Ophelia’s Madness

Ophelia’s madness develops her character and her foil to Hamlet because of the differences between their ideas of sanity or lack thereof.

Singing

Ophelia gives flowers to the King and Laertes and continuously sings random children songs. It is because of her fathers death and Hamlet’s absence that has sent her into this disarray, and the songs make her out to be loony. There is no meaning behind them, they are simply songs that come to her mind that she sings.

Flowers

When Ophelia hands out the flowers, Laertes figures out that not only is his father’s death affecting her, but that her sanity is gone. This helps him even more to seek revenge against the killer, which shows how Laertes and Hamlet differ. Laertes acting on impulse, Hamlet wanted a clear conscience in the outcome; all of this from Ophelia’s insanity toward the flowers and the King.

Quote

“Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! –O heavens! is’t possible a young maid’s

witsShould be as mortal as an old man’s life? Nature is fine in love, and where ’tis fineIt sends some precious instance of itselfAfter the thing it loves.”

SuicideOphelia’s suicide happened when she drowned slowly because she didn’t have the ability to save herself through her madness. She couldn’t do anything to stop it and she wasn’t in her right mind enough to even acknowledge her certain death. Instead she just sang and sank.

Method

With Hamlet, there is a method to his madness. Ophelia has no method and is just fully crazy. The fact that she is crazy emphasizes Hamlet’s character because it shows that the way he portrays his madness is sensible. He doesn’t sing random songs or watch his death come. His sanity is clearer with Ophelia as the contrast.