William Shakespeare s Hamlet - Ophelia s Struggle And...

1 Pregnant with Madness— Ophelia’s Struggle and Madness in Hamlet Yi-Chi Chen Intergrams 11.2(2011): http://benz.nchu.edu.tw/~intergrams/intergrams/112/112-cyc.pdf ISSN: 1683-4186 Abstract Madness in Hamlet is one of the crucial themes for Shakespeare to depict the chaotic turbulence in the Hamlet family and the court of Denmark. Due to Claudius’s usurpation of the Old Hamlet’s crown and queen, characters such as Hamlet, Ophelia, and Gertrude suffer seriously from betrayal, resentment, and enragement. Even though she is generally read as a minor character in Hamlet, Ophelia in madness reveals particularly the struggle of the female character that endeavors to have a voice of her own. Throughout the play, Ophelia displays a three-phased transformation from Polonius’ timid daughter who lacks the will of her own, to the seducer on mission who suddenly reveals the bawdy part of her nature and, finally to the mad woman who liberally expresses her oppressed feelings and sorrow with lyrics and songs. Lost in her failed love with Hamlet and sorrow from the death of her father, Ophelia’s madness represents the destructed mind without the Name-of-the-Father and the reconstruction of her liberated subjectivity. Through the analysis of her language which is both pregnant in and with madness, her madness is interpreted as the means to express her real being without the patriarchal manipulation. Also, her madness can be read as the assimilation with Hamlet since it is how she revivesShow MoreRelatedThe Tragedy Of Hamlet By William Shakespeare Essay1334 Words   |  6 PagesIn William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Hamlet, each character stands out in unique ways. 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