Ophelia's Madness in Shakespeare's Hamlet
editIntroduction
editWilliam Shakespeare created the play Hamlet. He included the character Ophelia as the main love interest who goes mad after the death of her father, Polonius. Ophelia has been portrayed by many actresses who all exhibit her madness in varying ways. Helena Bonham Carter for example, plays her madness as you can see here very differently to Kate Winslet in this video
Monologue
editOphelia's monologues are one of the few ways she is able to express herself in both madness and sanity.
- From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
- And sandal shoon.[1]
The majority of Ophelia's monologue is actually sung in Act 4 Scene 5.
I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i'th'cold ground.[2]
Ultimately Ophelia's madness causes her to go to a body of water where she then drowns.
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a gross name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious silver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell into the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.[3]
Madness or Grief?
editBoth Ophelia and Hamlet supposedly "go mad" due to the loss of their fathers. The reasons for the argument of whether Hamlet's madness is genuine are
- Hamlet is the central character and the audience is aligned with him.
- Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus that no matter "How strange or odd soe'er [he bears himself] as [he], perchance, hereafter shall think to meet to put an antic disposition on"[4] to which many have regarded as Hamlet admitting to faking his madness.
- There is a debate whether the ghost is genuine or the devil attempting to corrupt Hamlet.
Why is Ophelia's madness not thought of as a mirroring of Hamlet's? Amanda Mabillard states that "Ophelia is...static and one-dimensional"[5] but I believe people view her this way as we do not get to see into her own head more.
References
editShakespeare, William (2007). The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare. Wordsworth Editions. {{cite book}}
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Amanda Mabillard's essay An Introduction to Ophelia in Hamlet