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.
Why does Ophelia go mad? Ophelia goes mad because her father, Polonius, whom she deeply loved, has been killed by Hamlet. In addition, Hamlet, whom she also loved, has cruelly rejected her.
Ophelia's drowning is the consummate representation of an eternal retreat into the feminine, trading an individual voice for eternal silence in union with feminine essence. In turn, her death expresses the danger of reducing an individual to his or her gender and disregarding the voice of the marginalized.
Ophelia's Madness
She addresses Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes with her words about death, burial, and mourning, and also of young girls betrayed by unfaithful lovers. She refers to her father's death and Hamlet's behavior, and finally, her sad fate with, “Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
In Hamlet Act 4, Scene 5, Ophelia has lost her mind due to grief over her father's death and Hamlet's departure.
Madness for Ophelia means the ability to express the full range of emotions that she had to hide. She saw death as a necessary action. It points to her spirit's weakness and inability to deal with the situation.
After Polonius's death, Ophelia goes mad and later drowns. Hamlet, who has returned safely to confront the king, agrees to a fencing match with Ophelia's brother, Laertes, who secretly poisons his own rapier.
Hamlet suffers from depression and bipolar disorder, while Ophelia suffers from hysteria, which is caused by her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and is also a victim of psychological abuse. This is proven by how she reacts to how Hamlet and her father treat her, and how she deals with her father's death.
First, her boyfriend dumps her, then he calls her vulgar names, and lastly, he kills her father. Just one of these traumatic events could make a character go mad, but the combination of the three justifies Ophelia's madness. The use of these three tragic events in Ophelia's life makes her madness reasonable.
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.
Certainly, other characters do believe Hamlet to be mad. In Act 2, Scene 1, Ophelia describes Hamlet's disheveled appearance in her rooms to Polonius, who declares that Ophelia's rejection of Hamlet "hath made him mad" (l. 115).
Ophelia uses flowers as symbols of her deep sorrow and grief. She is very upset because her father, Polonius, has just been killed by Hamlet. Being a sensitive and intelligent young woman, Ophelia needs to express herself, and she does so by passing out flowers to the court in her seeming mad state of mind.
Ophelia in the fourth act of Hamlet is demonstrably insane, but the direct cause of her slipped sanity is something that remains debatable.
In contrast, Ophelia's madness is real. Her brother, Laertes, mourns that "a young maid's wits / Should be as mortal as an old man's life" (IV. 5.157-158) and calls her behavior "A document in madness" (IV. 5.174).
Her story becomes zero because she is denied her desires which include language sexuality and thought. The unfolding of most vents in the life of Ophelia is a clear indicator of her innocence. Considering her belief that a man cannot do anything harmful to her .
Ophelia is hurt so deeply by Hamlet's cruel words and his accusations that she uses her feminine nature to deceive men. Hamlet is so consumed by grief and the desire for revenge that he calls Ophelia a 'breeder of sinners' and suggests that she 'get thee to a nunnery. ' He also tells Ophelia he 'loved (her) not.
Ophelia begins the play as an average girl growing up in a place that would predispose her to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Her father's murder did not drive her insane, but shook an easily shaken system.
Hamlet's tirade reduces Ophelia to a dishonest, licentious creature whose corrupt womb breeds only sinners (3.1. 119). He casts Ophelia into this role of a duplicitous harlot to render himself as doubly victimised — betrayed first by his mother, then by his lover.
After Polonius' death, Ophelia finds herself lacking a strong accessible support network. She has an excellent relationship with her brother and could thus go to him, but he has unfortunately already left to study in France. This separation becomes a risk factor for PTSD.
Ophelia loves Hamlet and she know thinks that their relationship is over, this puts a lot of strain of her emotion state possible too much. Hamlet emotionally abuses Ophelia for his own personal gain, Ophelia ultimately blames herself and she descends into…show more content…
Ophelia's Madness
That Ophelia appears without a past and with no friends to tie her to a larger world, and that she is defined largely in relationship to Hamlet and Polonius; both seem consistent with R.D. Laing's diagnosis of her as schizophrenic.
The Nunnery Scene
In this part of Act 3 Scene 1, Ophelia goes to return the gifts Hamlet gave to her in the past. He confuses her with mixed messages. 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.
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).
“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.
Ophelia offers rue to Queen Gertrude and keeps some for herself, with two different intentions. The queen “must wear [her] rue with a difference,” meaning as a token of repentance while Ophelia will wear her in regret at the loss of both her father and her lover.