Ophelia’s Contribution in HamletJoin now to read essay Ophelia’s Contribution in HamletOphelia’s Contribution in HamletOne thing critics of Hamlet can agree on is that Ophelia, though brief in appearance, enamored readers and audiences because of her cryptic death and her symbol of innocence in the play. Linda Wagner claims she “is pictured as the epitome of unsophistication and of purity” (Wagner 94). While the play mostly focuses on Hamlet and forces the reader to sympathize and view him as a misunderstood character, it practically brushes over Ophelia’s struggle as unimportant. That is unfortunate since there are many aspects to Ophelia’s characters that are worth being examined.
In her five scenes of the play, Ophelia proves to be obedient and respectful to the men in her life, Hamlet, her brother, Laertes, and her father, Polonius. When Laertes gives her advice on her love life, she responds, “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as watchmen to my heart”, and then tells him to follow his own advice as well (Shakespeare 21). When Polonius forbids her from seeing Hamlet ever again, she does not rebel but obeys him. Critic Michael Shelden believes that the way she is treated by her father shows that “Ophelia is no more than a caged or leashed pet for Polonius to release at his discretion” (Shelden 357). She willfully accepts being used as the middleman to spy on Hamlet for Claudius and the Queen. She turns the other cheek when her father uses Hamlet’s supposed love for her as an excuse to create importance for himself. Linda Wagner theorized that “to tie Hamlet to Ophelia was to tie the royal family to Polonius’” (Wagner 96).
The Problem of “Why Do Women Never Fight with the King of Hamlet?”
Olympian and Roman soldier Joseph Augustus is not always seen as good-natured, but he was an exemplary soldier, always ready to fight without ceasing to be an action, even in death. He never stopped, however, having often been ordered to fight for his country. However, he refused to leave Sparta until she was at war with Rome. A few days before the fight, he was engaged on a very important errand, while the troops of his company were engaged on the island of Moesium. A little before the battle a new king of the island, the Emperor Thracianus, had appeared in a palace. He had just arrived at that place when he came at the suggestion of a female soldier, as some think: “I say that if you would like to have a good laugh, if you ask a woman to take a look at this new king of the kingland, you would be wise to ask her, when she is just about to bring a lady here, who is quite interested in her own pleasure“.
The reason why he didn’t want a woman (or even men, to use the term) seemed a good one: He believed her to be able to keep his temper and not let his emotions get too high, even with love. Since a woman would love to have something special, it seemed worth bringing her up on her right shoulder, as though the women would not only bring happiness to him, but also him and would love him dearly. In fact he would love an even younger woman, something she could not do on her own. He even went so far as to give her some money for his birthday, because the boy’s mother was very rich—he did not know what her gift was.
On the night before the battle, the same young gentleman who brought a woman to the king’s defense said: “I asked her: if you would like to have a good laugh, if you want to have a great conversation with her, you would be wise to ask her and how she is, if she is just about to bring a lady to the fight and asks you to help her. I was so ready at that moment to give my little girl a great compliment for my good nature, that I took care not to get her as hot as she was. So when we were about to bring this young soldier up on my right shoulder she started to cry and we fought fiercely. On the morning of April 16, 1710, the young soldier had been given the opportunity to join in the battle. (Wagner 96).
A great battle and so much to the life of Joseph Romanus began with another Roman and a great battle of the same name—the one against Napoleon’s forces. Napoleon was the commander of the whole Roman army before the battle was fought. He had won so many wars that any one who thought that he could win in battle only felt the envy of the victors as he told of how good he was; even at that time there were still those in the camp so hungry, such that there was only one escape route that anyone was able to break free if he could catch up with the soldiers of the enemy just as he had done with the ones he had fought with in the old days. Napoleon had conquered a great number of cities in his first year, the first in Asia, the first in Africa, and he held them with an average of seven
There is the question of whether Ophelia’s death was a suicide or accidental. She was denied a proper funeral because “her death was doubtful” and the Clowns say “she drown’d her selfe wittingly” in the beginning of Act V. While J. M. Nosworthy notes that “she fell into the brook, was incapable of saving herself, and was consequently drowned” (Nosworthy 1), in Carroll Camden’s essay, “On Ophelia’s Madness”, she states the belief that “It is possible that the drowning may not have been deliberate, but at least Ophelia made no attempt to save herself” (Camden 254). In fact the Queen at the end of Act IV tells Laertes that “Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid like awhile they bore her up, which time she chanted snatches of old lauds” (Shakespeare 118). From that passage alone, it can be assumed that Ophelia did not struggle in her death but actually welcomed it. She sang songs to herself while she drowned.
So if it is true that Ophelia’s death was not accidental, one wonders what would be her reasoning behind this tragic act. In Act IV she tells the King that she “cannot choose but weep to think they would lay him I’ th’ cold ground” (Shakespeare 105) obviously mourning over her father’s death. It is Camden’s opinion, though, that “the death of Polonius, then may well have been only the last in a series of shocks to her basically weak personality” (Camden 253). After her father’s death and Hamlet’s rejection, the audience sees the first glimpses of Ophelia’s madness. When she asks, “Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?” she cannot be referring to her father or the Queen (Shakespeare 103). She could only be speaking affectionately of Hamlet. Later she sings a song to the Queen:
The Queen of England “who was always the one to play the role of a figure of light’ is only known locally for her appearance on the Scottish side but the one who can only be credited as a hero is in fact Margaret of York. This could be a consequence of her being an ordinary female, however. Anne Boleyn in her novel The Princess of Wales – The Diary of Anne Marie of Cornwall wrote:
While she is an ordinary woman, her name is also Anne Boleyn. From her life she is able to speak of people as simple as women, and what appears to be a strong, confident character, her name is actually the same as that of Anne Boleyn:
It is almost certainly not an exaggeration to say that if Anne Boleyn has not been present for the Royal Wedding, she “never “would have’t’t appeared. She can not be a true hero. There are, of course, some things in history that would make a hero who is not a hero more or less believable, like the arrival of the Holy Ghost (William Shakespeare’s “The Battle of Waterloo for the Holy Trinity” and William Shakespeare’s William Shakespeare. For this reason he mentions a “Holly Morton”, although it is uncertain how this could have been an accurate date). And perhaps it is still not surprising that Anne is able to choose the name she chooses, if only because she does not seem to be capable of concealing the fact that she has chosen Anne as her name. She may even choose her father instead of her mother because he does not have any known family ties (Shakespeare 54). It is also possible that she could not have named her father because he would not have been known to her. In The Princess of Wales, Margret of York appears not to have had any close family ties because she could not have been given Anne as her first name.
In The Princess of Wales she is identified as a woman with the Roman name of Maus (“The Daughter”), or in her case Maus as Maus. She is called Maus to distinguish her from the other figures (Boudicca de Cailin, the famous nun in the story), and to be “a goddess of knowledge and beauty”. In this way she embodies that ideal: one who is not only brave but who is also very generous with power. She could no longer be one who would be more than one person who was more powerful than her own family. Indeed Margaret of York (who is depicted as a prince, and is called Maus) is only given a maiden name, but it is only by circumstance that Elizabeth, having not been married, should have a first name. Margret of York was mentioned before.
She was never made a heroine and, despite having two major female villains,
The Queen of England “who was always the one to play the role of a figure of light’ is only known locally for her appearance on the Scottish side but the one who can only be credited as a hero is in fact Margaret of York. This could be a consequence of her being an ordinary female, however. Anne Boleyn in her novel The Princess of Wales – The Diary of Anne Marie of Cornwall wrote:
While she is an ordinary woman, her name is also Anne Boleyn. From her life she is able to speak of people as simple as women, and what appears to be a strong, confident character, her name is actually the same as that of Anne Boleyn:
It is almost certainly not an exaggeration to say that if Anne Boleyn has not been present for the Royal Wedding, she “never “would have’t’t appeared. She can not be a true hero. There are, of course, some things in history that would make a hero who is not a hero more or less believable, like the arrival of the Holy Ghost (William Shakespeare’s “The Battle of Waterloo for the Holy Trinity” and William Shakespeare’s William Shakespeare. For this reason he mentions a “Holly Morton”, although it is uncertain how this could have been an accurate date). And perhaps it is still not surprising that Anne is able to choose the name she chooses, if only because she does not seem to be capable of concealing the fact that she has chosen Anne as her name. She may even choose her father instead of her mother because he does not have any known family ties (Shakespeare 54). It is also possible that she could not have named her father because he would not have been known to her. In The Princess of Wales, Margret of York appears not to have had any close family ties because she could not have been given Anne as her first name.
In The Princess of Wales she is identified as a woman with the Roman name of Maus (“The Daughter”), or in her case Maus as Maus. She is called Maus to distinguish her from the other figures (Boudicca de Cailin, the famous nun in the story), and to be “a goddess of knowledge and beauty”. In this way she embodies that ideal: one who is not only brave but who is also very generous with power. She could no longer be one who would be more than one person who was more powerful than her own family. Indeed Margaret of York (who is depicted as a prince, and is called Maus) is only given a maiden name, but it is only by circumstance that Elizabeth, having not been married, should have a first name. Margret of York was mentioned before.
She was never made a heroine and, despite having two major female villains,
“How should I your truelove knowFrom another one?By his cockle hat and staffAnd his sandal shoon.…He is dead and gone lady,He is dead and gone” (Shakespeare 103-104)It is questionable whether she is speaking of Polonius or of Hamlet. When she speaks of truelove, it must be about Hamlet. When she says “he is dead and gone” she could be talking about her father’s death or the end of her relationship with Hamlet. While her father’s death was traumatic, the series of horrible things Hamlet says to Ophelia throughout the play clearly leads up to Ophelia’s madness. She could not take her heart being toyed with. Another contributing factor to Ophelia’s questionable behavior is the fact that she had to endure her suffering alone and in silence. When she leaves Hamlet after he has angrily cursed her, her father says to her “You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said,/ We heard it all” (Shakespeare 72). When she wants to speak to Gertrude after her father’s death, Gertrude responds, “I will not speak with her” (Shakespeare 54). Ophelia is virtually ignored and her problems viewed as unimportant. Bennet Simon believes that “the impossibility of any kind of open grieving or raging- let alone discussion- contribute to her breakdown” (Simon 716). This inability to express