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.
Introduction: The association between memory loss and Hodgkin's lymphoma has been given the eponym of Ophelia syndrome, in memory of Shakespeare's character in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
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'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's final words are addressed to either Hamlet, or her father, or even herself and her lost innocence: “And will a not come again? / No, no, he is dead, / Go to thy death-bed, / He never will come again. / … / God a mercy on his soul. And of all Christian souls. God buy you.” Next, she drowns herself.
Some see Ophelia's death as an accident; others see it as a suicide resulting from the accumulation of a series of unfortunate events: her rejection by her boyfriend, her father's murder, and her possible pregnancy.
Ophelia's lack of autonomy stems from her treatment by her father and brother. Laertes offers Ophelia advice, though it has a subtext of cruelty to it and implies her ignorance rather than innocence. If her “chaste treasure” were to “open” she would lose what power she had in respectable society.
SARAH: Ophelia made a wreath of flowers and attempted to hang it on the branches of the willow. While doing so, she slipped and fell into the brook. RALPH: Gertrude describes how her clothing spread out over the surface of the water, keeping her afloat for a moment, while she sang songs of praise, or perhaps hymns.
Ophelia uses flowers as symbols of her deep sorrow and grief. She is very upset because her father, Polonius, has just been killed by Hamlet. Being a sensitive and intelligent young woman, Ophelia needs to express herself, and she does so by passing out flowers to the court in her seeming mad state of mind.
Laertes leaps into Ophelia's grave to hold her once again in his arms. Grief-stricken and outraged, Hamlet bursts upon the company, declaring in agonized fury his own love for Ophelia.
Ophelia has become mad in response to the murder of her father, Polonius, by Prince Hamlet, with whom she used to have a relationship. Shakespeare conveys this change in Ophelia by having her adopt prose when she speaks, as well as singing inappropriate songs of a sexual nature in front of the King and Queen.
While she lives in the same patriarchal society that demands that she subjugate herself to her father and her brother until she is married, Ophelia has fallen in love with Prince Hamlet. There is strong evidence that she has even had sexual relations with him.
At the beginning of the play, Ophelia is dutiful and polite; she does exactly what her family tells her to do. Then, Hamlet's erratic behavior and Polonius's death cause Ophelia to go mad. She becomes confused and starts behaving strangely. Ultimately, her madness leads to her death.
Tragic flaw: Ophelia has no control over her mind, body, and relationships, she doesn't think for herself.
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.
Hamlet uses Ophelia for his own personal gain, he toys with her emotions by making to seem as though she is the cause of his madness. Hamlet emotionally abuses Ophelia with no regard for her psychological well-being.
A red poppy floats near Ophelia's hand, a symbol of sleep and death. Despite her saying that there were no violets, we can see she wears a necklace of them. Fritillary, symbols of sorrow, also appear. In Act 4, Scene 5 we hear Queen Gertrude's description of Ophelia's death.
Ophelia gives fennel, symbol of flattery, to King Claudius. She also gives him columbine for ingratitude and infidelity. Rue, for sorrow, she gives to Gertrude; she also offers Gertrude daisy, for springtime and love, and says she lost her own violets, which represent sweetness, when her father died.
But at the same time, feminism offered a new perspective on Ophelia's madness as protest and rebellion. For many feminist theorists, the madwoman was a heroine who rebels against gender stereotypes and the social order, at enormous cost.
Ophelia Nichols has made headlines after the TikTok star used her online platform to address her son Randon Lee's shocking death. “Today would have been my baby child's 19th birthday, but he was took from me last night,” the social media influencer said in a June 2022 video.
However, the explicit sexual references in Ophelia's songs perhaps account for her obsession with the now absent Hamlet, as in “promising his love” to her earlier in the play and then being scorned, she is doubly heartbroken alongside the death of her father.
Hebenon (or hebona) is a botanical substance described in William Shakespeare's tragic play Hamlet. The identity and nature of the poison has been a source of speculation for centuries.
MBTI Type: ISFP
Ophelia refuses to become a plaything for Hamlet, and insists upon marriage before she will lie with him. She can be blunt and authoritative when pushed – asserting herself strongly and refusing to back down, but also intensely private about her personal life.
She is a naïve girl who wants to please both her father and her boyfriend Hamlet. She behaves innocently and is not trying to use her feminine nature to deceive or control a man as Hamlet suspected. Ophelia is loyal to her father and brother who raised her.
The penultimate scene of the play begins with the two clowns digging a grave for the late Ophelia. They debate whether she should be allowed to have a Christian burial, because she committed suicide.