Gabriella Karanikos

Miss Skirtich
21 November 2016
English 10: World Literature

Ophelia Turned Crazy

Human beings can be appear to be okay on the outside, but be completely different on the
inside. Ophelia is a perfect example of this. Ophelia is a main character within the play
Hamlet. She is seen as a beautiful, young woman who is living a great life. However, she is
slowly beginning to internalize her feelings, which is causing her to become mentally unstable.
Ophelias mental instability is driven by mixed emotions, her relationship with Hamlet, and her
fathers death.
At first, Ophelias mental instability is driven by her mixed emotions. At the start of the
play, Ophelia is seen as very open to love and relationships. When she gets into a romantic
relationship with Hamlet, she is very happy and in love. However as people she is close to, her
brother Laertes, tells her that he does not love her, she begins to have mixed emotions. Laertes
tells Ophelia that Hamlet does not love her when he says, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood/
A violet in the youth of primy nature, /Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting/the perfume
and suppliance of a minute (I.iii.6-10.) When Laertes tells Ophelia this, it makes her start to
wonder about Hamlets true intentions and whether or not he truly does love her. A second
instance when Ophelia is seen having mixed emotions, is when Hamlet and Ophelia meet and
Hamlet goes crazy towards her. Ophelia begins to blame herself for his craziness, and this is seen
when she says, And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, /that sucked the honey of his
musicked vows, /Now see (that) noble and most sovereign reason, /like sweet bells jangled, out
of time and harsh; /That unmatched form and stature of blown youth, /blasted with ecstasy

(III.i.169-174.) Ophelia, seeing Hamlets craziness, blames herself for what has happened to him.
This is attributing to her mixed emotions. However, instead of expressing this to others she
internalizes everything, causing her to become mentally instable.
As the play continues, Ophelias mental instability is driven by her relationship with
Hamlet. She is slowly starting to appear more and more mentally unstable, after Hamlet tells her
that he does not love her, You should not have believed me, for virtue, /cannot so inoculate our
old stock but we shall /relish of it. I loved you not (III.i.127-129.) She replies by saying, I was
the more deceived (III.i.130.) This is showing that she has been tricked and betrayed by Hamlet.
She then begins to sing about the way she was betrayed by Hamlet, How should I your true love
known, /from another one? /by his cockle hat and staff /and his sandal shoon (IV.v.28-31.)
Ophelia is singing about how Hamlet lied to her and betrayed her. He first made her feel loved,
but then turned around dismissed her making her very confused. Ophelias relationship with
Hamlet is proving to become very unhealthy, as Ophelias mental state is slowly deteriorating.
Finally, Ophelias mental instability is driven by her fathers death. When Polonius,
Ophelias father, dies she is driven past breaking point. She begins by singing about his death,
He is dead and gone, lady, /he is dead and gone; /at his head a grass-green turf, /at his heels a
stone (IV.v.34-37.) This is one of the only times that Ophelia is showing any kind of emotion
other than being happy in the play, which proves to be detrimental to her. She is clearly upset
about his death, and she does not know how to handle it. Through all of this, Ophelia hits her
breaking point and she becomes truly mentally unstable. Laertes, expresses this when he says,
A sister driven into desprate terms /Whose worth, if praises may go back again, /stood
challenger on mount of all the age, /for her perfections (IV.vii.28-31.) Laertes is expressing that

he knows Ophelia has gone mad, and that he is sorry for it. Unbeknownst to Laertes, Ophelia hit
her breaking point and became suicidal which shows how much her mental stability changed.
The three main things that caused Ophelias mental state to deteriorate were, her mixed
emotions, her relationship with Hamlet, and the death of her father. It is hard to be certain if
Ophelia was mentally stable at the beginning of the play because of the abnormal family
dynamics. However, it is certain that she was driven past her breaking point, which resulted in
her death.