In my opinion I would say that Ophelia is just an innocent victim instead of being a heartless witch. I believe this to be true because I believe she is just an innocent victim because she is being forced to act in a matter in which she does not want to act. First her father forces to ignore Hamlet at all cause and to reject his letters. “…but as you did command, I did repel his letters and denied his access to me” (II. iii. 108-110) this proves that she did as her father told her to do even though she didn’t want to do it. Another reason for my belief is that her loved ones and others are manipulating her. These people who are doing this is her brother, Laertes, and her father Polonius. The way her brother is manipulating her is by giving her somewhat false information about Hamlet, which give Ophelia to give second thoughts about Hamlet.
An example of this is in Act I, Scene 3 where Laertes says, “Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, and keep you in the rear of your affection out of the shot and danger of desire.” (I. iii. 33-35) Laertes seems to care about his sister and doesn’t want her to get hurt but in reality back then in their time, Laertes d
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This would have left her in a not particularly strong psychological state and unable to cope without the control and dominance of her 'betters', ‘betters’ as in Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet. This is, to me, a good example because it shows how Ophelia is being manipulated by her father into believing that Hamlet is bad for her even though her father shouldn’t really be the one who controls her actions. He even goes so far as to force her daughter not to be in any contact with Hamlet. This is evident because of all events that have happened to her up to where we are. So it seems that Laertes is just looking out for his father and himself.
In conclusion, I would like say once again that Ophelia is not a “heartless witch” but she is just an “innocent victim”. This must be devastating for Ophelia because she is basically forbidden to see the one who she loves dearly. But what ends up happening is Hamlet, with all of his anger, breaks off their relationship very furiously, leaving Ophelia hurt and scared with Hamlets action. 132-134)
This means not to talk to Hamlet and not to write him any letters.
Later on in Act 3, you can find another example of how Ophelia is just being used by the people around her just so they can get what they want and not even considering how this will effect Ophelia. You can say that he wanted to “kill two birds with one stone”. In scene 1 of Act 3, Polonius and the King place Ophelia in a room where Hamlet can find her so that they can observe if Hamlet is mad only about what’s happening with Ophelia and himself. It can be either Ophelia’s father Polonius forcing her not to have any contact with Hamlet, which could have caused Ophelia to become miserable and depressed, which would of made her not responsible for her actions.
Ophelia’s father, on the other hand, is different.
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