Ophelia, The silent Raconteur - Essay Example

? Ophelia, The silent Raconteur Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ is a perplexing character. She is presented as a tender, moderate, devoted,submissive woman who lives in the shade of her father and brothers. She is the love of Hamlet or the expected partner. But Hamlet rarely thinks about her in his life. She is silent character who does not have heroine qualities. But she is alive through her passiveness and soft language. Her death makes her more alive. Ophelia influences Hamlet and all other characters and the rest of their life through her passiveness. Ophelia’s inertness is significant in the main plot and subplots of Hamlet. Ophelia is a personality who moves with the flow of somebody’s opinion. The Shakespeare- women, at that time were obedient and totally depended on their family and after marriage, her husband. The same was the plight of the women in the then English society. Ophelia’s life is also a representative of a perfect woman. She is obedient to her father and her brothers. The reply she gives to her father while he asks her to reject Hamlet shows how passive and docile attitude she has, “I shall obey my lord” (1.3.136). This incapacity to reveal her heart is her real failure. To her father’s opinion about Hamlet, Ophelia replies” I do not know, my lord, what I should think “(111, iii).Ophelia’s brothers also never believes the words of Hamlet, instead they interpret them as ‘holy vows ‘to seduce her. Ophelia never defends herself for her own benefits. Even for her father, she is an instrument to act against Hamlet. Thus she was denied of chances of exposing her love to Hamlet. Hamlet also expects her to be a supreme woman, not like his mother. But he her innocence and quietness were signs of guilt for him as a false person just likes his mother. He writes to her “the most beautified Ophelia”, and concluded the letter “I love thee best, o most best, believe “(II,ii). This is evident that for him. So he considers Hamlet loves her. But the terror in her mind to reveal her own will and act according to that is so high that she conceals that pain of keeping away from her lover. She victimizes herself to the will of her father and brothers. Ophelia still possesses the memory of Hamlet treating with great love and compassion. But when hamlet reveals his mind to her she fails to respond with the same intensity as she feel. Hamlet: “…I did love you once Ophelia: Indeed my lord, you made me believe so Hamlet: You should not have believed me…I loved you not. Ophelia: I was more deceived” Hamlet seems to know that Ophelia is helping her father to plot against him. The passive nature of Ophelia leads her to do the unwilling. Hamlet accuses her and all other women “a breeder of sinners ‘and orders Ophelia to a ‘nunnery’ (3.1.9). There also she fails to admit the words of Hamlet because she is a good girl. The words of Hamlet are more painful to her when she returns the gifts to him. He responds “I never gave you aught “(3.1.96). He expresses his dislike to whole humanity in his words to Ophelia “Get thee into a nunnery why wouds’t thou be a breeder of sinners.”(3.1.121-122). He thinks that she will deceive him or any other lover. She will turn them to a monster. He says “I loved you not”(3.1). Ophelia says And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of music vows Now see that noble and most sovereign reason Out of tune and harsh (3.1.13) At that time Ophelia very passively expresses her emotions in heart. The pressure inside takes the form of a song and she sings, “How should I your true love know …..O, woe me; To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! Since Ophelia never cares about her own wishes or powerless to gratify her own mind , even for her personal matters like sex or relations with others, everybody interferes . To everyone she is a piece of ‘enjoyment’. Not only Hamlet but also her brother defines her for her sexuality. We can see in Act 1 how Laertes advices her about the pitfalls of premarital sex for women. Ophelia’s death is also passive like her life and language. Gertrude’s reply about the death is notable. “When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide’….. Till that garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wrench from her melodious lay To muddy death” Gertrude suggests that Ophelia’s drowning was natural as a native water creature. Even in death she is passive and the speechless emotions she conveys are that of a virgin. Ophelia is not a real born character, but a made one by the surrounding characters. Ophelia’s passive nature is the result of suppression. Blind with the intense emotions in the mind, Ophelia never understands the depth of pain that he suffer. She remained passive to all the incidents like the death of her father and the betrayal of her lover. But later like a weak flower she fell down in the wave. Thus Ophelia, through her passiveness binds the overall characters especially Hamlet and Laertes. She gives the emotional stir to all the characters after her death. In her death she was that powerful. The silence she creates in the mind of other characters is powerful. Though she has little ‘voice’ her tragedy articulates loudly than it. She never recompense with all the demands put forward by the surrounding characters. Of all the characters Ophelia is the one emotionally stationary and stagnant. When the spectators indulge in the story of Hamlet Ophelia’s story drives us very differently. Thus though passive, she lives in the hearts of all.   Work Cited Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, William Shakespeare The Complete Works ,Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., 1980 Read More