The Madness of Ophelia Essay -- Essays on Shakespeares Hamlet

In Shakespeares Hamlet, Prince Hamlet may act like he is mad north-northwest, but it is his lover, Ophelia, who is truly mad. twain lose their fathers at the hands of others and both admit loved ones that seem to have turned against them. Unlike Hamlet, who has revenge, Ophelia ends up having nothing to hold onto. Her sanity breaks and sends her into a downward spiral, while Hamlets remains intact. In this paper, I will show that it is the manipulation by and loss of the two men Ophelia loved most-Hamlet and her father, Polonius-which leads to her cult. There have been many theories offered-especially by psychoanalysists-concerning the cause of Ophelias madness. Freudian theorists like Theodor Lidz attribute it to Ophelias incestuous feelings for her father and her desire for Hamlet to take her away from, or even veil him. When this actually does occur, Lidz says Ophelias incestuous feelings drive her mad. Victorian theorists claimed that Ophelia was a hysteric. They defined hy steria is a mental breakdown during adolescence, when a girl suffered from sexual instability. This mental complaint was applied to anyone who showed what psychiatrists thought were Ophelia-like behaviors, the same young years, the same faded beauty, the same fantastic dress and interrupted song (Shakespeare, 230). Modern day theorists have attributed Ophelias madness to schizophrenia, which puts the madness into a biochemical framework. Schizophrenia has been argued to be an intelligible response to the experience of invalidation with the family network, especially to the conflicting emotional messages and mystifying double binds see by daughters (Shakespeare, 236). These theories are lackin... ...ne to hold onto. What made everything fall apart, and what completely ruined her, was her love for them. Works Cited Partridge, Eric. Shakespeares Bawdy. New York E.P. Dutton & Co., 1969. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. By Susanne L. Wofford. Boston Bedford Books of St. Martins Pr ess, 1994. Wilson, J. Dover. What happens in Hamlet. Cambridge University Press, 1960. Works ConsultedRonk, Martha. Representations of Ophelia. reflection 1 21-43. JSTOR. Web. 22 whitethorn 2015.Hamlet. William Shakespeare The Tragedies. Paul A. Jorgensen. Boston Twayne Publishers, 1985. 47-57. Twaynes English Authors Series 415. Twaynes Authors on GVRL. Web. 22 May 2015.Goddard, Harold. Hamlet to Ophelia. JSTOR. National Council of Teachers of English, 23 Oct. 2007. Web. 23 May 2015..