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.
“Ophelia: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts. . . . There's fennel for you, and columbines.
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).
A young, beautiful noblewoman who comes oh-so-close close to marrying her prince, but madness and obsession on his part lead to his cruel rejection of her, ultimately leading to her drowning after a branch breaks on the willow tree on which she is reclining.
A funeral procession approaches. Hamlet soon realizes that the corpse is Ophelia's. When Laertes in his grief leaps into her grave and curses Hamlet as the cause of Ophelia's death, Hamlet comes forward. He and Laertes struggle, with Hamlet protesting his own love and grief for Ophelia.
By this point, Ophelia would be well aware of her pregnancy, and well aware that she would soon begin to show outward signs of it.
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.
Why is Hamlet so cruel to Ophelia? 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.
The catalyst that brings Ophelia to her end is Polonius' death by Hamlet's hand. Ophelia's estranged lover killed her father on a whim, thinking he was a rat behind a tapestry. At this point in the drama, Ophelia has no recourse or protection.
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.
One moment he says 'I did love you once', the next 'I loved you not'. He goes on to insult Ophelia and tells her to go to a nunnery. He tells her that this will be the best place for her and, by being a nun, Ophelia won't have children and produce wicked men like his uncle.
He watches as Laertes leaps, sobbing, into his sister's grave. Hamlet steps forward, claiming his sorrow is deeper than Laertes's, and also jumps into Ophelia's grave.
What do Laertes and Hamlet do at the funeral? They fight; Hamlet is upset because he thinks he loved Ophelia more than Laertes did.
Ophelia's death symbolizes a life spent passively tolerating Hamlet's manipulations and the restrictions imposed by those around her, while struggling to maintain the last shred of her dignity.
A short while after, Ophelia is found dead in a river, having drowned that afternoon. Some believe her death was suicide and some assume that it was an accident. Unlike the other characters in the play, Ophelia died from loving too much, being too innocent, and too pure.
Laertes will challenge Hamlet to a duel, with a poisoned sword tip. Even if Laertes fails to strike Hamlet, Claudius will offer Hamlet a drink from a poisoned goblet of wine. As the two are plotting, Gertrude enters the scene and relays the heart breaking news that Ophelia is dead.
Act 5, scene 1 Hamlet, returned from his journey, comes upon a gravedigger singing as he digs. Hamlet tries to find out who the grave is for and reflects on the skulls that are being dug up. A funeral procession approaches. Hamlet soon realizes that the corpse is Ophelia's.
Hamlet jumps into Ophelia's open grave after Laertes does so. Laertes is grief-stricken over his sister's death and leaps into her grave to hold her one more time. Hamlet is enraged and declares his own grief to be greater than that of Laertes.
The Gravediggers appear briefly in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, making their only appearance at the beginning of Act V, scene i. They are first encountered as they are digging a grave for the newly deceased Ophelia, discussing whether she deserves a Christian burial after having killed herself.
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.
Gertrude and Claudius marry very quickly after the king's death, and Claudius becomes the ruler. 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 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.
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's madness stems from her lack of identity and her feelings of helplessness regarding her own life. While the death of Hamlet's father made him angry enough to want revenge, Ophelia internalized the death of her father as a loss of personal identity.
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.