The Impact of Ophelia on Shakespeares Hamlet Essay examples -- GCSE E

The Impact of Ophelia on Hamlet Michael Pennington in Ophelia Madness Her Only Safe Haven, elucidates the character of Ophelia in Shakespeares tragedy, Hamlet This is the woman she might have become warm, across-the-board and imaginative. Instead she becomes jagged, benighted and imaginative. . . .Ophelia is made mad not only by circumstance but by something in herself. A personality labored into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfully open to impressions that they now usurp her reflexes and take possession of her. She has loved, or been prepared to love, the wrong man her beget has brought disaster on himself, and she has no mother she is terribly lonely. (73-74) This essay hopes to touch on many aspects of Ophelias character as she is victimized by circumstances and characters around her. The supporter of the tragedy, Prince Hamlet, initially appears in the play dressed in solemn black, lament the death of his father supposed ly by snakebite while he was international at Wittenberg as a student. Hamlet laments the hasty remarriage of his mother to his fathers brother, an incestuous act thus in his first monologue he cries out, Frailty, thy name is woman Ophelia enters the play with her brother Laertes, who, in component for school, bids her farewell and gives her advice regarding her relationship with Hamlet. Ophelia agrees to abide by the advice I shall the effect of this trusty lesson keep as watchman to my heart. Thus Ophelia must initially crouch her will to please her brother. After Laertes departure, Polonius inquires of Ophelia concerning the private time which Hamlet spends with her. He dismisses Hamlets overtures as Affection, puh... ...fe Haven. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from Hamlet A Users Guide. New York Limelight Editions, 1996. Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakespeares Tragedies. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Green haven Press, 1996. Excerpted from Shakespeares Women. N.p. n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge account of English and American Literature. New York G.P. Putnams Sons, 190721 New York Bartleby.com, 2000 http//www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html Wilkie, Brian and throng Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.