The Saving Grace of Madness Essays -- Character Analysis, Ophelia, Lae

settlements Ophelia tragi inflicty falls victim to the prevailing and unquestioned womanly stereotypes of her day. Trapping her within the type of the chaste and dutiful woman, Polonius strips Ophelia of her individual indistinguishability and silences her voice. He reduces her to a mere pawn, whoring her out to serve his own self-loving agendas. It is only in madness that Ophelia is offered an unexpected respite from this puppetry, one that hitherto the finality of death is unable to offer. When the reader first encounters Ophelia within Hamlet, she is oral presentation with Laertes, her brother, and Polonius, her father. From these interactions, Ophelia appears to be the true embodiment of what a woman was expected to be. She listens respectfully to her brother and father, speaking only twenty-one lines as opposed to their combine one hundred and twenty. She dutifully responds to their advice I shall the effect of this good lesson withhold (1.3 l.49) and I shall obey, my lor d (1.4 l. 145). Yet aside from this expected and somewhat leaden picture, the reader learns little of Ophelia. In response to the plays call to Stand and unfold yourself (1.1 l.2), Ophelia appears to have nonhing to say.However, while Polonius is satisfied with this elongate and limited picture of his daughter, the reader should not be. According to the early seventeenth century context of Shakespeares Hamlet, chastity was the quality most oftentimes praised in women as it directly influenced and determined male honor. Thus, Polonius command to Ophelia that she not slander any moment leisure as to give haggle or talk with the Lord Hamlet (1.4 142-143) cannot be read patently as the savoir-faire communication of a loving father c erstwhilerned with the goody of his daughters heart. Rather, it must be r... ...ng more than the goaded words of boy eager to prove his manhood. King Claudius response is no better, development Laertes grief over Ophelias death to motivate his r etaliate Strengthen your patience in our last nights speechWell put the matter to the present push. This grave shall have a life-time monumentTil then in patience our proceeding be (5.1 ll. 313-314317 319). Thus, once again Ophelia emerges as the scapegoat her death guilty of motivating the deaths of Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius. magic spell Hamlet indeed comes to a tragic close, it is an ending dominated by men. Fortinbras arrives on the scene in all his manliness, commanding that Hamlet be born like a soldier to the stage, restored to his prior, sane identity. Ophelia however, goes unmentioned, faded from the storage of Denmark, her monument never constructed as King Claudius promised.