of Ophelia going mad. He denied her love and just the thought of him going crazy, caused additional stress on the already devastated Ophelia. Your blog was extremely insightful and was an excellent source in better understanding Ophelia. -TaranH

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Angel Sivanadian
12/20/2013 09:39:54 am

Hey Sukhpreet!

This is an awesome blog, you have great insight on this play and I agree with your opinion. Act four was a dark time for Ophelia, actually most of the play was a dark time for Ophelia. From the beginning of the play she was under strict orders from her father Polonius, to reject Hamlet’s love although she seemed to feel same way about him. Her father also used her as a pawn to spy on Hamlet; this too would have impacted her. Then she witnessed Hamlet’s crazy behaviour when he goes into her room and shakes her violently. And it still goes on, as you point out Hamlet begins to treat her with cruelty by denying his love for, she then loses her father and she is all alone while her brother Laertes is in France unaware. All these things added up, mentioned she bottled them up and suppressed these experiences. All these tragic experiences and emotion exploded in her face. I thought your connection to the kingdom and the death and madness of Ophelia through symbolism was clever! I do believe they share similarities and outcomes.

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Gagan The Awesome
12/20/2013 10:46:15 am

Gagan the Awesome here! To start this awesome comment I would like to emphasis on how much I like how you made the connection with her mind being a symbolism with her death. I wish to further elaborate on that. At the beginning of the play, Ophelia is at the top, her world is fine (note that her world revolves around males roles in the play). Like so before her death she is at the top of the tree. When Polonius dies, that branch snaps and she falls into her river. She'd floating at first, but then because of her dress getting heavier and heavier she drowns. Like so the bottled emotions, and the loneliness she feel after her world crumbles drowns her into her insanity. Another reason I find that she has gone mad is because her world, which revolves around males crumbles. It is like moving to a completely different country, you become lost, like so Ophelia becomes lost when her world leaves her. Awesome blog!

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