Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, one of King Claudius' closest friends. She is described as a beautiful young woman, and she is also the love interest of the main character in the story Hamlet. Her love for Hamlet and her loyalty to her father creates friction and leads to tragedy in Ophelia's life.
Ophelia is Polonius' daughter and Laertes' sister. Hamlet has been in love with her for a while before the play starts and has given her several gifts during their courtship until her father warns her away from him and tells her not to see him anymore. During the play, he treats her very badly.
At the beginning of the play, as Hamlet has decided to pretend madness, he pretends he does not love Ophelia anymore, he even rejects her and insults her (Act 3, scene 1). This, of course, means that he has been in love with her before, has let her think that she was loved.
Hamlet is cruel to Ophelia because he has transferred his anger at Gertrude's marriage to Claudius onto Ophelia. In fact, Hamlet's words suggest that he transfers his rage and disgust for his mother onto all women.
Bidding his sister, Ophelia, farewell, he cautions her against falling in love with Hamlet, who is, according to Laertes, too far above her by birth to be able to love her honorably. Since Hamlet is responsible not only for his own feelings but for his position in the state, it may be impossible for him to marry her.
People can stage Hamlet that way, but there is no evidence in the script that Ophelia is pregnant. The best evidence that she has had sex with Hamlet is the song she sings that ends: “Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed. '
Ophelia Timeline and Summary
1.3 Polonius and Laertes tell Ophelia that Hamlet just wants to sleep with her, and that she should break up with him. He's out of her league. 1.3 Ophelia agrees when her father orders her to stop seeing Hamlet.
At the end of his soliloquy, Ophelia makes her entrance, and Hamlet acknowledges her presence: “Nymph, in thy orisons / Be all my sins remembered,” referring directly to Greek mythology with the word “nymph” and imposing upon Ophelia the role of animated innocence—youthful, nubile, and perhaps even divine (3.1. 88-89).
Perhaps the most descriptive sexualization of Ophelia is when Gertrude describes her dead body as “mermaid-like” (4.7. 201) with “her clothes spread wide” (4.7. 200). Describing her clothes as “spread-wide” is especially suggestive, as to reference the act of removing clothing before sex.
Abusive Boyfriend
Hamlet seems to know that Ophelia is helping her dad spy on him, and he accuses her (and all women) of being a "breeder of sinners" and orders Ophelia to a "nunnery" (3.1.
Ophelia is Polonius' daughter and Laertes' sister. She has been in a relationship with Hamlet. Claudius is the newly crowned King of Denmark and husband to Gertrude. He is Hamlet's uncle.
Hamlet is distraught and suspicious. He professes his undying love to Ophelia, and they are secretly married. Soon afterward, he tells Ophelia that he plans to murder Claudius.
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.
Grief-stricken and outraged, Hamlet bursts upon the company, declaring in agonized fury his own love for Ophelia. He leaps into the grave and fights with Laertes, saying that “forty thousand brothers / Could not, with all their quantity of love, / make up my sum” (V.i.254–256).
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.
In Act 4 Scene 7, Queen Gertrude reports that Ophelia had climbed into a willow tree (There is a willow grows aslant the brook), and that the branch had broken and dropped Ophelia into the brook, where she drowned.
Ophelia likely went mad because of the death of her father. There are other reasons in the play, like Hamlet's anger and her brother's absence. But, Hamlet murdering her father, Polonius, is most likely where she breaks down.
For the Elizabethans, Hamlet was the prototype of melancholy male madness, associated with intellectual and imaginative genius; but Ophelia's affliction was erotomania, or love-madness.
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.
Tragic flaw: Ophelia has no control over her mind, body, and relationships, she doesn't think for herself.
Hamlet confirmed that he did love Ophelia when he told her to go to a nunnery. Although it is a harsh statement, he tried to throw everyone else off so he had to make it seem like he never loved her. Throughout his letter he mentioned that everything else around her may not be true but his love is real.
In Sigmund Freud's concept, which Shakespeare was familiar with, it is proposed in Hamlet that he and his mother kiss because Hamlet no longer wants to allow his mother to sleep with Claudius.
She is often portrayed as being 19 years old (like Kate Winslet in the 1996 Kenneth Branagh movie). She is certainly of an age where her father is probably beginning to think about marrying her off, which I think would probably be in the 16–19 range.
And two, he's already in a relationship with Ophelia and despite him being an a-hole sometimes, the two are still in love with eachother. Furthermore, Horatio is gay and in love with Hamlet but can't pursue any relationship with him, due to the reasons above.
Hamlet, now free to act, mistakenly kills Polonius, thinking he is Claudius. Claudius sends Hamlet away as part of a deadly plot. After Polonius's death, Ophelia goes mad and later drowns.