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Summary Of Hamlet. Summary Of The Play Hamlet By: Amanda Wellman It's a story of
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Does Hamlet Have A Tragic Flaw? Does Hamlet Have A Tragic Flaw? Question:
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hamlet. Hamlet Summary Hamlet is the son of the late King Hamlet (of Denmark),
who died two months before the start of the play. ...
Summary Of Hamlet. Summary Of The Play Hamlet By: Amanda Wellman It's a story of
murder, betrail, hatred all rapped up in one astonishing play. ...
Hamlet. Hamlet is the son of the late King Hamlet (of Denmark), who died
two months before the start of the play. After King Hamlet's ...
Submitted by chessmaster82000 on April 2, 2005
Category: English
Words: 5279 | Pages: 22
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Hamlet: The Character of Ophelia
Ophelia is gentle, loving and beautiful. She is also obedient to her father and loyal to her family and it is this which draws her into the circle of disaster and leads to her "untimely death". She is deeply in love with Hamlet and believes his "tenders" to be sincere, but her obedience to both her father and her brother must come first. Laertes tells her to beware of Hamlet's interest as it is driven by lust, not love. He also points out the difference in their background and rightly concludes that Hamlet is not in a position, as heir to the throne to choose freely who he will marry.
Polonius is also scornful of Hamlet's motives and concerned that he will be discredited by Ophelia's conduct. His command to her not to see Hamlet again is brutal, as is his decision to use her as a decoy to sound out the reason for Hamlet's eccentric behaviour. The fact that she obeys would be quite understandable to Shakespeare's audience, if not to a present day one, since filial obedience was a fundamental part of the life of the time. Note also how differently Laertes is treated by his father, compared to the lack of regard shown to Ophelia by Polonius. Women had little status, and Ophelia's wishes are not considered at any time. Torn apart as she is by divided loyalty it is no wonder that the strain on her eventually leads to her madness and subsequent death.
That she loves Hamlet is without question. She is distraught when she observes his behaviour before the nunnery scene, and after his savage rejection of her in that scene she laments his "noble mind..here o'erthrown" She also grieves for herself, "Oh woe is me, t'have seen what I have seen, see what I see." She is sophisticated enough to understand the ways of the world, too, as we see in her dialogue with Hamlet before the mousetrap play, when she obviously understands the meaning of his bawdy remarks, and also in her quick...
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