1.3
However, as the question of Hamlet's state of mind increasingly dire, Polonius tightens the reins on his daughter. At the top of Act Three Polonius forces Ophelia to return Hamlet's letters and renounce his affections. Ophelia obeys, but her action sends Hamlet into a fit of misogynistic rage.
Ophelia cares deeply for Hamlet but struggles to balance her relationship with him and her loyalty to her father and brother who do not want them to be together. In the end, the pressure Ophelia experiences leads her to insanity and her death by drowning.
By the way he acted around Ophelia when he was alone with her, he showed that his feelings for her were true. Hamlet's actions throughout the play show that he was really in love with Ophelia. The audience can see that Hamlet really did love Ophelia when he told her, “I did love you” (Shakespeare III 125).
Hamlet is cruel to Ophelia because he has transferred his anger at Gertrude's marriage to Claudius onto Ophelia. In fact, Hamlet's words suggest that he transfers his rage and disgust for his mother onto all women. He says to Ophelia, “God has given you one face and you make yourselves another.
1.3 Polonius and Laertes tell Ophelia that Hamlet just wants to sleep with her, and that she should break up with him. He's out of her league. 1.3 Ophelia agrees when her father orders her to stop seeing Hamlet. 2.1 Ophelia tells Polonius about Hamlet showing up all crazy-like in her room.
The transformation in Hamlet is attested by Claudius, Ophelia (“what a noble mind is here o'erthrown”) and by Gertrude (“my too much changed son”). This is acute depressive illness, not chronic melancholy. Hamlet's self diagnosis is that he is “thinking too precisely on th'event”(IV. iv.
Interestingly, Hamlet never expresses a sense of guilt over Ophelia's death, which he indirectly caused through his murder of Polonius.
Ophelia is the princess that Hamlet is in love with and supposed to marry. However, Hamlet's behavior turns her mad, and she finally drowns because of that.
"The nunnery scene"
At the beginning of the play, as Hamlet has decided to pretend madness, he pretends he does not love Ophelia anymore, he even rejects her and insults her (Act 3, scene 1).
Background: Ophelia's syndrome is the association of Hodgkin's Lymphoma and memory loss, coined by Dr. Carr in 1982, while it's most remembered for the eponym in reminiscence of Shakespeare's character, Dr.
Rejected by Hamlet, Ophelia is now desolate at the loss of her father. She goes mad and drowns.
Ophelia's death symbolizes a life spent passively tolerating Hamlet's manipulations and the restrictions imposed by those around her, while struggling to maintain the last shred of her dignity.
By this point, Ophelia would be well aware of her pregnancy, and well aware that she would soon begin to show outward signs of it.
Bidding his sister, Ophelia, farewell, he cautions her against falling in love with Hamlet, who is, according to Laertes, too far above her by birth to be able to love her honorably. Since Hamlet is responsible not only for his own feelings but for his position in the state, it may be impossible for him to marry her.
Hamlet's romance with Ophelia is ended by his mother. Gertrude is astonished to see the ghost.
Even if Laertes fails to strike Hamlet, Claudius will offer Hamlet a drink from a poisoned goblet of wine. As the two are plotting, Gertrude enters the scene and relays the heart breaking news that Ophelia is dead.
Another example of obsession in Hamlet is his love for Ophelia. Hamlet loved Ophelia so much that when she was in her grave Hamlet did not care for Laertes or the guards he wanted to be there for her and just wanted her to be happy. “I loved Ophelia forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love”.
The appearance of Ophelia's burial obscures the reality of the circumstances of her death. Hamlet, realizing that Ophelia is the one who has died, cries out in pain. He watches as Laertes, distraught, jumps into his sister's grave and continues loudly weeping for her.
Hamlet is severely traumatized by the Ghost's recollections, which leave him both certain and uncertain that his father was killed by his uncle as well as of his mother's collusion with him or, at least, of her betrayal of the memory of her recently deceased husband.
It is argued whether he is putting on the act, or if he is actually severely depressed. I believe after the death of his father, Hamlet becomes very emotionally unstable. Three things affect Hamlet, the death of his father, the remarriage of his mother, and Ophelia.
By means of contemporary diagnostic criteria, Prince Hamlet may be demonstrated to be a Bi-Polar I Manic Depressive. Because current genetic research suggests that this disease is inherited, it is logical to ask if Claudius also suffers from this disorder.
At the end of his soliloquy, Ophelia makes her entrance, and Hamlet acknowledges her presence: “Nymph, in thy orisons / Be all my sins remembered,” referring directly to Greek mythology with the word “nymph” and imposing upon Ophelia the role of animated innocence—youthful, nubile, and perhaps even divine (3.1. 88-89).
A tragic case of corruption is found with Ophelia, she is denied freedom of choice and treated more like a mannequin than an actual person. Although a treatment like this might not have been uncommon for a young girl at the time, she is obviously driven mad by Hamlet as well as her own family.
And, indeed, shortly thereafter, Ophelia drowns herself. The conventional interpretation is that Hamlet has broken her heart and killed her father. But the play seems to suggest strongly that Hamlet has seduced her, and to hint that she is pregnant as well.