The main idea of Carroll Camden’s literary critique, “On Ophelia’s Madness” is that because Ophelia was around loved ones who are negative towards her and denied her love and caused her pain which deranged her sanity, not the death of her father, Polonius. Ophelia’s character is difficult to analyze, especially on her sudden madness. Camden effectively analyzed other critics’ articles and and found that they describe Ophelia as a perfect young lady whose life ended tragically due to her extreme grief of her late father. Camden disagrees with those critics. A point that can be found that backs up her argument is how Laertes and Polonius warns Ophelia of Hamlets uncontrollable passion for her and the balance of his high position and dependence
