Character Description
            
             Hamlet
            
             Ophelia:
            
             Ophelia has the potential of becoming a tragic heroine by overcoming adversities, but instead she crumbles into insanity, becoming simply tragic. Through Ophelia we see Hamlet's newfound view of women not as the innocent virtuous beings he had once thought they were, but as being corrupt by sexual desire. Due to his mother's behavior, Hamlet now sees all women, including Ophelia, as whores. But to the rest of us, Ophelia represents only goodness. She is childlike and naive, unaware of the harsh realities of life. Her father and brother love her tremendously and she returns this love with unselfish affection. She rejects Hamlet's courtship on her father's strict advice, who believes Hamlet's love cannot be sincere. Ophelia clings to the memory of Hamlet treating her with respect and tenderness, and she defends him and loves him to the very end despite his brutality. She is incapable of defending herself, but we can see her intense suffering.
            
             Hamlet: . . . I did love you once.
             Ophelia: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
             Hamlet: You should not have believed me . . . I loved you not.
             Ophelia: I was the more deceived.
            
             Her frailty and innocence work against her as she cannot cope with the unfolding of one traumatic event after another. The conflicting messages of her male sources damage her psychological identity. And Hamlet causes her only emotional pain throughout the play, which cumulates with him murdering her father. The sudden absence of her father is the limit of what she is capable of enduring and she goes insane. But even in her insanity, she symbolizes pureness to all except Hamlet. Only in her insanity does she live up to Hamlet's false perception of women. But even so, Ophelia's madness has an optimistic twist, for it gives her capability of speech, discovery of individual identity, and the power to undermine authority. She drowns her...