Ophelia's character is important in the story because she represents femininity, and
Symbolism. The weeping willow tree leaning over Ophelia is a symbol of forsaken love. The nettles that are growing around the willow's branches represent pain. The daisies floating near Ophelia's right hand represent innocence.
Q: What does Ophelia represent in Hamlet? Ophelia represents femininity in Hamlet. Hamlet acts out his aggression toward his mother on her, which finally leads to her madness.
Ophelia's drowning is the consummate representation of an eternal retreat into the feminine, trading an individual voice for eternal silence in union with feminine essence. In turn, her death expresses the danger of reducing an individual to his or her gender and disregarding the voice of the marginalized.
Ophelia (/əˈfiːliə/) is a character in William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning.
“Ophelia: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts. . . .
For the Elizabethans, Hamlet was the prototype of melancholy male madness, associated with intellectual and imaginative genius; but Ophelia's affliction was erotomania, or love-madness.
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.
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.
Ophelia's madness stems from her lack of identity and her feelings of helplessness regarding her own life. While the death of Hamlet's father made him angry enough to want revenge, Ophelia internalized the death of her father as a loss of personal identity.
Perhaps the most descriptive sexualization of Ophelia is when Gertrude describes her dead body as “mermaid-like” (4.7. 201) with “her clothes spread wide” (4.7. 200).
Ophelia is used by Shakespeare to show the innocence of certain characters in the world. Her character is greatly affected by outside forces which end up repressing the love she has for Hamlet. In addition; she does not have friends and is left to depend on outside forces in order to make decisions.
In most of these paintings, Ophelia wears a blue or white dress; these are iconic colors of innocence and virginity. White is the traditional color of a bride's wedding dress and blue is the most common color worn by the Virgin Mary in art, a tradition which dates back to the fifth century AD.
There are at least two interpretations of Ophelia's death. The two most common theories are that she suffered an accidental death and the other theory was that she committed suicide.
Ophelia has limited opportunities as a woman in a patriarchal society and this is what separates her from Hamlet, who has the freedom to change his own fate. Ophelia needs to be obedient and is not allowed to express herself and her true feelings.
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 is distraught and suspicious. He professes his undying love to Ophelia, and they are secretly married. Soon afterward, he tells Ophelia that he plans to murder Claudius.
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 uses this phrase while speaking to Ophelia in order to emphasize his belief, inspired by his feigned madness or not, that marriage is an institution that needs to be abolished. He tells her that she should become a nun, never marry, and never have children.
Ophelia is Polonius' daughter and Laertes' sister. Hamlet has been in love with her for a while before the play starts and has given her several gifts during their courtship until her father warns her away from him and tells her not to see him anymore. During the play, he treats her very badly.
The combination of her former lover's cruelty and her father's death sends Ophelia into a fit of grief. In Act Four she spirals into madness and dies under ambiguous circumstances. Ophelia's tragedy lies in the way she loses her innocence through no fault of her own.
In her madness, Ophelia sings snatches of songs, most of which sound like popular songs of Shakespeare's day. Her choice of songs seems to reveal two obsessions. The first is with the death of fathers and old men, which isn't surprising, because her father has just died.
Ophelia in the fourth act of Hamlet is demonstrably insane, but the direct cause of her slipped sanity is something that remains debatable.
Ophelia is a character in Hamlet who is shown to be diagnosed with the mental illness “Schizophrenia”. Her diagnosis within the first acts of the play is weak, however, her mental illness reaches its peak in act 4, as a cluster of schizophrenia's symptoms are shown.
Ophelia offers rue to Queen Gertrude and keeps some for herself, with two different intentions. The queen “must wear [her] rue with a difference,” meaning as a token of repentance while Ophelia will wear her in regret at the loss of both her father and her lover.