Ophelia : witch or victim?
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
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. He does care about his daughter but is very cautious about her actions with Hamlet. This is evident because of all events that have happened to her up to where we are. This must be devastating for Ophelia because she is basically forbidden to see the one who she loves dearly. 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. Because of this, Ophelia is forced to have no contacts with Hamlet witch, for sure, will break a loving couple's love. In conclusion, I would like say once again that Ophelia is not a "heartless witch" but she is just an "innocent victim". Also when Ophelia comes to tells her father that Hamlet came to her room all weird and delusional, it seemed that Polonius not only wanted to help his daughter but it seemed the he also would of liked to get on the kings good side by helping them find out what is going on with Hamlet. You can say that he wanted to "kill two birds with one stone". 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. 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. Also the mere fact that Polonius orders Ophelia to give him the letters Hamlet wrote to Ophelia shows how inconsiderate of other people's feelings and personal business he is.
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