The play, The Tragedy of Hamlet The Prince of Denmark, follows the story of Hamlet shortly after his beloved father’s murder. Hamlet learns that Claudius, his stepfather and uncle, poisoned his brother and the ghost of his father wants his death to be avenged. Claudius uses Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius, and Polonius’s daughter Ophelia to spy on the young prince. This caused Hamlet to lose his trust in his lover, Ophelia, and pretends to be insane to throw the spies off his plan to murder his uncle and the new king. Hamlet accidentally murders Polonius during his first attempt to kill Claudius which leads to Ophelia becoming mad herself. The significance of Ophelia’s madness is to signify her losing two of the most important men in her life, Polonius and Hamlet.
It is evident that Ophelia is grieving over the death of her father, Polonius, as Horatio says “She speaks much of her father, says she hears...” (Shakespeare IV 4-5), a secondary cause of Ophelia’s madness may be due to her …show more content…
The evidence suggesting that she is simply mourning her father is clear to see in lines from her many “songs” and prove she is grieving over her father like in the lines, “His beard as white as snow...” (Shakespeare IV 190-191). This line references her father because he was an older man and because of this detail it shows that Polonius’s death has taken its toll on Ophelia’s psyche causing her to spout such wild and woeful songs. There are further references to Ophelia’s father, such as “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died,” show Ophelia’s shattered mental state, as she is constantly fixating on the death of Polonius, so much so that everything reminds her of his passing (Shakespeare IV 180-181). Ophelia’s madness is overtaking her so much so that she does not even recognize whom she is talking to like her
It is evident that Ophelia is grieving over the death of her father, Polonius, as Horatio says “She speaks much of her father, says she hears...” (Shakespeare IV 4-5), a secondary cause of Ophelia’s madness may be due to her …show more content…
The evidence suggesting that she is simply mourning her father is clear to see in lines from her many “songs” and prove she is grieving over her father like in the lines, “His beard as white as snow...” (Shakespeare IV 190-191). This line references her father because he was an older man and because of this detail it shows that Polonius’s death has taken its toll on Ophelia’s psyche causing her to spout such wild and woeful songs. There are further references to Ophelia’s father, such as “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died,” show Ophelia’s shattered mental state, as she is constantly fixating on the death of Polonius, so much so that everything reminds her of his passing (Shakespeare IV 180-181). Ophelia’s madness is overtaking her so much so that she does not even recognize whom she is talking to like her