Ophelia

There She Goes

I am neither a feminist nor an anti-feminist. I am an advocate of independence; but, Ophelia does not have this essential quality to remain a strong person. Throughout the play, she is like a chess piece. Polonius uses Ophelia to impress Claudius, and Hamlet uses her to displace his anger towards his mother. She does not understand what is happening or why. An independent person would fight to escape ignorance, but this victim just accepts dependence on her father and Hamlet. Ophelia accepts being told what to think or who she is. Because she is dependent on her father and Hamlet, when Hamlet rejects her, and her father dies, she has no one to think for her.   She has no one to tell her what to do, so she just stops doing, literally, by committing suicide.
Men seem to be the only people in Ophelia’s life: her father, her brother, and her love(r). The smallness of her world suggests that each of them have a deep influence on her. She is loyal to and dependent on each of them. Hamlet, like Polonius, makes her feel like a bad, unintelligent person.
I have heard of your paintings well enough.
God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves
Another. You jig and amble, and you lisp; you nick-
Name God’s creatures and make your wantonness your
Ignorance. Go to…
To a nunnery, go (3.1.142-149)

This whole scene is not really about Ophelia. Hamlet is angry with his mother, and is displacing his anger. Ophelia does nothing that suggests she is a wanton; but she does not know this. Her dependency on Hamlet makes her believe that she is the problem, that she is a whore. She may not have yet gone, as Hamlet orders her to, but if she had the option, she would have, most likely, been the first person in line for the nunnery. Hamlet is one of two people that Ophelia depends on. She is emotionally attached to her lover, so his removal of her comes as a harsh shock.
Women, throughout the ages, have been told that they are inferior to men; Polonius...